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Xbox Live Indie Games developers get new, less restrictive rules

Xbox Live Indie Games developers get new, less restrictive rules

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Microsoft has eased certain rules on Xbox Live Indie Games, granting developers a little more freedom in filesize, pricing, and the number of games they upload to the service.

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Microsoft has thrown a bone to Xbox Live Indie Games developers, increasing file size limits and loosening pricing restrictions. The maximum size is now 500MB, with developers free to set prices as low as 80 points for games that come in under 150MB. Previously games were limited to 150MB, with a minimum price of 240 points for games that hit 50MB. Developers can also now have a maximum of 20 titles on the store at a time, which doubles the previous limit. There don't seem to be any policy changes elsewhere, though — games are still subject to the same mandatory eight-minute trial versions, and unfortunately they still can't support leaderboards or achievements. They're also now sequestered away in their own little section of the new Dashboard, with barely any cross-promotion to speak of. It looks like the Indie Games program still has a while to go before it's treated as a platform for "real" games.