Hope they have a better solution for getting the actually good games to people and not let all the shit that polluted Xbox live indie games be a distraction.. dont really want to see something like "fart master" etc. as top download on the games section :P
@strainedeyes: The fact that a PS3 dev kit cost the best part of $20,000 at pre launch/post launch and Sony are only doing discounts for PS4 dev kits for universities.
The positives outweigh the negatives here, but looks like this is going to be the nail in the coffin as far as me being interested in achievements anymore. "Buy my one dollar game, then press A for 100G."
KABOOM this is fucking huge. Having such easy access to a dev kit is an absolute game changer.
MS historically has had some of the best tools too. If they handle this right it could actually get me interested in the Xbone. And before this my interest was at like -50%.
Microsoft's doing the right things, but all of them due to intense pressure by their customers and competitors.
This next generation is a joy to behold. I love a good fight.
That is why anyone does anyone in any business. Lets stop acting like MS is somehow different than Sony in some fundamental way. Sony did what they did because of business, not love and puppies.
Not sure you really get what "business" means. Sony did what they did to try and attract devs and consumers. Good business.
MS did what they did to try and attract publishers and keep their console a nice tight ad revenue flowing machine, at the expense of consumers. Bad business.
That's a clearly fundamental difference, and it's why folks like me still aren't willing to say "yay Microsoft!" even when they make positive changes, because they pretend like we should sing praises and throw money at them for revolutionarily just making their gizmo a bit less insidious.
Meanwhile Sony has convinced people that they should be singing their praises for essentially keeping things the same as they are now. The way things are going currently, I don't see that as a very good approach either.
Neither side has done much to show me they actually care about the consumer over business, or money, or pretty much anything else beneficial to them. Not that I expected anything else, really.
They said any Xboxone can be a dev kit. Don't the normal dev kits have 12 gigs of ram?
it will mean that there will be restrictions in what you can create.
It'll mean indie developers might have to deal with a few headaches and do optimizations earlier on in development, but that doesn't put any restrictions on the final product.
Doesn't change the certification process though does it? My understanding is that that was a huge barrier.
Yeah, this news is great, but it still doesn't really address indie's 2 big problems with publishing through MS; unreasonable cert requirements and the inability to patch easily.
Those of us who watched the making of Bastion videos saw just a drop in the bucket that cert pains gave Supergiant and many other people trying to get their already mostly bug free games just up on the damn market place.
And amazing persistent games like The Pinball Arcade are completely dead on the 360 partially because their DLC had to go through a ridiculous patch approval process that made it not financially feasible to work with the platform.
Again, good on MS for listening to players and devs (or at least pretending to), but if those aspects of self publishing aren't resolved we'll just be seeing a whole bunch of next-gen PC games with really good XBox controller support.
As far as I'm aware, Sony and Microsoft's cert requirements are rather similar. And they exist for a reason - to stop their platforms becoming like a mobile app-store where you have to wade through hundreds of crappy games to find the one gem. That's the theory, anyway. But then games like Motorbike come out and makes the entire process look like a shambles. There is certainly room for improvement, streamlining the cert process whilst still preventing broken shovelware ending up on the platform. But that's something both platform holders need to look at, not just Microsoft.
Also, Microsoft removed the fee for patches a while ago, that is no longer an issue.
They said any Xboxone can be a dev kit. Don't the normal dev kits have 12 gigs of ram?
it will mean that there will be restrictions in what you can create.
It'll mean indie developers might have to deal with a few headaches and do optimizations earlier on in development, but that doesn't put any restrictions on the final product.
If the normal Dev kits have 12 GB it is more than a few headaches and optimizations. But small indy developer and people who wnat to become one do not need much anyway. Also I am pretty sure you will have a lot of restrictions as well. If you had access to the whole system people could really easy crack it.
It's good they allow self publishing but they're kind of late to the party. I guess their vision for the future was almost 100% wrong at the beginning of their launch.
Doesn't change the certification process though does it? My understanding is that that was a huge barrier.
This is precisely what I was thinking. Their certification process is horribly complex apparently and appears to put off some indie devs from going through it and ultimately publishing on the platform.
Also do not forget the legal issues Like using assests from other games, making a clone of some popular game and so on. Yuu will face heavy restrictions with this kind of dev kit. If you want to be serious you will need the real one.
As far as I'm aware, Sony and Microsoft's cert requirements are rather similar. And they exist for a reason - to stop their platforms becoming like a mobile app-store where you have to wade through hundreds of crappy games to find the one gem.
...That's not what they're for at ALL. Like Nintendo's "seal of quality," it has nothing to do with how GOOD a game is, it's simply to make sure the game runs on all kinds of different configurations, doesn't crash and doesn't destroy your machine. That is all cert is for. NOTHING ELSE.
I emphasized that because you're like the billionth person I've seen make this claim. Cert has never and will never be about making sure a game is somehow good.
@xbob42: That's not what I meant. I know cert doesn't judge the subjective quality of a game. That would be dumb and impossible. It ensures that developers don't release half-finished, buggy pieces of crap. Like half of the shit you get on mobile app stores. It ensures the games work properly.
if nothing else, whitten is decent PR for Microsoft. dude is doing a decent job repairing the X1 image
but good on them for leveling the playing field some more, even though it seems there's still a lot of grey area stuff as whitten couldn't comment on timeframes or further details of this stuff/
If you want to be serious you will need the real one.
This statement appears to be founded on nothing other than your seemingly ceaseless need to trash the Xbox One.
I feel pretty confident that if MS delivers on what they're promising, indie developers will be able to develop great games and find success on that platform. Sure, the next Halo or Gears of War probably isn't going to be developed on retail consoles, but those guys are pushing the hardware as far as it will go.
Also do not forget the legal issues Like using assests from other games, making a clone of some popular game and so on. Yuu will face heavy restrictions with this kind of dev kit. If you want to be serious you will need the real one.
But they straight up just said in this interview that this is the same kit they use at Respawn. This is the "real one". Why must you downplay every single fucking thing that comes out of the Xbox One? You do realize you're the number 2 poster on the Xbox One boards because all you do is trash talk it?
Microsoft confirms competition is, indeed, really good for the customer!
I mean seriously, holy shit. After these past few months, nobody in video games is allowed to say "complaining about it probably won't matter" ever again.
Great news for developers, though I can't help but smile every time Microsoft declares, "Our vision is..." when it's inarguable that their pre-PR disaster vision was vastly different.
Maybe it's dumb, but I am less interested and more jaded with Microsoft because they keep changing their policies. It just makes them seem so short sighted. They come off as a high school bully that realized that they can get help on their tests from the nerds they are beating up, so they apologize and start being nice.
Microsoft confirms competition is, indeed, really good for the customer!
I mean seriously, holy shit. After these past few months, nobody in video games is allowed to say "complaining about it probably won't matter" ever again.
I even forgot to mention Mass Effect! My God!!
WE'VE ALL GONE MAD WITH POWER!!!
Yeah, pretty much. Complaining has pretty much changed an astounding 75% of MS' plans for this coming generation. I almost expect an "Okay, okay, we're not forcing Kinect on you," post in a month or so at the rate they're backpedaling. And it's all, 100%, because of competition keeping MS honest.
Maybe it's dumb, but I am less interested and more jaded with Microsoft because they keep changing their policies. It just makes them seem so short sighted. They come off as a high school bully that realized that they can get help on their tests from the nerds they are beating up, so they apologize and start being nice.
I agree with this, and I also feel vindicated and not so much of a crazy person. After that first announcement and watching the mainstream journos chime in, I thought "Either I'm missing something, or I'm insane. Because this all seems terrible and indefensible". Almost every single "feature" seemed clearly non beneficial and hostile. Yet there the journos were, defending and rationalizing every step of the way. Even the usually candid GB crew pussyfooted around. The whole time I wanted take out a billboard ad that read: "MICROSOFT IS MAKING POOR CHOICES AND WILL BE OUTSOLD BY SONY"
Then almost to the man, the press said Sony would do the same thing. Again I thought "I'm no executive, but this seems like such a crazy juicy opportunity to turn the tides and gain new users. Why would any company pass that up?" Sure enough, I wasn't crazy.
In other words, the gradual erosion of these policies has done a lot to calm my nerves on the subject and make me further distain most people who lucked/bought/conned their way into covering games.
Microsoft confirms competition is, indeed, really good for the customer!
I mean seriously, holy shit. After these past few months, nobody in video games is allowed to say "complaining about it probably won't matter" ever again.
I even forgot to mention Mass Effect! My God!!
WE'VE ALL GONE MAD WITH POWER!!!
Yeah, pretty much. Complaining has pretty much changed an astounding 75% of MS' plans for this coming generation. I almost expect an "Okay, okay, we're not forcing Kinect on you," post in a month or so at the rate they're backpedaling. And it's all, 100%, because of competition keeping MS honest.
People need to see a clear difference between complaining and a clear lack of pre-order sale numbers. The vocal outburst of negativity, while oftentimes highly exaggerated, was one thing - but the fact that Sony used this to their advantage and gained a very tangible upper hand in sales is most probably what drove them to such drastic changes. This is a very unique situation as the consoles aren't out yet and they can start to measure the success of their system based on how many people opted out of buying it. If this sort of complaining happened in the middle of a console generation it wouldn't have mattered much as the install base would be already there.
This is a good thing for now, but everyone needs to understand that you definitely shouldn't expect the industry to shift gears each time the internet doesn't like something in the future - and more importantly it shouldn't embolden the already quite hyperbolic online masses to whine and complain at every turn as the industry will quickly become insufferable.
Thank god for Sony lighting a fire under Microsoft's ass. Competition is good for everyone, I'm glad to see Microsoft willing to change their ways and be more consumer/publisher friendly. I only hope both systems do well and it leads to even more fierce competition which only benefits us.
rad. every console being a dev kit makes the prospect of owning one actually appealing.
Yep, it'll be just like with the retail Xbox 360 (which I spent the majority of my time developing on), although it sounds like it should be even easier this time. This is exciting as a developer.
What worries me is that he did not answer the last question. If Microsoft is still going to hold any publishers to pricing structures and not allow them access to create sales is a big deal.
I want to see Microsoft fully support indies instead of just saying "Hey, you can publish on our platform with little hassle."
Playstation is doing a fantastic job with the indie market, going to the point where they even showcased a few select indie games on one of gaming's biggest stage. What I am worried about with independent games on Xbox One, is that they get pushed to the side, unless they pay Microsoft to become featured or the game makes Microsoft a lot of money.
I'm still convinced with Playstation that they can do more with games in general, but it is amazing to see Microsoft to become competitive and push to try and compete with Sony's better policies and adopt some of them for their own console.
Go Sony! Now what will be the kicker for me to favor Microsoft, is that they REMOVE the price for Xbox Live Gold. All of the features for Live for free. That may be a BIG turning point for the Xbox One, but considering their past arrogance, and how much of a big money maker Gold is, I don't see it happening unless Sony does something completely game-changing that Microsoft has to sacrifice something huge in order to compete.
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