Indie developers have a voice on the Xbox One platform, thanks to the ID@Xbox program. This indie publishing program lets both big and small creators bring their games to the next-generation platform, but unfortunately, the campaign is not without its issues.
Witch Beam, the developer behind the shooter Assault Android Cactus, will not be bringing its game to Xbox One due to a clause that requires a game to launch on Microsoft’s console at the same time as it reaches its competitor’s machines. Unless a dev had already signed an exclusivity agreement with another company – which is the case for Dutch company Vlambeer – the game needs to release on all platforms at the same time.
Assault Android Cactus has been in development on PC, PS4, and Wii U for quite some time, and Witch Beam decided against signing an exclusivity deal with another company with the hope to provide the game to as platforms as possible. However, due to this lack of an exclusivity agreement, Sanatana Mishra of Witch Beam tells iGR that they will not be able to bring the game to Xbox One.
“We haven’t signed up to the ID@XBox program. Unfortunately, we started work on our PS4, Vita, and Wii U versions of Assault Android Cactus before the program was announced and have no intentions of delaying those versions to meet their launch parity clause,” the dev stated. “In a somewhat ironic twist it seems having a temporary exclusive agreement with another platform from before the ID announcement actually helps your chances of getting a waiver for the clause, but we opted out of exclusivity to keep our options open and are now locked out of the program.”
Mishra had great things to say about Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox, but almost felt like he was a part of a different company due to his willingness to help. It’s a bizarre clause in the indie contact, and hopefully one that will be amended sometime in the future.
