If you like indie games, then you probably have at least a passing interest in the indie dev scene, and if so, you’ve more than likely come across ID@Xbox. For those who are not familiar with the name, it’s a Microsoft-run program to enable more indie devs to self-publish their work. But the devil is in the details, and last month, I had the opportunity to have a chat with Jun Shen Chia of the Xbox Global Expansion Team to find out more.
Jun Shen leads the team that overseas Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. If there any games from these regions published via the ID@Xbox program that you’ve enjoyed, Jun Shen has probably played at least a small part in making them a reality, by getting indie devs more resources that they may need.
These range from tools and educational workshops to even marketing and funding opportunities. Each indie dev team may have a different combination of what they’re looking for in being part of the ID@Xbox program. That last one is naturally pretty important for indie devs, and it may come in various forms, such as spinning up more servers for games that need them via Microsoft Azure.
Despite the extensive support on offer, indie devs with the ID@Xbox program are largely left to their own devices when it comes to the development or creative process. Jun Shen says that sometimes, devs do ask the team for feedback on those fronts, but otherwise the decisions lie with the devs so that they create the game that they want to.
Which brings us to the criteria for a title to be eligible for ID@Xbox support. On this, Jun Shen says that, primarily, the Global Expansion Team is simply looking for a wide range of games that tell different stories and with diverse representation. Which the SEA market definitely benefits from. After all, “Southeast Asia comprises of 11 different countries. I’m always the first to remind people of this, internally and externally”.
So far, it all sounds very altruistic of the ID@Xbox program, and it probably is. If you’re a cynic, you’d probably be asking “what’s in it for Microsoft / Xbox?” at some point. Jun Shen’s answer was simply “to bring the joy of gaming to everyone around the world”, which involves supporting the creation of “more diverse games to reach more diverse audiences”.
On one hand, this is probably a fair answer these days, as big publishers are falling back to tried and true formulas for their big budget games leading to more of the same, with a different coat of “pretty” on top. It’s also why we got the highly successful – even if equally controversial – Palworld, an ID@Xbox game by Pocketpair.
But on the flip side, while devs are free to select which platform their games are available on, every game that ID@Xbox brings to either Xbox Game Pass or PC Games Pass is a win for Microsoft. Which would be quite unfortunate for anyone looking forward to playing a game, and find out later that it an Xbox exclusive that’s not available on PC.
On that note, since the Global Expansion Team deals exclusively with ID@Xbox, and therefore indie devs, Jun Shen has no answers to the hardware related questions that I had. So if you were looking for an answer to when the Xbox consoles will be launched officially to the local market, it’s a question that remains unanswered for now.
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