Seems like no matter what, there's always a bit of hate directed at Microsoft, but never without reason. While the company has done away with its inane policies for sharing and selling used games, and online connection, it's still the subject of a lot of ill will for their policy towards indie game developers. The policy Microsoft has toward indie developers has been the following: If they want to get game on the Xbox One, then the developer has no choice but to go through Microsoft Studios or a third-party publisher, undermining the whole idea of being "indie" in the first place. Until now that is.
Much like their latest policy shift, it seems as though Microsoft is actually listening to complaints, and responding as necesarry. Microsoft has since revised its stance, and going forward, will now allow for self-publishing on the Xbox One.
Game Informer reported rumors of such yesterday morning, but now, Xbox Corporate VP Marc Whitten confirmed the news in a statement sent to Engadget:
"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE."
Microsoft has yet to reveal the specifics as to how publishing will work, but already the move is being celebrated by developers in the indie community, such as Monaco developer Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano, Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer, as well as others.
Whitten has promised to deliver more specific details at this year's GamesCom, which kicks off in Cologne, Germany, August 21st to the 25th. We'll keep you posted as the story develops.
