ID@Xbox: Developers of All Sizes Are Finding More Success With Xbox – $5 Billion Paid Out to Date

Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
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With GDC kicking off, our team is in San Francisco to celebrate with independent developers who continue to inspire us every day with their ambition, creativity, and passion. In the past year alone, ID@Xbox has seen over 1,000 games launch, including fan favorites like Balatro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Phasmophobia, bringing new experiences to console and PC communities.

Since ID@Xbox was launched in 2013, more than $5 billion have been paid to independent developers from all over the world. We’re also proud to offer developers the ability to use our platform to maximize the opportunity to reach an audience across multiple screens.
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As announced last week, over 1,000 titles are now supporting Xbox Play Anywhere (XPA). When players purchase an XPA game, they can play on Xbox and Windows 10/11 PCs at no additional cost, bringing their saves, progress and achievements across devices. This means players can access their favorite games in more places which has led to these titles getting 20% more play time.

Today, Xbox offers more places than ever to play independent games: Xbox consoles, gaming PCs, and laptops, Windows handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally X or Legion Go, mobile phones, tablets, Samsung and Amazon FireSticks enabled by the Cloud – all of these are an Xbox, and all a potential home for your next favorite ID@Xbox title like Another Crab’s Treasure, Neva, and Animal Well.
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In addition to offering more ways for people to play, the Developer Acceleration Program (DAP) is ensuring that we have content that speaks to everyone. The program fosters innovation for over 200 teams and creators from different countries around the world. We help developers by hosting information sessions with studios, providing port and prototype funding, and helping to reduce costs of bringing games to Xbox and building new ideas. The Xbox Excellence Award-winning Botany Manor and the recently released Mullet Madjackare recent DAP titles, both of which are available today with Xbox Game Pass.

Our mission with ID@Xbox has always been to empower teams to achieve more with Xbox. Over the years, our program has evolved to bring ID@Xbox games to players on more screens and in new ways through Game Pass and Stream Your Own Game. We’re focused on helping independent teams enable Xbox Play Anywhere to reach more players – allowing seamless play across console, PC, and cloud. No matter where people choose to play, we’re working with developers to make the most of the features unique to that device or screen. Looking ahead, our lineup is incredible with upcoming games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Descenders Next, and FBC: Firebreak to play across the whole Xbox universe… and of course Hollow Knight: Silksong too!
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Today, we’re excited to host developers from 10 countries at our annual hands-on preview event for press and creators. Among them are 11 Xbox Play Anywhere and six Xbox Game Pass titles, including Winter Burrow from Pinecreek in Denmark, Detective Dotson from Masala Games in India, and Promise Mascot Academy from Kaizen Works in the UK.

Our team is thrilled to work with so many developers around the world to bring you unique and innovative experiences. Whether players buy, stream, or discover their next favorite game through Xbox Game Pass, now is the perfect time to join the Xbox community.
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news.xbox.com

ID@Xbox: Developers of All Sizes Are Finding More Success With Xbox - $5 Billion Paid Out to Date - Xbox Wire

ID@Xbox saw over 1,000 games come to Xbox platforms in the last year, with $5 billion paid out to developers since the program's launch. Find out how developers of all sizes are finding success with Xbox.
news.xbox.com news.xbox.com
 
Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
Punished Miku said:
Wheel World is Ghost Bike. Its not even out yet. I've been looking forward to it since the reveal.
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I see.

So the hype is still building for all those games. I'm sure GP will take off this year with a library like that.
Seems like money well-spent.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
Punished Miku said:
If the 1st 6 months of 2025 didnt you should probably just stop even looking.
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It's MS' job to get me to notice their products.

Clearly they're failing at every turn, because outside of the hardcore Xbox community, MS is barely relevant.

As much as people like you might hate it, MS needs to do a much better job. Even as a 3rd party.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Killjoy-NL said:
It's MS' job to get me to notice their products.

Clearly they're failing at every turn, because outside of the hardcore Xbox community, MS is barely relevant.

As much as people like you might hate it, MS needs to do a much better job. Even as a 3rd party.
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I think they'll be fine.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
That would be an average of $357 million per year, so not too bad I guess.

Although, that is very likely money Microsoft subsidized the program with, and not money the games actually earned through sales (not most of them, anyway). So that was a net gain for the devs in the program, but (financially) net losses for Microsoft they ate through subsidization.

Killjoy-NL said:
Is it?

I'd buy Hellblade 2 on PS5 Pro day 1 and the Fable alpha-footage looked really good, putting it on my radar.
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You're literally gonna reward an actual walking simulator that took several steps back from its own predecessor?

Darsxx82 said:
Balatro, Vampire Survivor, Stalker2, Palworld, Silksong, Expeditions 33, .... Sure, nobody care about these games...🙃
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TBF all of those games were made massively popular due to Steam and WOM (if they released; Expedition's not out yet nor is Silksong), not ID@Xbox support (if it was even present).

We can give credit to MS for investing towards those games on some level, but they're not the reason they've become major successes considering AFAIK some were not even in the program (Balatro), and others have found most of their commercial success on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo.

MS's own storefronts (Xbox Store, Microsoft Store) just don't have much pull for game software sales anymore, unless they're very specific major (generally Western) AAA multiplats.
 
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D

Darsxx82

Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
That would be an average of $357 million per year, so not too bad I guess.

Although, that is very likely money Microsoft subsidized the program with, and not money the games actually earned through sales (not most of them, anyway). So that was a net gain for the devs in the program, but (financially) net losses for Microsoft they ate through subsidization.



You're literally gonna reward an actual walking simulator that took several steps back from its own predecessor?



TBF all of those games were made massively popular due to Steam and WOM (if they released; Expedition's not out yet nor is Silksong), not ID@Xbox support (if it was even present).

We can give credit to MS for investing towards those games on some level, but they're not the reason they've become major successes considering AFAIK some were not even in the program (Balatro), and others have found most of their commercial success on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo.

MS's own storefronts (Xbox Store, Microsoft Store) just don't have much pull for game software sales anymore, unless they're very specific major (generally Western) AAA multiplats.
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???

It's clear that some people will do anything to discredit anything with an XBOX seal... even changing the meaning of what was being discussed 🙃

It's simple: MS, through ID@Xbox, has helped many developers release games that have subsequently become huge hits. Those games have been released on GamePass and are PlayAnywhere...

It mean (and this was the point), many of those games have been huge hits, and many others are games that people are huge interested in. Therefore, the claim (that I questioned in the post you quote) that MS has spent that money funding games that no one knows about or "nobody care about" is a blatant act of hate and a desire to discredit any feature that has to do with XBOX, even being eminently pro-user.

So, yes, those games mostly owe their success and popularity to Steam, which doesn't mean they haven't also been successful on Xbox. It's a great credit and merit that MS invested in them by funding them and managing to make these games part of GamePass and, especially, PlayAnywhere.

No more, there wasn't even a need for discussion, much less to change the direction of the discussion. 🤷
 
Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
You're literally gonna reward an actual walking simulator that took several steps back from its own predecessor?
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Sure, why not? I play games for the experience. If that's good enough to me, I don't necessarily need it to be filled with gameplay.

And it's a direct sequel to one of my fav games of last-gen, so buying it is a no-brainer. If it ends up being a letdown, so be it.🤷🏾‍♂️
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
Darsxx82 said:
???

It's clear that some people will do anything to discredit anything with an XBOX seal... even changing the meaning of what was being discussed 🙃

It's simple: MS, through ID@Xbox, has helped many developers release games that have subsequently become huge hits. Those games have been released on GamePass and are PlayAnywhere...

It mean (and this was the point), many of those games have been huge hits, and many others are games that people are huge interested in. Therefore, the claim (that I questioned in the post you quote) that MS has spent that money funding games that no one knows about or "nobody care about" is a blatant act of hate and a desire to discredit any feature that has to do with XBOX, even being eminently pro-user.

So, yes, those games mostly owe their success and popularity to Steam, which doesn't mean they haven't also been successful on Xbox. It's a great credit and merit that MS invested in them by funding them and managing to make these games part of GamePass and, especially, PlayAnywhere.

No more, there wasn't even a need for discussion, much less to change the direction of the discussion. 🤷
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But did they really fund Balatro? Did they really fund Vampire Survivor? No, not necessarily. They paid to get those games into Game Pass, but funding came through the community on PC, mainly through Steam Early Access and WOM those games were building online. ID@Xbox did help bolster their profiles some, but I can't give Microsoft credit for those games as if they were the root incubation zone for those games development, because they weren't.

OTOH, I do fully give MS credit for past games that went on to be big hits like Cuphead; that's a game they funded and helped get made from the ground-up with an outside studio, and also published it directly first on Xbox, then on PC, then on other consoles. But games like Balatro and Vampire Survivor are nothing like that type of example. They're closer to what SIE did getting VF5: Ultimate Showdown or Stray into PS+; intermittent involvement, mostly monetarily for some type of distribution deal, not a lot of hands-on creative or technical input from the ground-up.

And there are some ID@Xbox games where MS's involvement is closer to a Cuphead, but you picked bad examples in Balatro & Vampire Survivor.

Killjoy-NL said:
Sure, why not? I play games for the experience. If that's good enough to me, I don't necessarily need it to be filled with gameplay.

And it's a direct sequel to one of my fav games of last-gen, so buying it is a no-brainer. If it ends up being a letdown, so be it.🤷🏾‍♂️
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Well, you've been warned in advance but ultimately it's your choice to play it or not. I'm sure it'll look amazing on the Pro, so it'll at least be a solid visual showcase.

I'm just rather shocked how NT did nothing to bolster the gameplay, and even regressed it in various areas. Even aspects of the story are borked but can't talk about that or we'd get into spoilers.
 
StueyDuck

StueyDuck

Member
isn't this just the same infinite loop we go through every year.

Games are the most successful ever on gamepass then there will be some devs coming out and saying the opposite, and then it's the best thing ever for devs, then they say the opposite.

aren't you all as bored of the gamepass pr cycle and nonsense now as i am. Basically devs get a nice lump sum up front and then their game tanks in sales. this is basically the pattern.
 
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