Xbox Live Indie Games Adds Publishing Control

Xbox Live Indie Games developers can now control the release of their games, choosing the exact date they wish their titles to be released. Using a system similar to that implemented in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the new set-up allows developers to hit a 'Publish Now' button once a game has passed peer review. Originally, any game that passed peer review on Xbox Live Indie games would be automatically published to the XBLIG library. A tickbox can now be selected at submission which holds a peer reviewed game back until the developer is ready to have it published. Once the option to publish is chosen, the game will appear in the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace within 24 hours. Developers can also use this new feature to time the release of any subsequent updates to a game. Nick Gravelyn, program manager for Microsoft's XNA platform, noted that it is not possible, however, for developers to hand out review codes for their games until the game has been published in the Marketplace. The latest issue of Game Developer magazine features an exclusive postmortem on five acclaimed Xbox Live Indie Titles, in which the games' creators describe some of their achievements, as well as the hardships they endured working on Microsoft's independent games platform.