Democratizing Development: Announcing Unity for [email protected] Developers

Microsoft wants to make indie development as painless as possible on the Xbox One.

To aid in that effort, the company announced that it is partnering with Unity Technologies to offer special benefits to developers in the [email protected] program, which is the company’s special publishing effort for independent studios.

[Dragonborn312]

That is good news. The less limitations for independent developers, the more games!

[nukeitall]

That is good news, but I fail to get excited about indie games. The vast majority are duds, and there are very few I could honestly say I enjoy.

[Dragonborn312]

Yeah I understand what you are saying. There have not been too many indie games that I have really enjoyed, but it is still good news for the gaming industry.

[creatchee]

@nukeitall

Shhhh.... Don't say that too loud around these parts.

[Crazay]

I'm pretty lukewarm to the whole "Indie" title as well. That's not to say there aren't some absolute gems out there that really do deserve to be played and seen by the masses but I find the quality tends to take a backseat far too often with the majority of Indie titles.

[SilentNegotiator]

The more access that indie devs are given, the more good developers that will statistically get through.

But then you're just saying that now because Xbox no longer has a near monopoly on new indie games on consoles. Now suddenly "there aren't many good indie games"

I've worked with Unity before and any news that makes Unity games easier to get onto platforms is good news. Unity is a great engine.

[Anon1974]

Out of all the games last gen, it's the indie games that made the biggest impression on me and the games I'm most excited for this new gen coming up. I can just stomach so many generic shooters and rushed sequels which seems to be the only thing most publishers are churning out these days.

Meanwhile some of the games I most enjoyed were indie games. Limbo, Bastion, Retro City Rampage, Flower, Journey, The Walking Dead, Pixel Junk Monsters and Eden, Braid, Castle Crashers...on and on the list goes.

I think we're on the verge of an indie game golden age with the new consoles and I for one couldn't be more excited. I'm looking forward more to Secret Ponchos, Outlast, The Witness and Octodad than I am games like Battlefield 4.

From a developer perspective though I wish MS would get their act together. Unity plugins are exactly what we need but we've been working with Sony already for months while MS has been sitting on our Xbox One Dev application, only to occasionally send us form invites to Xbox One events in other countries.

[no_more_heroes]

Called it. Seemed pretty obvious to me with what that Kevin Dent guy was saying.

[GarrusVakarian]

Nice to see MS now taking as much of an interest in indie devs as everyone else, they are potentially the big name devs of the future after all.

Cmon guys^^^, can't a positive on MS part just be a positive for once? Ill be the first to criticize MS when they do bad but this is a GOOD thing.

[pyramidshead]

Good news, Wii-U, now XB1. hopefully Sony can step up to do the same.

[Mister_Dawg]

Some indie games are pretty sweet, with the massive exception of everything that came out of the XNA program on the 360. My speccy 48k played stuff that outclassed all those turd games.

[Convas]

So, let's recap.

Devs get a free dev kit, access to the entire Xbone architecture, including Kinect and now can get a Pro lecense of Unity for free?

There's no downside here. Gamers win and Indies get to spread their IPs like pollen all over the industry.

[Godhimself_In_3d]

Dam ppl were ragging Sony for indie games. Is it me or does things only matter if it's on Xbox smh. I think the Xbox fan base are best at 180s ha ha ha indie games suck, xbox 180 Id program now indies are great. Cod ghost will be awesome it's 1080p on Xbox one then the truth sinks in @ 720p now cod ghost sucks even review sites are doing it lol. I know I'll get bombed in the comments and I don't care #Himselfout

[Blaze929]

name one person you see commented in this submission who said "indies are great" - doesnt even have to be an xbox fan, ONE person (at the time of us both writing)

in fact, judging from the attitude of comments here, degree of this submission, i'd say the xbox fan base, STILL doesn't 'care' about these indie games everyone keeps making a big deal out of.

It's good for the industry and indie devs but honestly, no one is all a sudden praising indie games. It's still, indie games. Not all of them turn out to be 10/10 hits, most are shovelware.

http://marketplace.xbox.com...

me personally, i wouldn't think about downloading not ONE title there. Because they ALL look LAME. Xbox 360 users have known this since the launch of the Xbox 360. I don't see that changing with Xbox One

@memots - that logic is exactly why no one understand you sony fans. You act like as if you've been emotionally hurt personally over something that doesn't matter and still, did not add to my comment in any shape or form. Just tried to, "well they kept making fun of us so...yeah"

[memots]

If you been following comments around. The ps4 was calling IndieStation as if it was a bad thing and also apparently to these same gamer Free to play games = bad.

[CYCLEGAMER]

No one is praising Indie support like what you are saying, it is what it is. Some Indies are good, a lot are not.

The only people I see praising indie games and using them to defend an argument are the Sony fans.

I think people tend to praise indies when there are a lack of AAA games.

[LeCreuset]

Lack of Triple A games?

Alright, let's be real. First off, PS4 has Xbone beat on Triple A multiplats as there is a clear difference between the PS4 versions coming in at some cases with 2.25x the pixels of the Xbox version, and which can be played on a console that is $100 less.

Now, onto the AAA exclusives. You have Killer Instinct, a game that looks like a 360 title SF4 clone where you're paying to unlock the fighters. There's the former Kinect 1 born again Xbone title that was supposed to be the Xbone's crown jewel, but had to be gimped, with suspect gameplay and combat, Ryse. You have Forza which also gimped a bunch of features so it could make 1080p, but at least it actually did. That's a plus at this point. Now I love mecha, and I love Titanfall because of that. It will likely be a fun game, but honestly, it's an exclusively multiplayer game without the multiplayer scope of a game like Destiny running at 720p that is doing what exactly on the Xbone that is different than its 360 counterpart? Oh, right. And how could I forget the Capcom "we're in trouble please give us some money" dynasty warriors slabbed with a coat of zombie paint game that is Dead Rising?

When you look at games like Killzone, Drive Club, Knack, Infamous, and The Order, these give the impression of games that are truly next gen, not last gen holdovers that were held up to pad a launch lineup at the expense of not releasing games, like say TLOU, to the loyal customers who supported the current gen.

[CYCLEGAMER]

@LeCreuset

First off, my statement had nothing to do with pixel count, second you are referring to TWO MULTIPLATFORM games....think about that for a second.

Now I am not going to rip into your console of choice's launch games individually, because frankly...I am tired of doing that, and it's like picking on the slow kid in school...there is no point.

But I will say this, I have had about 90% of the consoles ever made, I have all of the current gen systems, and I have played both of the next gen systems. For xb1 I have played Ryse, Killer Instinct, Panzor dragon, Forza, DR3 and I can tell you first hand that NONE of the xb1 exclusive games that I have played look like they can be ran on the 360 (except panzer dragon) and these were old builds.

Next gen exclusives, Killer Instinct, Ryse, DR3, Forza > Killzone and Knack no matter how you try to slice it.

Now.....I am getting both systems, but even I have to realize that Sony is lacking on the next gen titles at launch, just because you like a brand doesn't mean you have to defend everything it does. Killzone, and infamous look AMAZING though. I cannot wait for those games.

[LeCreuset]

Excuse me, but did you or did you not bring up AAA games? AAA games are AAA games. I addressed you on both the multiplat front as well as the exclusives front.

You started out trying to take a shot at the PS4 lineup. I countered in detail. Now you claim your too above it to go into a breakdown of your own, but not so above it that you won't waste a few paragraphs explaining that the Xbones games are better because... well... because you say so. Pfft.

[CYCLEGAMER]

Yes I brought up the AMOUNT of triple a games, and when you compare the two, it is fact that the ps4 has less at launch, is it not???? It's like everyone is willing to accept and admit this but the sony fanboys on the internet lol.

You did counter in details but they were lame....anybody could easily say a game sucks because of x reason. I mean I could just say that killzone sucks because it has a bland story and the character development and plot is lackluster at best and knack looks like a glorified indie game that could have been done on the ps3....lol. Do you see how easy that is??
You don't have to believe what I say about the xb1 games...listen to everyone else who has actually got their hands on the software.
Do you care to share your experiences with xb1 games or ps4 games for that matter?

Also, what does the fact that a game was originally developed for the Kinect have to do with what it is and has become TODAY?? You sound like the rest of your fanboy counter parts...bitter.

[Godhimself_In_3d]

The indiestation ring a bell to you it's as popular on n4g as the name xbone better yet go watch any after show coverage of E3 for the info you desire. Just saying downplaying indies as much as playstation fans downplaying party chat in not a fanboy lol

[XboxFun]

Actaully it's the sony fanboys who are doing the 180's on this site.

360 had a dedicated channel for indies for years and yet they were never included as "exclusives" when PS3 fanboys kept yelling Xbox 360 has no games. Now that the PS4 launch is weak, the sony fanboys have now padded their launch line up with indie titles. And deemed that indie titles count as exclusive titles when talking about games for PS4, even if most of those titles are two to three year old PC ports.

All of a sudden, now that Sony is indie friendly, indies are the savior's of the universe....even though MS provided indies with tools and access to their console for years.

And you must be new here, because this site is the lead band wagon for saying CoD sux. Sony fanboys have been saying this for years. Read the past CoD threads and you would think the game murdered their mother on her birthday. Not too long ago everyone on this site blamed CoD for every sony exclusive that didn't sell well.

[jriquelme_paraguay]

this is the exciting thing kevin dent whas talking about?

[Nabbic]

This is great news, but you're a little late to the party, Microsoft.
The competition did this months ago.
http://www.destructoid.com/...

[Blaze929]

are we really going to do the "competition did this months ago." thing? Really? Because you know how that can play out.

[jackanderson1985]

says nowhere Sony are giving all the devs under their programme free licenses to Unity

[Edsword]

Wow, buzz kill! Here they had some sitting on the edge of their seat for a solution to the esram difficulty or new drivers. I think everyone knew this would eventually happen.

[ballsohard2013]

Meh, As I said with the Ps4 and its big promotion of indie developers....i really couldnt give two shakes about an indie developer. Atleast 90-95% of indie games are trash. Im buying both of these consoles not to play indie games but to play Next Gen Uncharted, Metal Gear, Socom, Gears of War, Alan Wake, BF4 etc. Gimme blockbuster budget busting games... you can keep the indie bs. Sorry if im being brutally honest.

Purchases in order:
Xbox One with:
NBA 2k14
Forza 5
Battlefield 4 (if i wait to get ps4 in spring)
Titanfall (Spring 2014)
Halo

Ps4:
Madden (if i get launch)
Watchdogs (spring 2014)
Destiny (Summer 2014)
ORDER 1886

NO WHERE IN MY HEART IS THERE INTEREST FOR AN INDIE GAME LOL.

[LeCreuset]

Just remember, The Walking Dead was an indie game. IJS.

[christocolus]

nice...

[halfblackcanadian]

This is cool but with a flood I wonder how they will mitigate the garbage.