Microsoft announces huge changes to certification process, Indie Devs can now self-publish and all retail Xbox Ones can be used as dev kits

Microsoft will not only allow indie developers to self-publish on Xbox One, but it has confirmed that every Xbox One console can be used for development.

Here's the official statement from Xbox corporate VP, Marc Whitten:

"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.

As the statement also confirmed, retail Xbox One consoles will be capable of functioning as dev kits - seemingly much like Apple's iOS devices - eliminating the need for small indies to fork out for often prohibitively expensive developer-specific units.

Whitten has, however, told Kotaku that dev kit functionality will not be available at launch, but will be added 'at a later date'.

This signals yet another major change to Xbox policy, with indie developers having previously been required to get a publishing partner before being considered for publishing via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Microsoft has already demonstrated a willingness to make major sweeping changes to its Xbox One policies, after having shockingly ditched the Xbox One DRM system that stood at the core of the new console's online-focused E3 sales pitch.

Previous concerns that the Xbox One marketplace would not feature distinct Xbox Live Arcade and Indie channels, and will instead group all games into one category, led former Xbox boss Don Mattrick to pledge indie support on Xbox One.

Dispelling all concerns of the accessibility and exposure of indie game on Xbox One, Whitten promises they will live on the Xbox Live Marketplace with the major titles. My goal is for it to just show up in the marketplace," he told Kotaku.

"Of course there will be different pivots inside of that. There will be everything from what are we curating, kind of like spotlight content, to the normal discoverability stuff like recommendations, what's trending, what's got a lot of engagement on the platform," he explained.

"And you'd be able to find that content in any of those. There wouldn't be any difference based on what type of game it was. Then of course there will be other type of pivots where you can go and look at whether its a genre of game or any other. But you shouldn't think of it as there's an indie area and a non-indie area."

Microsoft also confirmed that it's certification process has been shortened to just 14 days putting it right in line with iOS.

Microsoft will not only allow indie developers to self-publish on Xbox One, but it has confirmed that every Xbox One console can be used for development.

Like you could with the 360.

This is deffo good news - but they need to release more details (and do sony). 
Some folks are skeptical.

 http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/xbox-one-indie-self-publishing/

Deffo a step in the right direction tho.

I can't remember off my head what he said but I know that Brian Provinciano, the guy behind Retro City Rampage was still very skeptical off this. It looks like a good move but he suggested there would still be a lot of strings attached and that dealing with MS on getting RCR out on XBLA put him off from dealing with them again.

I daresay both Sony and MS will have plenty of hoops that will need to be jumped for getting games self published but while through Sony, devs can focus fully on games for console for XB1 they may need to provide games that fit across MS's range from console to pc to smartphone and that may bring a different set of challenges and (potentially) limitations.

Still, given how MS seemed to completely throw the Indie section to the side with the metro dashboard, this does look a step in the right direction.

Wonderful. I was concerned that I wouldn't get to watch softcore porn that's thinly veiled as a game on the next gen consoles.