Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Microsoft Beginning The Sunsetting Process For Xbox Live Indie Games
Xbox 360's Xbox Live Indie Game program will be gone soon in order to make way for the future of indie games on Xbox with ID@Xbox.
If you're unfamiliar, Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) was a platform that small-time developers could use to create and sell games on Xbox 360. It was a separate store from the Xbox Live Arcade and required significantly fewer hoops or red tape to publish a game. It lead to a lot of innovation, but also a lot of terrible copycat junk, like games that did nothing but make your controller vibrate. The engine on which these games were built, XNA, has been shut down for some time.
Creators who have their games on the store will still be able to sell them for now, but XBLIG will not accept new applications immediately and new games will not be allowed to be published after September 9, 2016. In September 2017, the store will be shut down entirely. According to post on the XBLIG message boards, Microsoft is working with game conservationists to make sure the content is preserved.
In 2014, we brought in local comedian Patrick Susmilch to share some of the games he and friends created for XBLIG. You can check out that video below.
[Source: Xbox Live Indie Games]
Our Take
XBLIG was a cool, relatively successful experiment. It lead the way for ID@Xbox, which seems capable of being a good middle ground between the stringent rules of Xbox Live Arcade, and the loose anything goes nature of XBLIG.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
