Contrast Dev On Xbox One: 'Difficult to Gain Dev Kits Early', 'Situation a Disappointment to Indies'

"Contrast is an upcoming puzzle platform game in development at Compulsion Games. It will be releasing on a wide range of platforms including PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and PC. However, almost surprisingly, the game is not coming to Microsoft's next gen console, the Xbox One.

We got in touch with Sam Abbott of Compulsion Games and asked why they are not bringing Contrast to the Xbox One."

[gameseveryday]

Note: I had to change the title on n4g since the original was going over 100 characters.

[xHeavYx]

They should just release the game on Playstation platforms and show the middle finger back to M$

[Heartnet]

and miss out on thousands of sales....

good advice :) you should apply to be the financial advisor

[xHeavYx]

Yeah, because all the restrictions that MS imposes will make them that much money

[HateFanboys]

@ Heavy

They wont, because they are all to money grubbing. Money over dignity, thats the way of the world now.

[black0o]

the Guys at Blizzard didnt get their dev yet too so it's not personal ''contrast'' it's an overall problem

EVEN dice were using a PC as dev kit powered by nividia

[Foliage]

Agreed; it's largely due to hardware design problems; which are now translating to production problems.

The Xbox One is being rushed; even Forza will not include most of the content on disc; requiring you download content on the first day.

This system has all the signs of RROD #2; hopefully they get the overheating and low yields figured out and don't have to further downgrade their specs.

[psoomah]

I see Mark Cerney recently said the average time to port an Indie PC title to PS4 is one month ... plus being able to self publish ... that's a recipe for a hella lot of Indie games available for the PS4 at launch.

Meanwhile, at Microsoft, the bean counters continue to pour sand in the gears.

[AzureskyZ]

I hate to say it but Microsoft only caters to the biggest and most well known companies-- those guys will get the kits first. The rest just have to work the system.

[cleft5]

True but it shouldn't be like this. Indie developers aren't some fringe thing anymore. We know that indie developers release amazing titles and the fact that Microsoft is still stuck in the past is yet another indicator of the poor direction they are headed in. Hopefully this is something Julie Larson can rectify.

[Heartnet]

stuck in the past?

Hell id put alot of thanks to MS that the indie market is where its at today..

Indie Marketplace and XNA on Xbox 360 / PC brought indie titles to alot of people who had never even heard of the things.. or atleast only played em as free flash games...

Ms if anything is thinking to far into the future.

[strifeblade]

I actually think that microsoft gave dev kits to big and trusted companies to make sure their specs will not be leaked to the competition. Smaller indie devs cannot be trusted- especiially considering how all of a sudden indies and sony just became best friends lol. Ubisoft also claimed to recieve dev kits late (supposedly msoft did not trust them with dev kits because of previous leaks) and blizzard which also explains why diablo 3 is not coming to x1 yet. I think more than anything they want to gaurd their specs from the competition. after all we know more about sony specs but very little is known about msoft- not much confirmed

[AzureskyZ]

It still leaked---- doesnt change that fact. As far as why indie is so close with Sony has everything to do with policy and nothing more. What would blizzard have anything to do with leaks same with ubisoft-- you do realize if both decided to release exclusively on sony system only it would hurt MS's market share. The developers needs exact specs to tailor and polish there games too, MS holding information is not only ludicrous, but in no way would MS be that stupid, as games wont be released for the system. Blizzard is owned by activision who happens to have dev kits, that statement alone makes your comment invalid-- onced received its up to the publisher to distro them.

[romancer]

If this puzzle game means so much to you, isn't the fact that you'll be able to play it on Xbox 360, PS3 & 4 - etc. enough for you?

Personally, i expect to be so busy when the new consoles launch that I won't have time to worry about every game in existence. Battlefield 4, alone, will likely occupy a huge chunk of my available time, for quite a while. Ditto Watch Dogs.

[Lboogieskells]

Microsoft can't even get out dev kits on time, I'm sure they sent out the minimum amount of X1's to the retailers. I work for a big online retailer and my company only sold 28 X1's compared to 46 PS4's.

[Wikkid666]

LOL! Big online retailer. Good to see PS4 has a 18 unit lead.

[Mikeyy]

His point still stands, If they can't even get DEV kits out to the developers what chance do they have at retail?

There will be a shortage at launch, going into next year.

[Lboogieskells]

Yeah but if you think about it as a ratio, Sony has a healthy lead and better infrastructure to push out consoles.

[n4rc]

What "big" online retailer..

I see this constantly.. Tho I am not saying he is lying.. But there has been a ton of kids on here claiming to work at GS or whatever just to try and win an argument..

Like one kid saying g they were going to have 200+ ps4s at his store.. But only 6 x1s or something..

[Lboogieskells]

I don't want to misrepresent my company and risk losing my job. I'm not exactly the most professional person on this site. lol

[n4rc]

No worries man.. I wasn't specifically calling you out.. You didn't say anything that screams bs but others have..

[majiebeast]

Microsofts indie plan is Minecraft.

[FullMetalTech]

That and World of Tanks seem to be their only focus on indie titles. Havent heard of any others ones yet.

[badz149]

world of tanks is coming to the 360, not the Xbone, right?

[Nazara]

Minecraft hasn't been "indy" in a long time I'd argue.

[majiebeast]

Yeah thats why its so funny Minecraft has made more money then most studios.

[SilentNegotiator]

And that game-making game. Which is way better than professionally made indie games, so problem solved.

/s

[SliceOfTruth888]

This is sad but honestly what Indie developer in their right mind would want to compete with a systems launch window when both systems have multiple AAA games launching with the system. I would be waiting for Q1 but thats just me

[n4rc]

Bingo..

Let's face it folks.. Most indie developers are either a) garbage or b) incredibly greedy

u will have no issue getting a publisher on board for a quality IP. Or pay ms to publish it for you.. But no.. People think they should make money off a platform while giving nothing back to those that provide it..

I know some people love them.. But I have little to no use for these indie developers.. Gee.. Your 2 man team can't get a dev kit when every major development team is after them.. Who would a thought? Lol..

Just my take on it.. Take it for what its worth

[Gran Touring]

"I know some people love them.. But I have little to no use for these indie developers.. Gee.. Your 2 man team can't get a dev kit when every major development team is after them.. Who would a thought? Lol.. "

Well why is it that indies have no problem securing dev kits for the PS4? You make it sound as if the indy devs themselves are the problem, and not Microsoft's asinine policies

[Heartnet]

@Gran touring

cause to get a dev kit on the ps4 u only have to fork out a few grand (10k+)

MS have quality control standards which is why there is this whole debate whether they should backtrack and have a ton of shovelware on there console or make em go through a publisher so there quality is up to scratch and its a game people want.

This is most likely why :)

[Dead_Cell]

Microsoft don't want shovelware and rightly so, although I hope they do allow some creative freedom and that Sony's "open door" policy on the matter doesn't bite them on the arse. Because let's face it, most indie games are shit.

[SilentNegotiator]

"Let's face it folks.. Most indie developers are either a) garbage or b) incredibly greedy"

.........incredibly greedy? Compared to AAA publishers? Is that a joke or has your Xbox fanboyism completely taken over?

"u will have no issue getting a publisher on board for a quality IP. Or pay ms to publish it for you.. But no.. People think they should make money off a platform while giving nothing back to those that provide it.."

That's not how it works; no one expects indie devs to publish on consoles for free. Indie devs pay a percentage. There's no NEED for a publisher when you're just putting some data into a server. Do you really think Microsoft or any other publisher has time to "publish" every indie game that comes their way? Or even 5% of them? How do we benefit from out of touch publishers deciding what games we should play from the indie scene?

Good games are going to be lost from the Xbox platform because of these stupid decisions made by Microsoft.

[Supermax]

So your telling me that Sony and Microsoft send dev kits to every idie developer,there's thousands of upstart indie developers.i can guarantee that both companies only send dev kits to developers they think are going to be successful.

[majiebeast]

Yeah thats why Sony send these guys a devkit and had them up on stage at E3. Shahid,Adam Boyes and the entire indie team at Sony are very easy to contact via twitter and are more then happy to help out. When a studio like Blizzard doesnt even get a xbone devkit something is messed up.

[bligmerk]

With MS in the past making a big deal of how independents were a priority, this is yet again another completely flip indicator. This is also adding to the growing rumor that MS is having some kind of trouble getting to production ready hardware. They should be up to their ears in devkits, with at least a few dozen pre-production prototypes at this stage. If they pull the same dumb fraud of presenting i7 PC's with GTX780 cards as being "representative" of the XBone or actually having the nerve to say "Oh, those ARE devkits!", then things are not turning out well for them.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

.....its because the dev kits are very close to being finalized and only sending those kits out to developers that are under NDA. Indie developers will get the kits in September when the NDA is lifted.

[Heartnet]

Most likey :)

People dont understand the importance of keeping things secret xD if ur indie and u leak it tehres no real punishment if u do it secretly but if ur in a big corp and found out to be taking pics and what not ull probz be insta fired and will find it hard to get a job anywhere else in the gaming field

[Supermax]

Not every dev with a indie gets a dev kit,for those with a hard time comprehending. There's thousands of indie games out there only 3 percent are successful.

[Supermax]

Whoever said blizzard didn't get a dev kit from Microsoft clearly did not read the article for themselves.

[greenlantern2814]

MS would give all the dev kits they could to indie devs that where willing to let me publish the game and make it exclusively theirs.

[PSN_ZeroOnyx]

Keep up the great work M$ /s

[AndrewLB]

It was clear from the amount of games being shown on PC hardware for BOTH consoles that either AMD just didn't have the hardware early enough to allow Dev's to tune their games well enough to be shown on DEV hardware. Only in-house Sony games were actually on PS4 dev hardware, just about everyone else were running PC hardware.

[_FantasmA_]

I told you guys xbox wasn't ready. They just released Haylow Four, Fourzuh, and Geers ov Wahr,and Fable within the last year so they already wasted their load. They are running on empty this year (well since 2009 actually) and won't have their cows to milk for a while.