"Xbox Live Creator Program" announced

Don't think I saw a topic about this, from my understanding it allows devs to publish stuff quicker, without the need of a Dev kit. Sounds cool in theory, but I wonder what kind of QA will be in place and I hope this doesn't become a dumping ground for people out to sell whatever piece of code they could muster up. Here's an excerpt from the IGN article:

"Today at GDC, Microsoft announced the Xbox Live Creators Program, a new initiative that provides a "totally open way" for developers to get their games published on Xbox Live.

Chris Charla, the director of ID@Xbox, outlined the program in a post on Xbox Wire, saying it "empowers anyone to rapidly publish Xbox Live-enabled games on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, in a totally open way.

Through the Xbox Live Creators Program, anyone will be able to "integrate Xbox Live sign-in, presence, and social features into their UWP games, then publish their game to Xbox One and Windows 10." In addition to Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, the program will also enable creators to bring their titles to Project Scorpio when it launches later this year."

No development kit is necessary, as retail Xbox One consoles support the program. It's is currently in preview and will initially be available to a select group of developers. Publishing submissions will be open to everyone sometime in the near future."

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2017/03/01/xbox-live-creators-program-announced

I guess anything at this point will help Xbox. Good luck.

This is a welcome change for sure. They needed to get right with the indies.

Sony does not care about indies anymore. They ignored them at last E3

No they had a pre-indie showcase for it. Microsoft didn't.

@smearygoose1768: Microsoft has been much more aggressive with indies so far.

They're being more proactive than Sony... maybe a bit of the usual Sony complacency we saw after PS2 is sneaking in?? Time will tell.

The Gamespot article gives more info on this, I think I understand how this is going to work. Apparently games made through this initiative will have several XBL features, but not achievements, as I understand it. To get that, and more features and marketing support, the dev needs to sign up with ID at Xbox(usual current process).

Also, it seems these games will be in a separate section in the store. I think this is a good way of doing it, not mixing them with everything else. It reminds me a little of that indie game section they had with the Xbox 360. We'll have to wait and see what kind of quality will come out of this.

Hopefully it won't be as bad as Xbox Live Indie Games. That was almost as bad as Steam Greenlight.

Weird that they're moving foreward with this type of program, while Steam is trying to distance themselves from Steam Greenlight.

The good news keeps on coming