| Title | What's it going to take to get Retro City Rampage 2 on the Xbox One? |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | Games |
| When | July 25, 2013 |
Yesterday's news that Microsoft will allow indie developers to self-publish on the Xbox One came as good news to gamers. Microsoft's previous policies of not allowing self-publishing and charging to host game updates were major roadblocks for small studios..
Read the full articleIs it bad that I felt a sensation of unbridled glee when reading the last paragraph? Not necessarily because I like Sony, but because they look like angels in comparison to Microsoft right now. Even when MS comes out and says, "Wait, we're being nice now!" everybody gives them the stink-eye and asks why it didn't come from the beginning.
I'm fully aware that Sony isn't the best company out there, and they have almost as spotty a track record as Microsoft, but damn if it isn't hard to forget that in the face of such barrel-scraping on Microsoft's part.
Any regular schmuck who thinks that Sony is going to loan them dev hardware is going to be hilariously disappointed. I'm sure it's only the TRUE (annoying) indie hipsters who will get them.
Also: it often takes more than one year to develop any sort of non-trivial game. So...if you get a free dev kit on loan from Sony, you're basically on the hook for the $2500 anyway, because you won't get your game done inside of the loan period! Amazing how this gets spun as a positive...
Because if a developer can develop or port a game in under a year it's free. Sounds pretty positive to me.
Another panicked policy change then, judging by the timeframe.