Microsoft announced the Xbox One Creators program back in March, showing that any developer who wanted to publish games through Xbox Live could do so faster and easier than ever before. What makes this different from ID@Xbox? Well for starters this program is open to all developers, meaning as long as your game follows the standard Xbox terms of service and rules you can publish it hands-free. This means no long approval process and downtime if you want your game out there now it can be published quick and easy, these games will be placed in a new area on the Microsoft store called the "Creators Collection."
Xbox Creator Collection
ID@Xbox was a great start to giving developers easy to access tools and programs to help bring their games exposure, but the approval process could take some time until everything is finalized.
This is not the case with the Creator program you can get games published almost instantly if you have the basic rules down and testing complete.
With the Creator program, you still get access to the many features Xbox games have on day one these include: Leaderboards, Cloud Saves, Game Hubs, Clubs, Party Chat, Came DVR and so much more. The features not included in this program are multiplayer, achievements, editorial support and developer support. These features will be available when you join the ID@Xbox program, so when you publish your game here, you can go through the approval process while you still have your game on the market gaining an audience.
Will this help change the ID community?
It's nice to see companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, Valve, and Sony putting towards the effort to welcome in more indie titles and giving them the tools they need to be successful on their platforms hopefully. Triple A companies may help bring in the most money, but these new developers are the future of this industry and help bring in fresh new ideas for the community.
When these companies add new programs and give full support so developers can have an easier time programming their games; this helps everyone overall especially the developers who may not have the funding for the tools these companies provide. This community has seen massive growth last year and this year especially games that are still in alpha but already breaking records and reaching top spots on steam. Years ago you wouldn't see this happening so much, maybe every once and awhile but not at the pace these games are going now hopefully this community continues to grow.
