14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft announces that the Xbox One home console can be used as a game development platform and that any user can become an indie developer who can then self-publish his title on the new device.
Marc Whitten, a corporate vice president at the Xbox division, says in a statement posted on an official Microsoft blog that, "Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox Live."
He adds, "This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox Live. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August."
The announcement marks another big change of policy for Microsoft, which had previously said that it had no plans to allow indie game developers to launch games without dealing with a traditional publisher.
The move is likely to attract the attention of the smaller teams that might be interested in enlarging their audience by delivering their titles on the Xbox One.
Microsoft changed its mind once before when it dropped the strong Digital Rights Management solution it announced for the new console and decided that players would be able to borrow and re-sell games as they were currently doing on the Xbox 360.
It's yet unclear exactly how the Xbox One can be used as a development platform considering the fact that Microsoft is now planning to offer a new version of the XNA tools.
Sony has courted indie developers ever since the PlayStation 4 was first unveiled and has persuaded Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, to launch his new game, The Witness, on the device.
Both the Xbox One and the PS4 are expected to arrive in November of this year.