Indie publishing is one of the bigger issues for me. It would be nice if Indies could leverage the full spec of the box for games. If it ends up being indie games released on the system side that can use whatever's free from the 3 GB of RAM plus the roughly 50% GPU that gets used with System apps in full-screen, then that won't be terrible. Not ideal (not terrible) but maybe ok as long as the games are easily released through the app store.
PS4, Xbox One: Indie publishing
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75%? Isn't that even worse than now? Sure hope that an go down to iOS levels at some point, because if you ask me that's not going to do the platform much good. that said I still don't know what the WinRT options for games are, that could mitigate matters some / quite a lot.
Gradthrawn
Veteran
Pretty sure that's a poorly veiled, but well worded, troll attempt.
For one thing, the branding is inconsistent with MS guidelines for the Xbox One. First and foremost, never capitalize the "b" in Xbox.
EDIT
Ah, I see.
For one thing, the branding is inconsistent with MS guidelines for the Xbox One. First and foremost, never capitalize the "b" in Xbox.
EDIT
Sorry, I was wrong, it is not from Microsoft
Ah, I see.
Looks like Don Mattrick spoke to Stephen Totilo @ Kotaku last week:
"We're going to have an independent creator program," Don Mattrick, Microsoft's head of interactive entertainment (read: he's in charge of the Xbox), told me last week. "We're going to sponsor it. We're going to give people tools. We're going to give more information."
"That is something we think—I think—is important," he said of an indie program. "That's how I started in the industry. There's no way we're going to build a box that doesn't support that."
"Indie creators exist right inside our ecosystem," Mattrick had told me, referring to the Xbox 360 and some of its Xbox Live Arcade hits. "Probably the best example of a huge success is Minecraft. The work that Notch did [was] pretty amazing in the PC space."
http://kotaku.com/microsoft-vows-to-support-indie-developers-on-xbox-one-510129167
Looks like there might be some kind of indie program after all, but I'm not getting my hopes up. LOL
Tommy McClain
"We're going to have an independent creator program," Don Mattrick, Microsoft's head of interactive entertainment (read: he's in charge of the Xbox), told me last week. "We're going to sponsor it. We're going to give people tools. We're going to give more information."
"That is something we think—I think—is important," he said of an indie program. "That's how I started in the industry. There's no way we're going to build a box that doesn't support that."
"Indie creators exist right inside our ecosystem," Mattrick had told me, referring to the Xbox 360 and some of its Xbox Live Arcade hits. "Probably the best example of a huge success is Minecraft. The work that Notch did [was] pretty amazing in the PC space."
http://kotaku.com/microsoft-vows-to-support-indie-developers-on-xbox-one-510129167
Looks like there might be some kind of indie program after all, but I'm not getting my hopes up. LOL
Tommy McClain
Stupid question, but what do people think is the right thing to do for "indie" developers?
What is defines indie?
If there is no distinction, you have to apply the same rules to all developers/publishers.
Is the only step that's needed then to just allow developers to self publish?
What is defines indie?
If there is no distinction, you have to apply the same rules to all developers/publishers.
Is the only step that's needed then to just allow developers to self publish?
When asked if developers will still need a publisher to get content onto Xbox Live, Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, told us that "as of right now, yes. We intend to continue to court developers in the ways that we have."
source
Looks like confirmation to me.. Good journalism for once.
That's how it work now, and they intend to continue to court developers in the ways they have..
What might happen in the future, noone knows. But right now, that's how it will work.
Well, whether it is related to Xbox Live Arcade or not, it's certainly good news, there is hope for indie developers after all.
Don Mattrick admittedly said that he began as an indie developer after all. And those developers can sometimes be at the forefront of the emerging trends.
I think Cerny is very understanding with indies and that's why I believe that PS4 is going to be an excellent machine to develop for, and why people are so happy with it. So yeah, that's a fine approach imho.
On the 360 it's the free tools & low publication cost($99/yr) that defines "indie" on XBLIG. "indie" on XBLA just means they they have a small team since they all have publishers. Other platforms do not make the distinction as they have the same barrier of entry. So they only real distinction is funding & resources(people & tools). Professionals have more, indies have less. I think Indies need free tools. They don't need to be the same tools as those by professional developers. They need to be simple & approachable by anybody that wants to make games. The cost to publish should be low enough to inspire people, but not so low that the system gets spammed with low quality content. Does that mean self-publishing? Maybe. I never liked Peer Review. If the developers are not verifying that the titles should be allowed on the system, then somebody has to do it. I cant think of anybody other than Microsoft. Is that how Greenlight works?
Tommy McClain
Except there is no XBLA and there is no XBLIG on Xbox One. Matt Booty has said you will need a publisher to get a game on the platform.
If you make people buy devkits at $5K a piece or what ever the current going rate is, and you have a relatively onerous submission process which both MS and Sony do.
You could probably drop the publisher requirement because the cost of entry in time and money is enough to filter out the bulk of the really bad submissions.
The overhead on unsuccessful titles might still not make sense for MS to do it though.
You could probably drop the publisher requirement because the cost of entry in time and money is enough to filter out the bulk of the really bad submissions.
The overhead on unsuccessful titles might still not make sense for MS to do it though.
(((interference)))
Veteran
Well the indie's will be able to publish for the Windows store and get their games/apps on Windows phones, tablets, PCs and Xbox One so I think their indie strategy is much better than last time - they just haven't talked about it and so people are jumping to the worse possible conclusions.
Sony are completely revamping though. There was a presentation, GDC I think, showing how SCEA used to have a hundred thousand different steps to getting a game published, and how they've whittled this down to something sane.
There's also how you go about getting an SDK. I've a friend who's worked years in the industry who is now freelance developing content on PS3 who said he couldn't even get a 360 SDK because MS want crazy credentials. A decade of working with known developers in lead roles wasn't enough for them. The Indie channel gave 'home' developers the chance to publish onto a games console without needing satisfy MS's valid developer criteria. As (((interference))) says though, I think Indie has gone Win RT/8/whatever it's called, so MS can push XBox indie developers to making phone and windows content too, which is probably good for everyone.
Crytek, Platinum Games, Insomniac, TGC, Level 5, Bohemia Interactive, Mojang, Starbreeze, Grasshopper Manufacture and more are indie developers but they did work with big publishers or are working with big publishers now.
Take Platinum Games.
They themselves say "PlatinumGames Inc. is an independent entertainment developer" but are now working for Sega on 2 WiiU games and worked for Konami on MGR.
TGC worked for Sony but it still was and is independent.
Level 5 is an independent developer but Ni No Kuni was published by Namco as a PS3 exclusive.
I am not disagreeing with your definition but the "system" looks to be more elastic.
Some publisher don't' give much freedom to developers, no denying, but from what I can see working with/for a developer doesn't necessarily take away your "indie" title or your creative freedom.
Working with/for a publisher most likely limits your freedom but limits are not necessarily "evil".
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Those big name companies work for publishers because they need big financing, and that means the publishers can exercise creative influence ("we'll agree to finance you $xx million as long as we get to make design decisions to improve marketability of our investment"). They may not (Sony has reportedly a very hands-off approach in dealing with development studios), but by definition they are 'in the publisher's pocket'. A true indie is answerable to no-one but themselves, and the final game is always as they decide it because no-one else has any influence. That's why they're called 'independent developers'.
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