Microsoft’s Xbox Live Creators Program is now open to all game developers

With Microsoft’s latest announcement, you can be a small indie developer and have your game available on the Xbox platform without going through the company’s existing channels. The new Xbox Live Creators Program lets any developer take a retail Xbox, which also serves as a dev kit, and use that to create and self-publish a game to the Xbox marketplace. The published game needs to be a Universal Windows App, meaning it would run on any Windows 10 device. Microsoft also reserves the right to remove the game from the store if it has “harmful or inappropriate content.” It also isn’t free as developers need to shell out a one-time fee that ranges from US$20 to $100. It isn’t clear how much developers will be charged.

Aside from those conditions, you can’t enable online multiplayer or access Xbox achievements features if you aren’t part of the ID@Xbox program. What you do have access to is leaderboards and party chat features. A downside is it looks like games published this way are kept in a separate section of the Xbox Store, which could minimize exposure of the game. The program is currently in its preview stage but is expected to open up to the public soon.

Source: The Next Web + The Verge