Microsoft Is Asking Developers Why They Aren’t Supporting Xbox

At Xbox, one of the biggest issues right now is the scaling down of third-party support. From developer Game Science, the team revealed the Xbox version is on hold as technical issues withhold the game releasing on the console. Note, this is one of the best-selling releases in 2024 with more than 10 million units sold.

Additionally, the Xbox indie program has also shown to be in disarray as well. According to studios Blingame & Jyamma Games were both vocal online about the lacking transparency to ship its games on Xbox. What’s more, the growing amount of Capcom releases skipping Xbox has also been a concern too. In a report from Windows Central, this is due to the severed support for Capcom’s MT Framework legacy engine.

Recently, Microsoft shared a new initiative is in place to learn about the growing disconnection Xbox faces with developers. Xbox Research is now extending its reach to the retrieved direct feedback from game studios on the matter.

Typically, it takes a lot of people to make and ship a game, including marketing, user research, artists, audio, PMs, community managers, and more. All these disciplines are vital to the process. We want to hear from everyone who works on games or helps support game studios because if we can make your life easier, it makes gaming better.

We make a lot of tools – not just the GDK – and it’s important we hear from folks like artists using PIX, or release managers and PMs uploading stuff to our store. And yes, your entire Studio may sign up.

Dr. Deborah Hendersen, Principal User Researcher for Xbox

“This strategy allows Xbox to gain fresh perspectives and avoid becoming an ‘echo chamber,'” Hendersen elaborated. “It’s a bit like testing players who play games like yours – they are your target audience and you want to hear fresh perspectives because their expectations may differ from folks who are deep in your community.” 

What many online are considering the issue is the messaging Microsoft continues to give a platform towards. Although Xbox is to remain with a new console on the way, it is deterred thanks to its push for cloud streaming. The most recent example of this hindrance is Microsoft advertising Xbox without a console via Amazon Fire Stick. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by this new effort from Microsoft?

Source: Microsoft