Ever since the reveal of Xbox One back in May, several well known developers have been critical of the path that Microsoft took with regards to its next generation console. We reported on multiple instances on how Jonathan Blow criticized Microsoft’s claim of increasing server capacity to 300,000 and how one off online activation of Xbox One is bad. We also reported that how Fuel Overdose developer was extremely frustrated at Microsoft’s indie policy and why he believes that they should ‘stop presenting themselves as indie-friendly.’
But with the recent announcement of ID@Xbox program, Microsoft seems to be welcoming indies with open arms. The director of the ID@Xbox program Chris Charla was asked how he feels when he sees well known developers Jonathan Blow criticizing Microsoft on twitter. He replied with the following:
“You know want? We love getting feedback and that’s the bottom line. We’re probably like a lot of companies, we love getting feedback from developers however they want to deliver it and we take it to heart. I would say all of Microsoft – the XBLA team and my new team, ID@Xbox, we want feedback and we want to always do better. Our goal is to lower friction for developers to get on the box,” he said in an interview with Edge.
And feedback is what exactly Microsoft have been working on. They reverted their draconian DRM policies, allowed used games to be played and as mentioned before, introduced the ID@Xbox program. However, it seems that Microsoft is simply following what Sony are doing and whether it will be able to actually garner the massive indie movement like Sony and the PS4 did remains to be seen.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
