While Microsoft may not have the biggest line up of Indie developers at their door the Xbox One is undoubtedly one of the biggest consoles for next generation developers which can hold a lot of profit for small developers looking to get their dream game noticed and spread globally with a chance of profit , but how much does it really cost to produce an Indie game on the Xbox One?
Microsoft has made their development process cheaper on the Xbox One by giving away their development kit to members of it’s “ID@Xbox scheme” there is also no extra cost for patching games after it’s initial release, of course the development process isn’t entirely free which is why “Sixty Second Shooter Prime” Developer Jamie Fristrom has broken down the the cost of developing and publishing a game on the Xbox One. Altogether the price totaled to around $5143 or just over £3000 following this breakdown guide:
- Maintaining the Sixty Second Shooter URL – $19
- Sending the second Dev kit to [fellow developer] Brett Douville – $63
- Hardware (USB and video cables and the like) – $72
- Video capture device (for making trailer) – $181
- Localization (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) – $729
- Errors & Omissions Insurance – $2037
- Foreign ratings boards (PEGI, USK) – $2042
As you can see the majority of the final cost came down to the last two payments which are required by Microsoft, The Insurance covers and includes intellectual property and copyright protection, the ratings board certification is required for a European launch, the developers can of course choose where they want their game to be released which could overall reduce the total cost which is what Sixty Second Shooter Developer, Fristrom had to do when he skipped an Australian and New Zealand release as it would have cost an extra $2000
Overall it is clear that developing and producing a game for the Xbox One is not cheap and costs a good amount of money if you where to release your game world wide, saying that however even in the first sales report Fristrom managed to make back the cost of their development and publishing and hold a profit which is w quite a rarity among Indie Developers.
