Why doesn't Microsoft want people to create games for the XBOX ONE ?

In the past anyone could write games but I was looking into it today and it seems like they put up a bunch of walls.. What is going on ? Why would they do this ?

I have had the XBOX ONE for about 2 years now and there is only a few demos from the big names. Back with the old xbox there were tons of indie games to try out...

Can someone clear up what is going on ? I want to create some simple Win 10 Universal Apps and run them on my XOBX ONE. Why would they want to stop me from doing this ?

 

if you look at the games on xblig, most of them were really bad. Maybe microsoft is going to have a more walled garden this time.

 

The only advantage consoles have is exclusive, high quality content. Keeping the entrance barrier high for developers ensures that only content with a good chance of succeeding is produced. It keeps the quality high.

Allowing anyone to develop and flooding the market with cheap knock off's would be the end for consoles.

 

That was the worst.

 

Like @BoredMormon said... one obvious good reason why they don't want you (or just anyone in general) making games is because that is exactly what would happen. A mass of people would make "games" and flood the console with them. They don't want to destroy their market share and if anything want to increase it. More games is not a good thing. More quality games is a good thing. Amateurs / Indies have the mobile markets as their playground.

 

Hi Folks! Xbox shut down the Xbox Live Indie Games because of the launch of ID@Xbox

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/ID

ID = Independent Developer

 

Thanks for the clarification. Basically nothing important has changed.

 

It's a more controlled process than the old one isn't it?

 

Is this true? I could have sworn I read about people complaining because the process was not as easy now as it was.

On the other hand there are always people complaining about something whether it is justified or not.

 

I meant more along the lines of a good product still getting onto the XBox.

 

There are plenty of indie developers producing top quality titles for consoles. I'm so happy they don't let any garbage in. Quality is a must

If you have a game that would be a good fit for console, and it's mostly complete and of high quality, you should contact the manufacturer of your choice, ie Sony, MS or Nintendo and get the ball rolling.

If its not very good quality then best think about mobile or steam. Those are good more-open but not completely open markets you can try. Or just put it on a website!

 

Okay yeah I agree with that. So it still comes down to it is not like just whoever wants to can make a game and push it out there like they can on mobile.

 

because Microsoft doesn't know how to do gaming very well.

They do, however, know marketing

 

Essentially they have adopted the same process that Sony uses to allow indie developers onto the XBox.

They also understand what happens when you allow unfettered publishing to a platform. You inevitably end up with much the same situation as Android where you have shovelware titles drowning out the quality games.

 

It's a great thing there is not some kind of official oversight and due process for game dev and release. And even better that I am not the main one driving it.

Personally I think every developer's first few games should be thrown out on web game portals such as Kongregate and GameJolt. After collecting feedback there and improving they advance to being able to chuck the next few games out on mobile. After achieving good ratings there they can advance to producing for desktop. And if they achieve good ratings there they can advance to the consoles.

But there is no official process and I am not in charge so we have what we have now. lol

 

Or maybe they go the other way.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8131893/microsoft-universal-apps-xbox-one-demo-hosted-web-apps

 

That being said... one of the big draws for me for Xbox One was Microsoft's promise that every retail console would be a dev kit. I honestly don't care about publishing games via the ID@Xbox program but I'd love to be able to at least push games to my own console and build games for my kids to play.

IMHO this was a major fail on Microsoft's part when they backed off on that promise. The only way to do that now is to be in the ID@Xbox program and if you're a lone developer without an established title it's impossible to get into, even when you have connections in management.

 

Parity clause has been a major factor from what I've heard on lack of titles for Xbox One

 

Same! I don't get why these consoles don't let you just do local dev for your own titles, it's not like it would take much and I bet over time some of those personal games would grow into something publisher worthy.

 

Yep. Supposedly they're working on fixing it, but they've not really made any statements for months now.

 

Did Microsoft back off their UWP push to console when the console is updated to Windows 10 by the end of the year? Last I heard it will still be able to be a dev kit for UWP games on the console by the end of 2015 and will be allowable on the UWP store in the first half of 2016. Did something change?

 

I don't think so. The UWP program / platform is different. And I'm not yet sure how much of the system resources will be available to UWP games. Xbox One essentially is a Hyper-V with two OS instances running. The first runs the Metro/Modern style apps and the second runs the games. I'm pretty sure all of the UWP content will run on the Modern App side, though I can't be certain.

 

Can they at least allow sideloaded apps for hobbyist? Or a semi-hidden feature to access indie games.. some of us prefer anything goes over a careful marketing plan (I'm referring to the UWP games I make)

 

They can't. They're Microsoft.

 

If they allowed devs to discretely port their UWP apps/games to the XBOX ONE without clogging their marketplace then what is the problem ?

I mainly check out demos once in awhile and I am shocked how few there are on the XBOX one.. after 2 years I feel like there are about 30 of them whereas the XBOX 360 had 1000s of free games to try out

Whats the point of putting Windows 10 on there with the abilty to run all these UWP apps if they don't allow people to do it. I'm confused

 

Seriously, but that ID@XBOX thing seriously reeks of WiiWare.

To the uninitiated: WiiWare was what Nintendo had for indie devs in Wii times, but it was severely limited compared to regular Wii titles, for example game had to be in under 50mb (I think, not sure but something like that) and there were other limits in place.

And no, there wasn't any getting around this space limit like you can do on mobile.

Needless to say WiiWare didn't turn out well for Nintendo and with Wii U they've introduced sane deal for indies. I guess M$ has yet to learn that lesson.

 

Xbox Live Indie Games was essentially WiiWare. A bit less restrictive but not by much.

No, you simply misunderstood. ID@Xbox is an equivalent to Sony's process of accepting indies.

 

Bill gates' family don't use ipad iphone ipadmini ipod and finally apple tv.
Forbidden apple example

 

Steam and android and IOS can afford low quality bars because games are not the primary reason to buy hardware. I would have a smartphone regardless of the games available.

Consoles on the other hand live and die by their content. A console with a flooded market like the ap store would quickly die. If you don't believe me, go read what happened to consoles at the end of the Atari era.

 

Ouya who?

 

but still.. can't I atleast release it on my own personal console ?

 

No.