wraggster
August 8th, 2013, 22:39
DigitalDNA on the era of the indie and why backing old publishing models isn't enough
Microsoft must ensure the Xbox One adapts to a publisher-less world if it wants to succeed, says the owner and CEO of XBLIG developer DigitalDNA Games.
Speaking to Develop (http://www.develop-online.net/features/2004/Xbox-One-Your-next-dev-kit), Thomas Steinke, who has created games such as CastleMiner and Avatar Warfare, questioned whether Microsoft really understood what it meant to have a platform not dominated by publishers, given its waning support for XBLIG.
He said the success of the Xbox One depends on the firm understanding how to support indies and that he didn't believe "old publishing models would be enough to carry this box", labelling the current industry landscape as the "era of the indie".
"Microsoft created a great publishing system with XBLIG, but then sort of chose to ignore it, and stopped supporting the platform tools that their most loyal developers were using," said Steinke.
"Their messaging on this topic in the past few months has been both confusing and bipolar. This is combination with how they gave such poor support to XBLIG still makes me wonder if they really 'get' what is means to be a player in this new publisher-less world. The reality is, which I don’t think they understand yet is that they have to get this right, the success of the platform depends on it.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/45032/Xbox-One-success-depends-on-adapting-to-publisherless-world
Microsoft must ensure the Xbox One adapts to a publisher-less world if it wants to succeed, says the owner and CEO of XBLIG developer DigitalDNA Games.
Speaking to Develop (http://www.develop-online.net/features/2004/Xbox-One-Your-next-dev-kit), Thomas Steinke, who has created games such as CastleMiner and Avatar Warfare, questioned whether Microsoft really understood what it meant to have a platform not dominated by publishers, given its waning support for XBLIG.
He said the success of the Xbox One depends on the firm understanding how to support indies and that he didn't believe "old publishing models would be enough to carry this box", labelling the current industry landscape as the "era of the indie".
"Microsoft created a great publishing system with XBLIG, but then sort of chose to ignore it, and stopped supporting the platform tools that their most loyal developers were using," said Steinke.
"Their messaging on this topic in the past few months has been both confusing and bipolar. This is combination with how they gave such poor support to XBLIG still makes me wonder if they really 'get' what is means to be a player in this new publisher-less world. The reality is, which I don’t think they understand yet is that they have to get this right, the success of the platform depends on it.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/45032/Xbox-One-success-depends-on-adapting-to-publisherless-world