ID@Xbox (Independent Developers @ Xbox) is a program by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

allowing independent video game developers to

self-publish Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...

titles for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Xbox Series X and Series S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

home video game consoles A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...

Overview

ID@Xbox was announced by Xbox Vice President Phil Harrison at

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...

on August 20, 2013. General Manager, Marc Whitten was the sponsor of the project providing management and funding. Angela Hession was the Launch Architect of the program and developed the program based on input from Independent Developers. Chris Charla is director of the program. Developers who are registered in the program get access to two development kits at no cost, as well as access to all required technical documentation. Additionally, there will be no fees to update any game submitted through the program. Games released through the program also have access to all Xbox One and

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

components, including

Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...

, Achievements and Xbox SmartGlass. Developers in the program also receive access to the Unity engine as well as an optional subscription to

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is the fourth version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. UE4 began development in 2003 and was released in March 2014, with the first game using UE4 being released in April 2014. UE4 introduced support for Physically ...

. At the 2017

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...

, Microsoft announced it will launch the Xbox Live Creators program that, for a one-time fee, will allow anyone to develop for Xbox One and Windows 10 games using the Unified Windows Platform using any consumer Xbox One system (including

Xbox One X The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Australia, and South ...

console) and distribute directly through the Xbox Live storefront. Such applications will not have access to some Xbox Live features like achievements or multiplayer matchmaking, but will include support for leaderboards and party chat. By August 2020, over 2000 games were released through ID@Xbox, and more than in royalties had been paid to the developers of these games. By March 2022, royalties and total revenue earned by independent developers through the program had exceeded $2.5 billion.

Reception

A number of indie game developers have praised the introduction of the ID@Xbox program. Developers involved in the program have been impressed by Microsoft's responsiveness and the support provided on any issues that arise. The appointment of Chris Charla as director of ID@Xbox was met with positive reception, due to his background and previous involvement in the video game industry. However, the program has received criticism for enforcing a launch date parity policy which means that developers can only release their titles on Xbox One if they haven't been released on other consoles first. Many developers have called for the policy to be dropped; Microsoft has since dropped the parity clause.

References

External links

ID@Xbox website
{{DEFAULTSORT:IdAtXbox Xbox One