Like with a lot indie games released this generation, Pyre is going to be skipping out on the Xbox One for now, and instead be making its way over to the PS4. Earlier, indie games skipping out on Microsoft’s console used to make sense, because Microsoft had some frankly restrictive and hostile policies towards indie game developers- but those reasons largely don’t hold anymore. So why, then, do so many games forego an Xbox One version?
We asked this question to Supergiant Games’ Greg Kasavin in an interview with him, and his answer does make sense when one considers that the context of indie game development involves small development teams, and even smaller resource pools.
“We’re a small team of about a dozen people. It’s always been essential that we stay focused and not spread ourselves too thin. While it’d be nice to have our games available for every popular platform right at launch, this would either require us to scale back the ambitions of our games or staff up, and we don’t think either of those things is worth it right now. For our studio it’s worked out well to focus on just one or maybe two platforms at a time and make the best game possible, then see what opportunities there are after that, and we never rule anything out for the future.”
In a lot of ways, that is similar to what Rocket League developers Psyonix said too- while multiplatform game development is always preferred, sometimes, the reality of game development must be faced, and certain platforms need to be prioritized over others. Hopefully, like with Rocket League, Pyre will eventually come to the Xbox One as well.
