Although Microsoft and more so Xbox has remained the tailend of the console platforms, the firm did make up in innovating the industry bringing more voices to its ecosystem. It did so with its ID@Xbox program. In 2020, the initiative was recognized for grossing more that $1 billion. By its tenth anniversary in 2023, that swelled to $4 billion with more than 3,000 titles released through this effort.
At one point, it even appeared that the further integration of Xbox Game Pass would sway smaller teams to opt for its program over a traditional publisher like with She Dreams Elsewhere. But, it was reported recently that the firm is slimming down on its offerings to these indie teams altogether earlier this year. And although its continues to prop up its ID@Xbox program, the magic appears to be fading away.
In August, it was revealed that select titles are finding trouble releasing on the platform. While development is left unphased, it is the verification process to launch a page on the Xbox Store which is giving the most trouble. Haak developer Blingame revealed that Microsoft won’t even pick up the phone on the issue or email a response.
“And it’s not even due to the work of porting the game content, but simply wasting time waiting for them to allow us to publish on their platform. A large amount of time has been spent waiting for their email responses, which is incomprehensible to us,” the developer added in a response elaborating on the issues that could simply be resolved.
Additionally, it is not the only game to see this now-growing issue. This week, Enotria: The Last Song studio Jyamma Games was met with the same problem as well. Like, Haak, the upcoming September release sits on an indefinite delay until further notice. “We really want to release the game on Xbox asap, but with lack of communication on their side it is a hard task indeed,” the team said in a response on X.
“Communication with Xbox. The game works fine on Series S and X but we cannot go through the submission process and they can take even 2 months to reply to us,” Jyamma Games also expressed in a separate response. Even more, Windows Central Jez Corden – a notorious Xbox leaker & insider – is also floored by this development. “Starting to wonder if Microsoft has cut budgets at ID@Xbox / cert, seems like a lot of issues there lately…”, his post on X reads.
Are you shocked by how Microsoft is handling its platform recently?
