Gamers shouldn't expect to see independent games on Xbox One right at launch, Microsoft's Phil Harrison has revealed, as it may take until early next year before those products begin to be released.
It was just over a month ago that Microsoft announced the first details of its Independent Developers @ Xbox initiative, a platform intended to encourage the development of indie games for Xbox One. Microsoft had already reversed course on indie developers' ability to self-publish, announcing in July that it plans to allow any Xbox One console to be used as a development kit and for any developer to be able to publish its own games, which was not the case on Xbox 360. But the subject of when we'll begin to see indie games appear on Xbox One had yet to be addressed until Xbox corporate vice president Phil Harrison spoke about it during an interview with GamesIndustry International.
"I don't think we're going to see things at launch," Harrison said. "I don't think it's realistic to see a developer get the program and build a game and get it into the market on November 22. It's reasonable to expect in early 2014 we'll start seeing the first games come through."
Harrison noted that interest in ID@Xbox -- which provides "qualified" developers with two free dev kits -- had been extremely strong so far, with hundreds of applications being received in the hours after its announcement.
He also spoke about Microsoft's vision for Xbox One, and how that remains intact despite the significant departure from the plan it outlined at E3.
"Our long term vision hasn't changed at all. We haven't diluted our long term vision, which is all of the benefits of a connected ecosystem and what that means for all of the stakeholders - us, developer, publisher and crucially, the player. None of that has changed," Harrison explained. "What we recognized was when you put a disc slot in the front of a machine certain expectations come with that disc slot. We had to adapt some of our policies and it was best that we did those before we launched, which we've done. All of that can be handled in the vacuum of the pre-launch activity. And it allows the players to have a choice. They can consume the content through the medium they like the best and fits with their particular situation. I don't think there's a negative to that."
Xbox One is scheduled for release on November 22 in North America and Europe, with a release in Japan coming in 2014.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer who spends his spare time agonizing over the final seasons of The X-Files. Check out what he's saying on Twitter and follow him on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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