Last week, Microsoft spent a considerable amount of time celebrating the tenth birthday of ID@Xbox, and as part of this, it was announced that ID@Xbox was implementing a brand-new "Developer Acceleration Program".
The idea behind this program is to "empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox", and the announcement grabbed a lot of attention across the industry, with even former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden sharing his praise for it.
Here's a look at how he responded to the news:
As mentioned in the quote above, the idea with this program is to "create gaming experiences that appeal to new audiences" in order to achieve Xbox's mission of reaching billions of gamers, and that means "actively seeking out and empowering developers with unique perspectives to create games that appeal to the diverse audiences on Xbox".
You can find out a lot more about the ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program in a post on the official Xbox website as well as the excellent GamesIndustry.biz interview that Shawn linked to in his tweet, along with the video above.
Have you got any favourite ID@Xbox games? Let us know down in the comments below.
Comments 7
It's been over a decade since I last made a game... things have changed so much... hell if you wanted to get into Steam back then you were out of luck. Even the terrible Greenlight program had not been started back then... now publishing to Steam is as easy as publishing to smart phones, and then consoles have stuff like ID@Xbox... I really should get off my rear and get back on the loop, make some small project and see how that ball ends up rolling.
I always liked Shawn Layden. So sad that they got rid of him for ***** Jim Ryan.
And that went down well with Some Playstation fans who called him a traitor - keeping it as 'polite' as I can.
Xbox (under Phil Spencer) seems a very different Company. It seems they want to connect Developers to Gamers and grow Fans of those Studios. They want to help 'developers' build up a Community who are 'fans' of that Studio and eager to help them be successful as them having a Community on Xbox is also benefiting MS and Gamers too - its not 'one-sided' because they ALL benefit.
MS were talking about Game Pass 'demo's' - games that you'd normally see at PAX, E3 etc by 'independent' Studio's hoping to sell their 'ideas' to a Publisher to 'get' funding to build the full product. However, they can put those into Game Pass, get 'money' from Game Pass Subs and a Community of gamers wanting to help, wanting to see that game realised etc.
Point is, helping the Devs helps us the Gamer as we have more Games to play and if we are playing on Xbox, it in turn helps MS too - its a 'win-win' situation for all - apart from those 'outside' that loop on another Platform of course...
@Tasuki They didn't get rid of Shaun for Jim, it was Jim that mostly forced Shaun to get rid of himself, though Shaun is classy and neither confirms nor denies when asked.
Different jobs. Shaun replaced Jack Tretton who replaced Kaz Hirai at SCEA. Jim replaced John Kodera who replaced Andy House who replaced Kaz Hirai at SCE/SIE. Shaun/Jack never had as much power as Jim/Andy/Kaz, they just ran the US division, the latter ran the entity itself. It was Kodera and Jim that "invented" a new title for Shaun to move him into "chairman global studios" and then box him out of the company after a power struggle.
Either way, a classy guy, and an positive face for the company, and a positive force for the product who's influence is sorely missed, but I still give more credit to Andy and Kaz who actually took his input rather than sandboxing and silencing him like their successor(s.)
@Tharsman if it's a hobby go get into it. What type of games did you used to make?
@Kaloudz RPGs systems have always been more of my element.
The more easy access upcoming devs have to tools and engines the better…as they’re the ones most likely to give us refreshing innovative experiences. And now with quality engines being easily available like Unreal 5, there’s potential there to see ‘bigger budget’ visuals alongside these indie experiences.
And obviously having a platform like Xbox for your output is forward thinking by Xbox to help pick up future talent too.
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