Xbox One indie publishing boosted with new policy

Microsoft has confirmed that independent game publishers will have the ability to self-publish titles on Microsoft’s upcoming console, the Xbox One, setting their own release dates and price points.

Microsoft will reportedly make its certification process similar to iTunes, with a 14-day window from submission to approval. This will speed up the patching process that previously hindered indie developers on Xbox 360, who also had to pay a large sum of money for the patch to be issued.

“Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development,” said Xbox corporate vice president Marc Whitten.

“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.”

This further confirms that any retail Xbox One console can be used as a development kit if needed; Microsoft will simply flip a switch and authorise the Xbox One to work as a debug console.

However, this functionality will not be available at launch but will be added “at a later date”.