Microsoft is now trying to figure out why many video game developers are prioritizing PlayStation consoles over their own Xbox counterparts.
The tech giant is now asking developers who might be choosing to skip Xbox consoles or those who are already making use of its developer tools. The situation comes as Microsoft is working to expand its Xbox Research team to include the community of game developers.
Developers Skipping on Xbox Consoles
It will seek feedback directly from developers regarding tools, support, and the overall issues that they experience on the Xbox platform. A new program has been opened to all members of game studios and not just technical employees.
It typically takes a lot of people to make and ship a particular game. These include marketing, user research, and many more.
Principal user researcher for Xbox, Deborah Henderson, Ph.D., said that they want to hear from everyone who works on games or helps support game studios, according to The Verge.
The program will work on gathering feedback about tools, performance, tuning, debugging utilities, and many other aspects of game development. It was also designed for input from game studios that are not shipping games on Xbox consoles.
Henderson said that if you're not on Xbox, they would love to know the reason behind that decision. She noted that if others are using products made by Microsoft's competitors, they would probably have a great perspective that they can learn from.
The latest move by Microsoft comes as it is no secret that some game developers have experienced struggles with the Xbox ecosystem recently.
One of the biggest examples is Baldur's Gate 3, which was delayed on Xbox due to the Series S console's inability to competently run the game in split-screen mode, Push Square said.
Finding Out the Reason Why
Other areas also experienced problems, including when the studio responsible for Enotria: The Last Song shared with the public the issues it faced trying to communicate with Xbox. That particular situation led to a lengthy delay for the game.
Xbox head Phil Spencer eventually reached out to the developers and this has resulted in the game now planning to arrive on Xbox in the future. However, this is just the latest example of games simply skipping on Microsoft's console.
Henderson noted that the latest efforts are akin to testing players who play games. They are the target audience and they want to hear fresh perspectives. This is because their expectations could differ from people who are deep in the community, according to Kotaku.
