Xbox One May Soon See A Flood Of New Games

Xbox One and the Windows 10 store may soon seen an influx of new games. At the Game Developers Conference today, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Live Creators Program, which "empowers anyone to rapidly publish Xbox Live-enabled games on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs."

Put simply, this allows anyone to create Universal Windows Platform games, easily integrate Xbox live features (including Live sign-in, presence, social, GameDVR and broadcasting, leaderboards, and stats, but not Achievements), and then publish them on Xbox One and the Windows 10 store. Creator Program games on Xbox One will be available through a dedicated new section of the console's store.

"This means their title can see exposure to every Xbox One owner across the Xbox One family of devices, including Project Scorpio this holiday, as well as hundreds of millions of Windows 10 PCs, and millions of folks using the Xbox app on mobile platforms," explained Chris Charla, director of Microsoft's independent developer program, ID@Xbox.

Charla said the process results in "minimal additional development time" and won't require developers to begin using new tools if they're already building UWP games. It also works with retail Xbox One systems, rather than requiring developers to obtain costly development kits.

If developers decide they "want access to more Xbox Live capabilities and to gain additional development and marketing support for their game," they'll have the option of enrolling in ID@Xbox. This can be done after the game has already launched.

The Creators Program is launching as a limited preview for now that's only available to some developers. The SDK (and more details) are available through Microsoft's website today, with submissions for publishing games opening to everyone "soon."

Other changes are also on the way for Xbox One and Windows 10 users with the Creators Update. Among other things, this introduces a new Guide and Home screen on Xbox One.