Yesterday we heard a bit of good news from Microsoft regarding indie developers. No longer were they going to be required to have a publisher, and indeed it also turned out that the Xbox One would be able to function as a dev kit in its own right. Considering the fact that dev kits usually go for a few thousand dollars, that $500 isn’t looking too bad.
But it looks like once again Sony has trumped Microsoft. According to Polygon’s sources, Sony has been giving out dev kits “like candy”, and lending those dev kits out for a year for free. The dev kits normally cost $2,500.
If what Polygon has heard is true, it’s also sounding like Microsoft’s “console dev kit” is twinged with a bit of dishonesty. While it is true that an indie developer can just purchase an Xbox One and register it to be used as a dev kit, it appears that Microsoft is also charging a fee of a few hundred dollars in order to enable the dev kit functionality. If that’s the case, then maybe Microsoft isn’t jumping on the indie bandwagon quite as much as we thought.