Microsoft's indie initiative, ID@Xbox (Independent Developers for Xbox), is proving successful so far, with another 60+ new applicants signed up for the program. That brings the list to a total of more than 200 indie developers ready and willing to design and make games for Xbox One, with the first titles expected in March.
Highlight indie developers include Playdead, developer of Limbo, Ska Studios, developer of Charlie Murder and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, and The Behemoth, creator of Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater. Crytek and Double Fine, not so small studios, were among the first to sign up for ID@Xbox.
Program director Crhis Charla said, "We created this program to make it easy for independent developers to bring their innovative ideas to Xbox One, and the response from the community continues to be amazing!"
There are supposedly thousands of applicants who want to bring their games to the Xbox One, and the initial list is "not exhaustive" and "just a sample" of the number of developers who will be joining the program. Some of the new applicants are listed here:
- 4gency
- A Crowd of Monster
- Alientrap Games
- The Behemoth
- BetaDwarf
- Brushfire Games
- Cherry Pop Games Ltd
- Codeglue
- Code-Monkeys
- Escalation Studios
- EXOR Studios
- FarSight Studios
- Fatshark
- Flix Interactive
- Four Door Lemon Ltd
- Frambosa
- Frima
- I Fight Bears
- Implausible Industries
- Iridium Studios
- iSquared Games Ltd
- Larian Studios
- Mediatonic
- MeinMein
- Mighty Rabbit Studios
- Mimimi Productions
- nDreams Ltd
- NeocoreGames
- No Goblin
- n-Space
- Ripstone
- Robomodo
- Ska Studios
- Smudged Cat Games Ltd
- Snowrunner
- Spry Fox
- Tiny Castle Studios
- WaterMelon
- Xona Games
- Zoë Mode
The complete list can be found here. The first of these ID@Xbox games are reportedly in certification right now and are supposed to be coming out soon. Indie games have become hugely popular in the industry within the last few years, and initiatives such as this will help them become even more accessible.
An increasing number of indie games have gotten themselves into Game of the Year discussions, and some have won multiple honors. Both Microsoft and Sony have a desire to attract indie developers to their platforms and make it easier for them to get games published on the next-gen consoles-this type of program is what will accomplish that goal.
