Self-published indie games on the Xbox One won’t be pushed to the darkest corners of the dashboard. Microsoft's ID@Xbox program director, Chris Charla, has a plan for how these products will be represented on the Xbox One, but he also understands that the console is a living, breathing piece of technology. Things will change over time, and the indie games will adapt to the changes.
“One thing I can say for sure is that the whole thing will change. If you look at the Xbox 360 at the start of its life, with the blades system, to what it has become today, that's a dramatic change. We architected Xbox One so that it can change and grow,” he told CVG in a new interview. “How the store looks in 2013, when there's thirty games available, compared to how it looks in 2017, when there's going to be hundreds available, will obviously be very different.
“So, on the system we have our spotlight, which is our editors' picks, and ID@Xbox games will have as much chance of being featured on there as any other title. The programmatic discovery will be useful, as it will categorize top selling, highest rated, and an interesting new one is "trending" – which doesn't look at sales but in fact the velocity of sales, especially among friends.”
Games like No Man’s Sky will likely receive big attention, but with the console just weeks old, it’s difficult to determine what will actually work until time passes.
“It's hard to tell right now, because the system has just launched and top selling and trending show up fairly similar results but in a year from now I think it will become a more interesting way to see games.”
