After deterring many with once-limiting policies, Microsoft has been fiercely pushing their ID@Xbox program in an effort to attract independent developers to Xbox One. Now, thanks to Jamie Fristrom of Happion Labs, prospective developers can get a sense of what the program truly entails, at least from a cost perspective.
In his recent post to GameDevBlog, Fristrom itemizes the expenses incurred in getting his latest title Sixty Second Shooter Prime under the ID@Xbox banner. The full breakdown comes to:
· Maintaining the Sixty Second Shooter URL: $19
· Sending a development kit to his partner: $63
· Hardware: $72
· Video capture: $181
· Localization: $729
· E&O Insurance (Errors & Omission): $2037
· Foreign ratings boards: $2042
Fristrom’s expenses total $5143—a pretty penny for independent designers often working out of their own pocket—but he remains adamant that “it was absolutely worth it.”
“Although we haven’t gotten our first sales report yet, there were at least ten thousand entries on the leaderboards last we checked, so we’ve certainly covered our costs and made a living wage to boot—which is kind of rare in the indie game development world, in my experience—so I’m really happy we jumped aboard the ID@Xbox wagon,” he concluded.
