Xbox One supports self publishing

The Xbox team has confirmed that self-publishing is possible with the Xbox One and that “every Xbox One can be used for development”.

Marc Whitten (Corporate VP of Xbox) just made the following statement:

Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We’ll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.

This is great news for both independent developers (indies) and well, everyone really. It means if you are interested in creating games you should be able to get started on the Xbox One without too much hassle, and it will also mean more games (and yes, cheats – what we’re about!) full-stop on the console.

The announcement is a turnaround from Microsoft’s former stance on the matter (having previously said self-publishing would not be supported). It also brings the Xbox One closer to the Playstation 4 in terms of support for indies. Sony has already announced similar capabilities and features for the PS4.