It seems as if the PlayStation 4 will hold a bustling stable of indie games just by the start of next year, with the company’s new focus on smaller, more unique developers. It’s been one of the major storylines coming into the next generation of consoles, but Microsoft has a plan for indies, too. And really, Phil Harrison believes that what the Xbox One is doing with its resources will bring an even greater pool of talent to Microsoft’s side.
“Microsoft Studios – as a first party – has and will continue to invest directly in game development talent where we think we can help bring that game to pour platform and we have done that for many years,” Harrison said in an interview with Edge. “And we’ll continue to do that for many years. The ID@Xbox program is true self-publishing, all the power of the machine, the developer has total control, all the power of the cloud all the power of Xbox Live, all of the capabilities of Kinect, and we’re really looking forward to that activity.
“And maybe we’re taking a slightly different approach to other platforms, but we think this is the best approach to getting the most developers and the best games on the platform.”
Removing the DRM and 24-hour check-ins will likely encourage new development talent to side with Microsoft, but Harrison hinted in this same interview that all those policies could return down the line.
