No Xbox One Indie Games till 2014

Indie gaming may have been the hot topic over the last few months, and it seems Sony are trying everything they can to get the most talented developers publishing on their platform. Microsoft have been a little slower to take to the idea, first dismissing the idea of self-publishing, changing their minds and then being rather quiet on exactly what consumers might expect later this year.

The answer to that, it seems, is “nothing.” There will be no indie titles on Xbox One until later in the year, probably early 2014 at the earliest.

This was revealed in an interview with Phil Harrison at GamesIndustry.biz. When asked when we might expect some indie titles on Xbox One, Harrison replied:

I don’t think we’re going to see things at launch. I don’t think it’s realistic to see a developer get the programme and build a game and get it into the market on November 22. It’s reasonable to expect in early 2014 we’ll start seeing the first games come through.

Now, this isn’t some concrete release date. There will be no flood of indie titles on January 1st. Early 2014 might mean a really talented developer could have a game out within the Xbox One launch month – presuming that “self-publishing” doesn’t require a month of Microsoft’s own QA. It might also mean there will be nothing until the middle of next year.

Either way, it seems in this case that indie developers really are a bottom priority for Microsoft, or rather they have been. We’ll most likely have to wait until 2014 to see how this affects both the indie game service and the games themselves.