Xbox One rumored to feature indie self-publishing and a new certification process for games

Written by Brandon Hofer on July 24, 2013

News: The latest rumor about Xbox One is that it will now allow indie self-publishing along with having a new certification process.

UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed to IGN that indie developers will self-publish games on Xbox One:

"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox Live. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox Live. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.”

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Xbox One will feature indie self-publishing and a new certification process if a new rumor is to be believed. Supposedly, under the new policy, indie developers will not only be able to set their own release date but pricing as well. This will allow developers to handle their own marketing as well which should mean that less games will be “lost in the shuffle”.

Microsoft’s new certification process is said to be similar to iTunes and they will target a 14-day turnaround for approvals. Instead of doing what they do today, the team will be looking for TOS violations and significant bugs. In another interesting twist apparently every Xbox One console can be converted to be a debug console. Instead of having to deal with shipping out debug units to members of the media Microsoft can simply authorize your console ID to play pre-release code.

It must be noted that, despite all of the complaints Microsoft has received regarding their indie support, Major Nelson did say they had plans in the works all the way back on May 23, almost exactly two months ago. His quote was,

“We’re working on a plan for Xbox One as a platform that allows all creators, including those who work on games and apps, regardless of team size, funding, biz model, etc. to be a part of the future of Xbox One.”

For some reason that quote has gone completely ignored. Microsoft does have to shoulder partial blame though for that not highlighting that quote more and getting it out there. I took that quote to mean that Xbox One would definitely have indie support. I do have concerns though that the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Store will turn turn into the App Store where you might find 10 good games for every 100 submissions.

That above quote can be found in our story about the Major Nelson Q&A that we posted back in May. What do you think about this new revelation? Please keep in mind that these are all rumors right now. Microsoft has not officially commented on it yet. Does this change your opinion of Xbox One?

Source: Game Informer