Anyone got a game on Xbox One Live?

Is it worth doing for indie games? I mean, Steam has the advantage that people can play your game and then because they are using a computer with a keyboard can immediately do things like write reviews and upload YouTube videos so it's good for publicity.

But I can't see how that works for Xbox unless you pay for advertising.

Does anybody actually buy XBox Live games? Should I just ignore this and concentrate on the PC market?

 

I used to buy indie games on Xbox One all the time until I got the Switch. I personally feel like it's worth doing and I know the creators of Kingdom said the majority of their sales came from Xbox One but that was a few years ago so I don't know how valid that statement is today.

 

I think your best bet, is to look at some statistics, and targeted market.
If you target more casual players, or / and developed countries that may be ok.

 

Well there's a difference between XBox One Indie games and XBox One Live Indie games...

 

Get some demographic studies for your target audience to better understand what platforms you should target.

 

Maybe you should get your terminology correct. Are you saying you want to release on Xbox One using ID@Xbox, or release to through Xbox Live Creator's Program? Either way, you will need to do a bit of marketing (even with Steam). But, the nice thing about the creator's program is that it's in the same store as all the other Xbox One games. And this includes the online store. So you can send anyone a link like this one: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/space-goer/9pmr9vrd3xkv (that is my creator's program game). The benefit is they don't know or care that it's a creator game or an ID@Xbox game and can even purchase and download to their Xbox from online.

There are a bunch of restrictions on that platform, like no multiplayer or achievements, and when browsing the store they'll have to go to a dedicated section. But, with a bit of marketing, blogging, youtubing, etc, you can essentially sell it as a regular Xbox One title. I'm not actually sure why the creator's program is not more popular, but it isn't, and the games on there are generally pretty bad.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the program so good luck!

 

Yes, this is what I thought.... I mean, I don't even own an XBox, so to buy an Xbox One, spend the time getting it on XBox Live Creators Program and having also to promote it, probably I'd make a loss. But, it might be good as kind of leverage to try to get on the XBox One ID program. IDK. The thing is, to promote the game online, means people seeing the promotion will already be using a laptop or PC, (unless XBox One users browse on their console????).

 

I would strongly suggest Steam first. If you can get a successful audience happening there, then its worth trying to launch on XBox.

If you can't get anywhere with Steam, there is no point trying to jump through hoops to make XBox work.

 

Save your energy, and don't try anything with Microsoft initially. Microsoft wants to find games that are already very popular. For example, Microsoft announced a console exclusive last year on PUBG after millions of PC players had already been playing PUBG for months on Steam. If you want to release a game on Xbox, release it first on Steam. If it goes well on Steam, then reach out to Microsoft.