Developers have been 'asking for Xbox Early Access programme'

[Dark Drakan]

Multiple developers have been asking Microsoft to consider introducing a Steam-like Early Access programme for Xbox games, according to ID@Xbox director Chris Charla. He is the man to go to for indie developers and had the following to say on the reports...

Right now on Xbox One and Xbox 360, you can do betas, A lot of games do, and some games do private betas. When we talk about early access, it typically means a game that you buy and it evolves over time to become 1.0, so you're buying it before it's 1.0 - Minecraft on PC is a perfect example. It's something developers have been asking for, and we are listening really closely to developers, but I don't have anything to announce on that right now.

However both Sony and Microsoft do not want their digital marketplace to be flooded with broken games that may never see a full release so both are cautious in the manner in which they approach this.

It's a really interesting issue with digital marketplaces, and it's something our store and marketplace team think about all the time. There's a lot of heavy deep thinkers, experts, PhDs working on these problems at Xbox every day - not just for the Xbox store, but for Windows Store and Windows Phone. Our goal is to have a rational marketplace, where good games are visible and sell well.​

 

[DarkONI]

I think the philosophy to only have "good games" available is much better than offering Early Access. Certain games with Early Access are broken for months to years. Meanwhile it can be great for independent developers, but consoles rely mostly on studios and publishers to get hopefully, complete games.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I don't mind early access to an extent as gives us more of a chance to shape a games development & influence design choices. However I don't want the console marketplace full of crap that's never going to be finished. For every good early access title there is 20 terrible ones. I do like look of DayZ, Rust & The Forest though & would welcome them to console. So long as there is good communication from the developers & frequent updates I don't mind waiting that much.

 

[DarkONI]

I don't mind early access to an extent as gives us more of a chance to shape a games development & influence design choices. However I don't want the console marketplace full of crap that's never going to be finished. For every good early access title there is 20 terrible ones. I do like look of DayZ, Rust & The Forest though & would welcome them to console. So long as there is good communication from the developers & frequent updates I don't mind waiting that much.

Speaking of which... Godus hasn't been doing good, last time I heard.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Speaking of which... Godus hasn't been doing good, last time I heard.

Haven't seen anything about that to be honest. If developers are up front about their plans for the game & seeing frequent updates makes me trust them more.

I know DayZ had a reputation for being a mess for a long time & slow updates & large features being broken but developers have been vocal & updates frequent recently. Makes me far more optimistic about its future (though it sold very well) could see people getting frustrated & community dying before game launched until recently.

Rust was the same, slow updates & community started to question it after a while, however Garry has taken it back to drawing board & it's looking great again. I had started to fear for it but now it's rebooted itself & easier to develop due to code not being as cluttered updates are coming far quicker. I shall buy both DayZ & Rust when I build my rig as I am optimistic about their futures. I really like the look of The Forest too (all around same genre) & for an alpha it's looking impressive. I still think alpha is a dangerous build to make public & it can make or break a game before it even gets going.