microsoft

The numbers are in for the month of July, and it seems as though Pacific Rim: The Video Game is one of the more popular new additions …
Read More

At the Xbox One reveal event, one of the highlights that was touted about the new Xbox Live was a feature called Smart Match. Last week on Xbox Wire, …
Read More

As summer is winding down, Microsoft is steadily releasing new info, almost on a daily basis, about some of the new features that are coming with the Xbox One. …
Read More

Microsoft is starting to getting a clearer picture of what its upcoming console can really do, according to Xbox One Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten. Making an appearance on …
Read More

Microsoft’s recent decision to pursue self-publishing on its forthcoming Xbox One, and possibly the current Xbox 360, has garnered a lot of much-needed goodwill moving into the next generation. …
Read More

The next possible milestone in the ongoing saga of Microsoft’s ship-righting efforts could be as simple as including a headset with the packaged console. Microsoft’s decision to …
Read More

Independent developers could be able to self-publish their wares through Xbox Live Arcade as soon as August, reports Polygon. According to FarSight Studios, the developer behind now-defunct …
Read More

Update 2: In a second statement released to Kotaku today, Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten confirmed an earlier report by Game Informer that while all Xbox Ones will …
Read More

Yesterday, in an interview with Official Xbox Magazine, Lionhead Studios’ Creative Director, Gary Carr, spoke of Microsoft’s commitment to courting indie developers on the Xbox One. He describes Microsoft as “very passionate” about building strong relationships with Indies, noting that the gaming business’ future is in jeopardy without independent developers.

Gary adds that while the big players like Sony, Microsoft, and Amazon “kind of hold it all together,” independent development is a major force behind innovation, and both big and small players alike can co-exist. Carr’s comments regarding an upcoming presentation from Phil Harrison could be interpreted as a hint that Microsoft may be re-evaluating its approach to publishing on Xbox One.

In a separate interview, Phil Spencer also discussed some of the challenges faced by both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One with regards to game publishing. The ease of development and publishing for the Xbox 360 has been both a blessing and a curse for the console. There have been some immensely high-profile, high-quality releases from a number of independent developers, but much of the Indie marketplace has also transformed into a dumping ground for woefully mediocre titles and clones of clones of clones.

At this point, so far into the console’s lifecycle, it can be difficult to reliably identify Indie games worth playing, and this has led to a significant shift in Microsoft’s publishing strategy for the Xbox One. Thankfully, Phil Spencer is aware of the parallels to Apple’s heavily-curated, closed ecosystem, and addresses them to an extent.

However, the goals are still potentially antithetical to each other; in order to attract good developers who create great content, a market cannot or should not heavily restrict access to its publishing tools. Conversely, a completely open market, where everyone can publish nearly anything, can also lead to a weakened content ecosystem, suffering from the same quality bloat seen in the Xbox 360’s Indie marketplace.

Read More

Microsoft has secured a branded domain names for it’s new system. According to Fusible, XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net net have both been granted to the company after filing a complaint with …
Read More