The Microsoft Xbox One doesn’t even have a release date yet and its already been off to a rocky start. First, the company did a complete reversal of its 24-hour online check-in and DRM policies, and now it appears that Microsoft wants to win back the indie developers by doing another 180 on its publishing requirements. Rumor has it that Microsoft will allow self publishing on its Xbox One, allowing independent game developers to publish their games digitally without a publishing partner.
From day one, it seemed like a bad move that Microsoft would require an indie game developer to have a publishing partner in order to sell its games on Xbox Live. Recent backlash from indie developers have undoubtedly caused Microsoft to reconsider its policies, with some former partners going as so far as to say they would never work with Microsoft ever again.
The question is, is it too little, too late for Microsoft when it comes to winning back over some indie developers? At the end of the day, it’ll come down to which system sees better sales for some devs; but given that both platforms share the same architecture, most indie developers won’t run into headaches by developing cross-platform on the next generation.
Source: GameInformer
