Microsoft has gone ahead and shown more support for the independent developer community. Sony has been supporting indie producers for a while now, with PlayStation 4 turning out to be one of the best platforms for indie games. This console war every feature is a battlefield, thus it is only natural for Microsoft to come in and even out the playing field.
Microsoft has just revealed that the Unity add-on will be free for indie developers that are registered in the Independent Developers @Xbox program. This was done in order to open up greater possibilities for developers on the Xbox One.
The Unity add-on which will be releasing in 2014, will allow the registered developers to use the Unity game engine to publish their games on not only on the Xbox One, but also on Windows 8 PCs and Windows 8 devices. According to Microsoft, this move will level out the playing field for all developers, big or small.
In addition to this, Xbox One-only Unity Pro license will also be offered to “qualified” developers. For now Microsoft has promised to be out on the lookout for any upcoming impressive titles, but making Unity available for free to those who are willing to register is definitely a step ahead in ensuring original and creating content for the Xbox One.
"Microsoft continues to show their commitment to creating opportunity for developers of all shapes and sizes, a commitment shared by Unity," said Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason. "The drive behind the [email protected] program is exciting for Unity and the games development community in general. We can’t wait to see the results.”
At this year’s Gamescom the [email protected] program was announced which was created in hopes of making development and publishing much easier on the Xbox One than it was on the Xbox 360; thus being able to compete with other self-publish friendly consoles like the PS4 and Wii U. With more developers working with Unity engine, this sort of pro indie movement could really open up great possibilities for indie developers.