Xbox One UK interviewed Agostino Simonetta at EGX, discussing topics such as his early career, the increase in independent games and plans for the future.
Microsoft is tooling up for the next generation of gaming - whether that will be disc-less, subscription-based, service-lead or otherwise. And its commitment to smaller titles could be its key to success.
Remember at the beginning of the gen, when Indies were everything when Sony had the edge?
Now that Xbox is treating indies probably better than some AAA developers. Suddenly it's not a big deal anymore.
Interestingly, the guy mentioned in this interview (Ago Simonetta) used to work at Sony and was responsible for getting games like Machinarium back onto the PS3 as a console exclusive
Now he's doing similar - amazing - work with Xbox!
ID@Xbox still could not match Nindies Direct yet IMO. But we’ll see how this will go.
Tbf, the Nindies streams are best-in-class right now and if we get Sony, Ninty and MS all bolstering indie development for the remainder of this gen and into next, the industry is only going to get better
Indies are good and all but if indies are your "most important weapon" then something is very wrong and you are lacking on other areas that are way more important.
This was not the sentiment at the beginning of the gen when Sony barely had any AAA games and mostly indie games. They were praised to heavens for it. And Indies were the be all end all.
The thing is that in Sony's case, there is no problem because their fans know for sure that the big exclusive games are coming. It has been proven in every Playstation generation and that is why is not an issue.
On the other hand, Xbox has failed to deliver big quality exclusive games at Sony and Nintendo level even before this gen and henceforth why I say indies are ok but you must deliver in what is really important and Xbox has failed to do that.
Uhm, we had Gears of War, Fable, Forza, Halo, Lost Oddysey, Blue Dragon.
Plenty of big quality exclusives. The E3 after the Xbox One reveal was full of quality games.There was zero reason to believe Xbox wasn't gonna deliver. PS for all intents and purposes was losing in terms of AAA quality games. Yet people ignored that and thought it was more important to highlight and slam Xbox for not supporting indie games much.
Indie games are becaming a bit better, but they have a long way to go.
@Zeref Indies are not important to a small faction. Gamers who appreciate all games Indies. I actually think the ID@Xbox program, new studios pumping out triple AAA games or double AA games and third party is key towards next generation. All work in favor of providing content. Plus Xbox has Xbox GamePass which is getting stronger for gamers who are under a budget but want to play more games.
Gamereactor talked with Agostino Simonetta recently about the upcoming event.
They delivered a couple years ago with ID@Xbox I guess. If you're really into that kind of thing at least. Last year, not so much. In any case, maybe deliver what was shown, before saying you'll deliver on more stuff that you'll have to wait on.
Still waiting on Below, Ashen, The Last Light and a handful of others from last E3
I'm not gonna lie. As a ps4 guy, I'm jealous of the last night. I think I'd enjoy that.
again??? This is intriguing......So they wont deliver nothing again?? i dont get it
Microsoft's ID@Xbox program has come a long way since it first started in 2013. While the curated self-publishing program's first titles included smaller indie games such as Drinkbox Studios' Guacamelee and Nicalis' 1001 Spikes, it's now home to some of the biggest and most ambitious independently developed titles the industry's ever seen, including Tequila Works' beautiful puzzle-adventure game Rime, Sumo Digital's 3D puzzle platformer Snake Pass, Rebellion's Sniper Elite 4 and even a preview version of Studio Wildcard's Ark: Survival Evolved.
