My first main reminiscence of Indie Video games on Xbox platforms is a pleasing one, and it is exactly the form of reminiscence I really feel most applicable for the medium. This was a tiny self-published affair – nary a writer in sight, what I assume was a solo developer, and a particularly restricted scope. I am not speaking about Hole Knight, or Balatro, or Braid, or Limbo or what have you ever. I am speaking about Curling 2010.
Curling 2010 was precisely what it feels like: a quite simple indie recreation of the game of curling. It was a drunken discovery, and in my circle of pals was virtually completely performed competitively when very liquored. To me, Curling stood alongside Mount your Mates as absolutely the poster kids of Xbox Dwell Indie Video games, a somewhat sensible little service that allowed just about anybody to develop Xbox 360 video games utilizing Microsoft’s XNA framework. Video games would get peer reviewed after which might go reside for a couple of dollars.
Handle cookie settings
This service was surprisingly easy, shockingly democratised, and was the primary sign of how critical Xbox was about permitting unbiased builders entry to its platform; they let one individual indulge their curiosity in Curling and put their recreation on Xbox 360.
Whereas Xbox Dwell’s Neighborhood Indie video games service by no means left the Xbox 360 and Microsoft by no means fairly embraced such chaotic openness once more, that system’s founding spirit was later channeled into Xbox One’s ID@Xbox program, which continues to today. In 2025, ID@Xbox has seldom appeared extra essential to Xbox’s fortunes. The platform holder finds itself in uneven waters: first-party studio layoffs, second-party recreation cancellations, botched rescue offers and boycott calls fuelled by the actions of Xbox’s mum or dad firm. However you recognize what a part of the Xbox ecosystem has been persistently somewhat good? ID@Xbox.
A look round Xbox’s Gamescom stand final month serves as fairly agency affirmation of that reality. The longest line was, in fact, for Silksong. Even earlier than the present opened to the general public, I watched media and influencers denigrate themselves dashing to that queue, which ran for over an hour. On the opposite aspect of the stand, video games like Tremendous Meat Boy 3D and There are No Ghosts on the Grand dominated as accomplice titles. Some would possibly uncharitably recommend that this stand is extra consultant of a very quiet 12 months for Xbox’s first social gathering video games – however the fact is, Xbox exhibits have featured cubicles like this for a very long time; every look an illustration of an indie and third social gathering relations setup firing on all cylinders.
“Some years there’s extra indie video games, some years there’s just a few much less – however yearly it is a dialogue,” ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla tells me within the midst of the bustle and noise of the Xbox stand. We chat in a small aisle of the sales space simply adjoining to an indie-focused part the place an early-morning queue is starting to snake. The breadth of third-party titles on the sales space, from late Japanese ports to all-new indies and hotly anticipated sequels, is supposed to ship a message.
“It’s simply actually a recognition by Xbox of absolutely the essential want for range in our portfolio,” Charla provides.
Living proof: There Are No Ghosts on the Grand, the quirky debut title of Bristol-based developer Friday Sundae. Distinctly British, it took satisfaction of place at Xbox’s Summer time Video games Fest and Gamescom presences.
“We by no means in our wildest goals thought that we might be there,” shares Anil Glendinning, inventive director at Friday Sundae on No Ghosts on the Grand. “And if we did, we thought it might be in some tiny little sales space hidden behind a distant corridor, the place no one will get to see us! We didn’t ever in 1,000,000 years anticipate to be proper there, as a part of Xbox, proper there, corridor 7 – and to have folks ready, like, an hour to play our recreation.
“Not as huge because the queues for Hole Knight, in fact,” Glendinning laughs, “Nevertheless it was extraordinary, and surreal, and an actual merchandise off the bucket listing. As an indie dev, you could not hope for a greater begin for introducing the sport on to players.”
The part in the direction of the back-right of Xbox’s stand the place No Ghosts on the Grand made its debut serves as an ideal instance of the breadth of the relationships Xbox is making an attempt to foster outdoors of its first-party ecosystem. Alongside No Ghosts there was Silksong, the indie that’s so large it now not fairly matches the time period in the identical method. Then there’s Invincible VS, which has a extra conventional publishing association however through the smaller-scale Skybound Video games. PowerWash Simulator 2 is a sequel to a smash hit printed by one in all gaming’s largest multinationals – however this time developer Futurlab goes it alone. Chinese language developer Pawprint Studio showcased its Pokémon-alike Aniimo, and simply off to the aspect have been among the fruits of Xbox’s growth outreach efforts in Japan with just a few late-but-welcome ports from Sq. Enix.
Watch on YouTube
The purpose is, the stand paints an image of a course of journey for Xbox at the same time as different facets of their enterprise seem a lot much less sure. From smaller actually unbiased studios to start-ups with just a little exterior funding and help, the phrase tends to be fairly common, too: those that have had the chance to ply Xbox’s assets have discovered it invaluable.
“We’re an indie studio and small writer so getting this degree of help throughout key advertising and marketing milestones is large for us,” says Mike Willette, government producer on Invincible VS at new startup studio Quarter Up. “Having that type of attain – particularly throughout such a big-scale occasion – meant that followers around the globe might join with the Invincible VS. It was a giant second for the sport and the response has been superb to see.”
The enthusiastic angle in the direction of Xbox’s help raises a query, in fact: how precisely Xbox decides which video games are the chosen ones and that are much less fortunate. Even essentially the most passing of glances at Steam’s statistics tells us there are actually extra video games than ever – and the method of discovery is thereby ever extra difficult. That is true for the media, as we attempt to dig out cool video games for readers – but it surely’s additionally clearly true for publishers, and shoppers themselves. Charla says Xbox’s strategy hasn’t modified in over a decade, nevertheless.
“We discover them all over the place,” Charla says. “We discover them by spending time within the Indie Enviornment [at Gamescom]. We discover them by folks sending us direct messages on BlueSky… We discover them from folks throughout Microsoft being like, hey, have you ever seen this recreation? And we discover them from having pals who make video games who say – hey, you’ll want to see my good friend’s recreation. And from folks simply emailing us!”
In the long run, Charla’s staff works with a whole bunch of companions annually, reviewing what’s subsequent on the planet of indie or indie-adjacent gaming. This can be a staff that is not simply searching for the subsequent Hole Knight, both – the hunt is on for all kinds of titles, largely to make sure the breadth of releases on Recreation Move. And whereas the concept of Recreation Move as a universally ‘good factor’ stays in dispute, with some builders going so far as to name it unsustainable and damaging, Charla is bullish on the service – and its successes with indie builders.
“Nearly all of companions who’ve had a recreation in Recreation Move need to convey their future titles to the service,” Charla notes. “Because of this, we have signed offers with greater than 150 companions to develop {the catalogue}. We proceed to interact with a whole bunch of companions annually to overview upcoming titles.”
“Final 12 months, we labored with over 50 groups to signal their first Recreation Move deal. This 12 months marks our largest funding in Recreation Move up to now, and we stay targeted on delivering essentially the most thrilling and numerous catalogue in gaming.”
The pathway of regularly ending up intertwined with Xbox and touchdown a Recreation Move deal matches as much as that described by Friday Sundae for No Ghosts on the Grand. In that case, the studio had put collectively a demo and had been displaying it off to numerous potential companions, which included a submission to the Xbox staff through a developer-focused web site and type entry. It was, by Glendinning’s personal admission, a “unusual demo” – which tempered expectations.
“We did not anticipate to listen to again,” Glendinning admits of that early No Ghosts on the Grand demo. “We went by way of these channels after which promptly forgot all about it. And actually, after we bought an e-mail again… we thought it was spam! We weren’t utterly positive it was actual. Nevertheless it was – it was somebody throughout the Xbox staff saying, yeah, we like your demo, we performed it, we predict it is attention-grabbing, and we might like to leap on a name. Since then, it has been a blur.”
That whirlwind of Xbox’s involvement has been described to me variously by builders as helpful from a nuts-and-bolts growth perspective – when it comes to gathering suggestions and having fun with technological help – but additionally as a confidence-booster for the small groups concerned. The eye of a a lot greater accomplice may be helpful or scary – but it surely can be validating.
“We needed to present Xbox progress throughout key milestones, i.e. demo the sport for his or her partnerships staff at important moments to encourage confidence that we belonged on their help roster,” says Mike Willette of Invincible VS. “It was an excellent train for our dev staff in addition to one thing that helped us continually elevate our personal bar.”
“I simply do not forget that Xbox was so interested by our inventive course of,” says Friday Sundae’s Glendinning. “They wished to know the place we wished to take it, the place our creativity was coming from, our imaginative and prescient for the sport. All the pieces that we mentioned to them, they got here again with this enthusiasm. We would hold sending – one other e-mail, some extra screenshots, extra movies, extra content material. Time after time, we have been getting encouragement, help, and the thumbs as much as carry on going.
“Having that type of help was an enormous confidence enhance, y’know? We weren’t positive what we have been making or whether or not anybody would have an interest, or actually prefer it. Listening to folks throughout the Xbox staff being excited, being encouraging, desirous to see extra – that was an actual shot within the arm of confidence for us. It actually spurred the staff ahead to assume: hey, you recognize what? We would even have one thing right here.”
There was one other, secondary profit, in fact. “The largest factor for us was gaining access to these dev kits,” Glendinning notes. “It is nonetheless vastly essential for us figuring out that we have now Xbox there, having our backs if we run into any points or issues. However the fact is, it is truly been easy crusing up to now.”
A easy journey for indie builders is one thing that’s clearly a spotlight for Charla and his staff. When requested about his staff’s journey over time – other than the video games themselves – the ID@Xbox boss immediately zeroes in on the technical adjustments that staff has managed to institute throughout the Xbox platform, making changes that in lots of circumstances profit everybody, indie or triple-A alike.
“It was actually onerous to publish on Xbox. It was our job to make it simpler,” Charla says. “So after we first began ID@Xbox, we had a whole lot of asks.
“We had a whole lot of asks that have been actually indie particular, and we’d go into these conferences with all these engineers – and we did not know anyone, proper? These are enterprise folks. And we present up like, ‘Errr… ahh… we’re from ID’ – however as quickly as we mentioned that it was like ‘Oh, you are the Indie guys! What do you want?!’ That degree of help internally at Microsoft for unbiased builders has been off the charts eternally from day one, and it continues right this moment.
“Y’know, if we will save 12 hours on a recreation… hey, that is nice for everyone. It is nice for large publishers, however for an indie or possibly a solo dev – 12 hours is sort of a day and a half of labor that you need to use to theoretically materially make the sport a day and a half higher. There’s a whole lot of former builders on the staff, and we actually take that type of factor to coronary heart.”
Through the years, the main focus has been on making an attempt to make the act of getting video games onto Xbox simpler. However Charla now sees a brand new problem. With an explosion within the sheer variety of video games, plus an ever-growing variety of video games in Xbox’s subscription service, it is now about ensuring video games do not get misplaced within the flood. His staff is trying to make related optimisations on this space as they as soon as did to the method of onboarding builders within the first place.
“What if we put that discovery query on its head?” Charla asks. “How will we as a recreation platform assist builders to find their viewers? So when you’re making a recreation of a sure high quality… there’s an viewers for that out on the planet. Whether or not that viewers’s complete addressable market is 30 million or 3 million, or 300,000, or 30,000… How will we as Microsoft assist you to get in entrance of that complete addressable viewers?
Watch on YouTube
“We need to present that viewers your field artwork. Now, whether or not or not they click on on the field, whether or not or to not purchase the sport, that is just a little depending on the developer – on the field artwork, on the sport, and so forth. However I feel our job is to consider Discovery in a brand new method, which is, how will we guarantee builders can uncover their audiences?”
A few of this brings us full-circle. Once I communicate to Charla and the builders featured right here, it is both throughout or off the again of an Xbox Gamescom presence that has been all about connecting straight with gamers in-person. At Gamescom, from the attitude of those builders, Xbox’s help was invaluable.
“Having the chance to showcase Invincible VS on a world stage – particularly in Europe – was big,” says Mike Willette. “It was our first time seeing worldwide followers work together with the sport in-person, and that was extremely rewarding. Seeing folks’s reactions, watching them get a really feel for the mechanics and feeling the thrill construct up on the present flooring – there’s actually nothing like experiencing that.”
The problem, then, seems to be taking that form of power and that discovery accessible in individual at bodily occasions and discovering methods to ship that on digital storefronts and the like. Charla’s imaginative and prescient – that discovery is a two-way road, as a lot about video games discovering audiences as it’s about audiences discovering video games – is clearly a key lynchpin. As with ID@Xbox driving storefront and growth backend adjustments that helped all, although, it is clear that Xbox’s indie help shall be key to this. Then there may be the broader place during which Xbox finds itself, a lot of it undesirable – making this brilliant spot one whose continued luminescence is important. Charla, a minimum of, seems to consider he has the help and buy-in wanted to do this.
“I keep in mind one 12 months, we had a bunch of video games prepared however we simply weren’t displaying them at this explicit inside overview. And a really senior government, midway by way of the overview, appears to be like at me and is like ‘the place are the indie video games?’,” the ID@Xbox boss recollects.
“I used to be like, ‘oh, don’t fret, they’re coming – subsequent overview! , the trailers have a tendency to return alongside just a little later for indies…’ However, it was cool for that query to be requested. It was an actual second the place I mirrored on it later and was similar to – okay, I am working in the correct place.”
