Microsoft Says Indies Crucial to The Future of Gaming

Microsoft's Xbox maker, Chris Charla says the independent development scene is "crucial" to the future of gaming.

Charla said that innovation is happening for projects of all sizes, but sees the most rapid growth of new ideas in the indie space.

"I think the indie development scene will be crucial to the future of games. I see innovation all over, from triple-A to indie games, but I see it happening so quickly in the independent developer scene that it's super excited [sic] to me," Charla said. "We really see our responsibility as a platform holder that players get to see that."

He didn`t name names regarding the most innovative projects he has seen so far, but said that developers are finding interesting ways to use the Kinetic.

"There's a tech demo we have, which is a first-person shooter, and when the player touches the side of their head, X-ray vision comes on," Charla said. "It feels magical--just really cool when it happens. I think we're going to see more games which use Kinect for these neat ideas and more subtle features, rather than huge body movements to control games entirely."

In the interview, Charla dodged the question about the controversial launch-day party clause, which requires indie studios to release their games on Xbox One at the same time as PS4.

"I can't comment on our publishing policies," Charla said. "But I can say we're taking feedback from developers, and we're always taking feedback, and we want to make ID@Xbox as great a platform as it possibly can."