Jaybe
Member
I found this to be a well-written article that explores the economics behind game development and platform choice for independents and small studios. While the headline is framed on Xbox the viewpoints seem to be shared regarding PlayStation as well with PC and Switch being most preferred.
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Once upon a time, Xbox consoles were leading the charge. They had first-party games that were cultural events in themelves. The online multiplayer community was unparalleled. And Xbox Live Arcade pioneered digital distribution, giving a platform to groundbreaking titles from small, independent studios.
That's not quite the case anymore. Exciting exclusive games are few and far between. Other platforms have caught up on the online front. And while Xbox consoles still see dozens of new independent games published each week through its ID@XBox program, it no longer seems to be the must-be destination for developers it once was.
From the outside, bits and pieces in the news have raised questions – like a planned multiplatform release dropping Xbox support, in tandem with Xbox’s declining console hardware sales. And what of Microsoft’s new focus on both Xbox consoles and Windows PC, which has now expanded into the beginnings of a multiplatform publishing strategy?
Xbox’s direction is undergoing a clear change, and as much as the company tries to divert our attention with new controller skins and odd marketing partnerships, it's difficult to ignore the feeling that the console's “X-Factor” – that which might push someone to jump into ecosystem – no longer exists. That much feels obvious from the outside – aside from the value proposition of Xbox Game Pass, what advantages do you get by owning an Xbox console over a rival platform? What advantages do you get by owning an Xbox console if you have a Windows PC?
And if you’re a game developer, why would you work to bring your game to Xbox, especially if you already have a PC release?
We were curious to see whether these same quandaries existed on the other side of the coin, leading us to survey a dozen game developers to get their perspectives on the current state of the Xbox, and how viable they saw it as a potential platform for their work to live.
We spoke to individual gamemakers from around the world, all of whom had published games on Xbox consoles in recent years, and had new titles in development. They ranged from solo developers to mid-sized independent studios, though all requested anonymity in order to speak more freely on the subject. Some rescinded comments about the platform following the news of Microsoft’s closure of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios.
The overall takeaway was this: Though the perceived value of porting games to Xbox consoles differed, depending on the size of the studio and types of games a developer was making, one thing thing was clear: Developers are seeing very few people buy their games on Xbox consoles, that’s largely to blame because of a behavioral shift that Xbox Game Pass has caused, and it's created a vicious cycle.
“Our Xbox sales have been the weakest, without a doubt,” said the developer of a much-celebrated, award-winning title which was ported to the Xbox more than two years ago, after initially releasing on other platforms. “With the exception of our Game Pass revenue, the games have sold less than 5% compared to our other titles.”
This was a universal experience, with all the developers we spoke to sharing similar breakdowns or alluding to similar statistics anecdotally. Xbox sales always came in last, and the overwhelming frontrunners for sales in all cases were PC and/or Nintendo Switch.
“You just aren't going to sell the same units as you would elsewhere,” said one developer, who led a studio responsible for multiple titles that had achieved commercial and critical success. “It's a bit like trying to sell a DVD to someone who uses Netflix. Sure, people still do that from time to time but you're not targeting the right audience.”
The next natural question: if Xbox console sales almost always tracked last for the developers we spoke to, was it even worth the time, money and effort to bring them over?
The responses varied, depending on the type of games developers were working on. For small teams working on less technically demanding games (relatively speaking), porting wasn’t typically a big blocker. “The difficulty of making games for Xbox is low on the list of reasons why anyone should consider the platform,” reasoned one developer, who had shipped both 2D and 3D titles, “especially in a world where the Switch or Steam Deck is going to be your optimization target.”
For others, seemingly those behind games with more complex 3D designs, multiplayer components, and online infrastructure, the issue was far bigger. “If you need to spend USD $20,000 out of pocket to port and get on a platform, you have to hope to make more than that to just break even – and that’s not even factoring in time.”
Another developer framed the task of a port this way: “When we shipped [on Xbox], there were five different hardware profiles to consider. Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Windows PC. I don't think it’s healthy for small indie game developers to do the juggling act of porting to five different platforms, when doing a multiplatform port is something a AAA studio will invest millions of dollars into doing. You must really consider that you are doing a job which usually has an entire division allocated to.”
And we know that even for well-resourced studios, this kind of work can be taxing. The Xbox Series S is commonly believed to be a pain point when it comes to porting a game for the Xbox platform, requiring significant tinkering to run smoothly on the less powerful console. Even Larian Studios was delayed in getting Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox release out the door, seemingly because of this issue.
Something that was surprising in the discussions concerning effort versus value, however, was that some developers flagged the same concerns with PlayStation. After all, though it consistently ranked above Xbox in finding sales and players for games, it still trailed significantly behind PC and Switch.
“It makes little sense these days to ship on all platforms,” said one developer. “It’s better to just move to them afterward, when you get some incentive to do so.”
Those incentives, it seems, are key.
A few of the developers we spoke to said that in the past, they had been the recipients of funds specifically allocated to assist in porting projects, but programs like these had all but dried up. Now, all eyes were squarely focused on Xbox Game Pass deals – which were also not as lucrative as they were just a few years ago, but still enough to consider putting the work in for.
One developer, who had received funding numerous times from Microsoft through Game Pass and Games With Gold deals, said, “It’s not integral in the decision, but it’s a massive help. It means we can be less stressed over whether we’ll make our money back.”
Another developer, who had also benefited from multiple Game Pass deals, echoed the sentiment: “As an indie, you have to weigh up every tiny expenditure against its potential impact on your vision, but knowing your minimum gains a year on from launch in advance makes that a lot less stressful.”
A mid-sized developer was eager to caution other developers, however. “If [you don’t have] a big game, and they know how much money you currently earn on the platform, they can really give you a lowball offer, saying, ‘Well, this is 18-24 months of your current revenue upfront.’”
But beyond development funding and financial compensation, the common sentiment was that simply having your game be part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service was the best incentive to bring your game to Xbox at all, because of the better potential audience.
“It’s really not worth shipping on Xbox unless you get a Game Pass deal, because that is where the majority of the players seem to be,” said one developer from a small studio.
“Xbox is a platform which we won't say no to if the price is right. But there is an expectation that we will only even consider this platform if Game Pass is on the table,” said another.
“If you ship on Xbox without Game Pass, you miss out on the majority of the player base (who are only playing on Game Pass) from playing your game,” said one solo developer. “Think it like when multiplayer games get DLC maps, and split the userbase.”
And therein lies one of the biggest effects of Xbox’s big subscription service push – creating an aversion to actually buying games on Xbox, which leads to less returns for developers, which discourages them from being on the platform.
Some developers also pointed to the deals regarding the PlayStation Plus Catalog or Free Essential Games as having a similar effect. “If you can't get one of those deals, and you don't have the resources or team scale to do all platforms, I can understand prioritizing other platforms,” said a mid-sized developer. “That’s what I would do.”
“I feel like consoles in general are just becoming less relevant to indies,” said one studio. “If you have a mega hit, then no matter what you do, you’re set. But I’d be very worried about being able to recoup even USD $50,000 on the consoles with a small title, especially with porting costs.
Today, it’s all about Steam and Nintendo Switch, and that's despite a common sentiment that when it actually came to the administrative side of publishing games, Xbox was by far the easiest platform to deal with, thanks to the ID@Xbox program.
“Historically I'd have said Microsoft were more difficult to work with for publishing, with a rough start to self publishing in the Xbox One era, but they've made huge improvements over the last decade,” said one developer. “Generally I think they're in a pretty healthy place now with their tools and process and requirements,” said another.
But short of uprooting Xbox Game Pass, how can the platform improve for developers who don’t have the advantage of a AAA publisher behind them? Proposed solutions were varied, but all came down to one thing: better discoverability and incentives for people to play outside of Game Pass.
“Even without [Game Pass], we're still talking about reaching millions of players who've already invested in a gaming device and are actively looking for games to play,” reasoned one developer. “I feel discovery and methods of reaching your audience feel stronger on Switch and Steam, as do the focus points of their themed events.”
This developer pointed to the experience of stumbling across a game on Steam you may have never heard of, and discovering that it has hundreds of thousands of players and reviews.
“These are games that never had a platform deal with Valve, and just found their audience anyway. It feels like that doesn't really happen much on Xbox and I think it would benefit the platform to think about why that is."
Another developer reminisced about the days of the Xbox 360 and the conditions that fostered the indie boom in the mid-2000s. “I really miss the days of Xbox Live Arcade, where there’d be five games showcased, and if you bought four of them, you’d get the fifth free. They really made it feel like an event.”
In the grand scheme of things however, for some of these small-to-mid-sized developers, many of whom have achieved consistent success to date, the declining viability of publishing games on Xbox and PlayStation were just a small part of the greater problems looming in the gamemaking and publishing space.
"The bigger issue is that everyone is playing the evergreen games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, etc. Each one is soaking up a small percentage of players who never venture further out," said one developer.
Others were more hopeful and optimistic. Said another: “As long as there are players to reach and deals that offer benefits, I try not to worry too much about what’s looming over the horizon.”
And ultimately – as exemplified by some of 2024’s biggest hits that seemingly came from nowhere – it’s often those untroubled and unaffected attitudes that foster those great ideas for unique games that keep the medium so exciting, even when we think it can't get any better.
Maybe we'll even be able to play some of those games on consoles one day. Maybe.
Words by Edmond Tran. Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and to preserve anonymity
Do game developers still want to publish on Xbox? | Skill Up
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Once upon a time, Xbox consoles were leading the charge. They had first-party games that were cultural events in themelves. The online multiplayer community was unparalleled. And Xbox Live Arcade pioneered digital distribution, giving a platform to groundbreaking titles from small, independent studios.
That's not quite the case anymore. Exciting exclusive games are few and far between. Other platforms have caught up on the online front. And while Xbox consoles still see dozens of new independent games published each week through its ID@XBox program, it no longer seems to be the must-be destination for developers it once was.
From the outside, bits and pieces in the news have raised questions – like a planned multiplatform release dropping Xbox support, in tandem with Xbox’s declining console hardware sales. And what of Microsoft’s new focus on both Xbox consoles and Windows PC, which has now expanded into the beginnings of a multiplatform publishing strategy?
Xbox’s direction is undergoing a clear change, and as much as the company tries to divert our attention with new controller skins and odd marketing partnerships, it's difficult to ignore the feeling that the console's “X-Factor” – that which might push someone to jump into ecosystem – no longer exists. That much feels obvious from the outside – aside from the value proposition of Xbox Game Pass, what advantages do you get by owning an Xbox console over a rival platform? What advantages do you get by owning an Xbox console if you have a Windows PC?
And if you’re a game developer, why would you work to bring your game to Xbox, especially if you already have a PC release?
We were curious to see whether these same quandaries existed on the other side of the coin, leading us to survey a dozen game developers to get their perspectives on the current state of the Xbox, and how viable they saw it as a potential platform for their work to live.
We spoke to individual gamemakers from around the world, all of whom had published games on Xbox consoles in recent years, and had new titles in development. They ranged from solo developers to mid-sized independent studios, though all requested anonymity in order to speak more freely on the subject. Some rescinded comments about the platform following the news of Microsoft’s closure of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios.
The overall takeaway was this: Though the perceived value of porting games to Xbox consoles differed, depending on the size of the studio and types of games a developer was making, one thing thing was clear: Developers are seeing very few people buy their games on Xbox consoles, that’s largely to blame because of a behavioral shift that Xbox Game Pass has caused, and it's created a vicious cycle.
“Our Xbox sales have been the weakest, without a doubt,” said the developer of a much-celebrated, award-winning title which was ported to the Xbox more than two years ago, after initially releasing on other platforms. “With the exception of our Game Pass revenue, the games have sold less than 5% compared to our other titles.”
This was a universal experience, with all the developers we spoke to sharing similar breakdowns or alluding to similar statistics anecdotally. Xbox sales always came in last, and the overwhelming frontrunners for sales in all cases were PC and/or Nintendo Switch.
“You just aren't going to sell the same units as you would elsewhere,” said one developer, who led a studio responsible for multiple titles that had achieved commercial and critical success. “It's a bit like trying to sell a DVD to someone who uses Netflix. Sure, people still do that from time to time but you're not targeting the right audience.”
The next natural question: if Xbox console sales almost always tracked last for the developers we spoke to, was it even worth the time, money and effort to bring them over?
The responses varied, depending on the type of games developers were working on. For small teams working on less technically demanding games (relatively speaking), porting wasn’t typically a big blocker. “The difficulty of making games for Xbox is low on the list of reasons why anyone should consider the platform,” reasoned one developer, who had shipped both 2D and 3D titles, “especially in a world where the Switch or Steam Deck is going to be your optimization target.”
For others, seemingly those behind games with more complex 3D designs, multiplayer components, and online infrastructure, the issue was far bigger. “If you need to spend USD $20,000 out of pocket to port and get on a platform, you have to hope to make more than that to just break even – and that’s not even factoring in time.”
Another developer framed the task of a port this way: “When we shipped [on Xbox], there were five different hardware profiles to consider. Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Windows PC. I don't think it’s healthy for small indie game developers to do the juggling act of porting to five different platforms, when doing a multiplatform port is something a AAA studio will invest millions of dollars into doing. You must really consider that you are doing a job which usually has an entire division allocated to.”
And we know that even for well-resourced studios, this kind of work can be taxing. The Xbox Series S is commonly believed to be a pain point when it comes to porting a game for the Xbox platform, requiring significant tinkering to run smoothly on the less powerful console. Even Larian Studios was delayed in getting Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox release out the door, seemingly because of this issue.
Something that was surprising in the discussions concerning effort versus value, however, was that some developers flagged the same concerns with PlayStation. After all, though it consistently ranked above Xbox in finding sales and players for games, it still trailed significantly behind PC and Switch.
“It makes little sense these days to ship on all platforms,” said one developer. “It’s better to just move to them afterward, when you get some incentive to do so.”
Those incentives, it seems, are key.
A few of the developers we spoke to said that in the past, they had been the recipients of funds specifically allocated to assist in porting projects, but programs like these had all but dried up. Now, all eyes were squarely focused on Xbox Game Pass deals – which were also not as lucrative as they were just a few years ago, but still enough to consider putting the work in for.
One developer, who had received funding numerous times from Microsoft through Game Pass and Games With Gold deals, said, “It’s not integral in the decision, but it’s a massive help. It means we can be less stressed over whether we’ll make our money back.”
Another developer, who had also benefited from multiple Game Pass deals, echoed the sentiment: “As an indie, you have to weigh up every tiny expenditure against its potential impact on your vision, but knowing your minimum gains a year on from launch in advance makes that a lot less stressful.”
A mid-sized developer was eager to caution other developers, however. “If [you don’t have] a big game, and they know how much money you currently earn on the platform, they can really give you a lowball offer, saying, ‘Well, this is 18-24 months of your current revenue upfront.’”
But beyond development funding and financial compensation, the common sentiment was that simply having your game be part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service was the best incentive to bring your game to Xbox at all, because of the better potential audience.
“It’s really not worth shipping on Xbox unless you get a Game Pass deal, because that is where the majority of the players seem to be,” said one developer from a small studio.
“Xbox is a platform which we won't say no to if the price is right. But there is an expectation that we will only even consider this platform if Game Pass is on the table,” said another.
“If you ship on Xbox without Game Pass, you miss out on the majority of the player base (who are only playing on Game Pass) from playing your game,” said one solo developer. “Think it like when multiplayer games get DLC maps, and split the userbase.”
And therein lies one of the biggest effects of Xbox’s big subscription service push – creating an aversion to actually buying games on Xbox, which leads to less returns for developers, which discourages them from being on the platform.
Some developers also pointed to the deals regarding the PlayStation Plus Catalog or Free Essential Games as having a similar effect. “If you can't get one of those deals, and you don't have the resources or team scale to do all platforms, I can understand prioritizing other platforms,” said a mid-sized developer. “That’s what I would do.”
“I feel like consoles in general are just becoming less relevant to indies,” said one studio. “If you have a mega hit, then no matter what you do, you’re set. But I’d be very worried about being able to recoup even USD $50,000 on the consoles with a small title, especially with porting costs.
Today, it’s all about Steam and Nintendo Switch, and that's despite a common sentiment that when it actually came to the administrative side of publishing games, Xbox was by far the easiest platform to deal with, thanks to the ID@Xbox program.
“Historically I'd have said Microsoft were more difficult to work with for publishing, with a rough start to self publishing in the Xbox One era, but they've made huge improvements over the last decade,” said one developer. “Generally I think they're in a pretty healthy place now with their tools and process and requirements,” said another.
But short of uprooting Xbox Game Pass, how can the platform improve for developers who don’t have the advantage of a AAA publisher behind them? Proposed solutions were varied, but all came down to one thing: better discoverability and incentives for people to play outside of Game Pass.
“Even without [Game Pass], we're still talking about reaching millions of players who've already invested in a gaming device and are actively looking for games to play,” reasoned one developer. “I feel discovery and methods of reaching your audience feel stronger on Switch and Steam, as do the focus points of their themed events.”
This developer pointed to the experience of stumbling across a game on Steam you may have never heard of, and discovering that it has hundreds of thousands of players and reviews.
“These are games that never had a platform deal with Valve, and just found their audience anyway. It feels like that doesn't really happen much on Xbox and I think it would benefit the platform to think about why that is."
Another developer reminisced about the days of the Xbox 360 and the conditions that fostered the indie boom in the mid-2000s. “I really miss the days of Xbox Live Arcade, where there’d be five games showcased, and if you bought four of them, you’d get the fifth free. They really made it feel like an event.”
In the grand scheme of things however, for some of these small-to-mid-sized developers, many of whom have achieved consistent success to date, the declining viability of publishing games on Xbox and PlayStation were just a small part of the greater problems looming in the gamemaking and publishing space.
"The bigger issue is that everyone is playing the evergreen games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, etc. Each one is soaking up a small percentage of players who never venture further out," said one developer.
Others were more hopeful and optimistic. Said another: “As long as there are players to reach and deals that offer benefits, I try not to worry too much about what’s looming over the horizon.”
And ultimately – as exemplified by some of 2024’s biggest hits that seemingly came from nowhere – it’s often those untroubled and unaffected attitudes that foster those great ideas for unique games that keep the medium so exciting, even when we think it can't get any better.
Maybe we'll even be able to play some of those games on consoles one day. Maybe.
Words by Edmond Tran. Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and to preserve anonymity
