Oddworld dev slams Microsoft over Xbox One indie games policy

Microsoft’s insistence on indie devs requiring a publishing partner has angered indie dev Lorne Lanning.

Lanning, now at studio Oddworld Inhabitants and developing Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty!, has spoken to Microsoft about getting the game released on Xbox One. But despite being a self-publisher, Microsoft has refused to budge on its insistence that indie devs have an official publishing partner.

"There are those who are looking at next quarter’s profits, and maybe one of these big guys looks like that’s all they’re doing right now," Lanning told Eurogamer.

"For Xbox One they’ve granted us a license for New ‘n’ Tasty! but they still say you need a publisher. We don’t have a publisher so we’re not officially on the platform, even though we’re compatible, even though we’ll be ready to do it.

"Why do we need a publisher when we self-finance our games, we build our own IP, we manage our own IP and we’ve turned nearly two million units online as indie publishers sold – not free downloads? Why? What’s wrong with us?

"Who’s in touch with their audience? And who seems out of touch with their audience? All we know is we’ve tried to get our games on their platform and we can’t do it – and I even helped them release the box."

"If they’re looking at the world that way, you’ve got the obvious, enormous titles. They’re going to be the big revenue generators. If the company’s purely about profit, profit and profit, they’re looking at those, and then they’re looking at the little guys saying, ‘oh, they only make this much’. They’re not interested.”

The same company previously had trouble getting Oddworld: Stranger’s Wratch published on Xbox 360.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! is currently due for release on PS4, PS3, Vita, Wii U, PC and Mac.

UPDATE: Just Add Water CEO Stewart Gilray has contacted MCV to say that Lanning was "not angered or angry" and that he has never worked for Microsoft. Apologies to all.