Turn Your Xbox One Into a dev kit With Latest Update

Creating games can be an expensive process. With AAA titles working on budgets that could make even Hollywood cry, it can be a costly process to get a game onto shelves, be them digital or physical. That's why Microsoft have been very vocal in their support for indie developers since the first announcements about the Xbox One. They've been keen to state that they want to do all they can to make their current-gen console a natural home for indie titles as much as the larger studios. 

With the creation of the ID@Xbox programme, they came some way to making things easier for smaller developers by providing dev kits to subscribers. But what about developers too small to qualify for the program? Or those in countries where it wasn't available? Well, thanks to a new update, any Xbox One console can now be converted into a full blown dev kit, giving even the smallest developers access and crucially, the ability to self-publish.

Director of ID@Xbox, Chris Charla gave a proud statement of the launch:

"Now the Xbox isn't just for playing, but also for creating awesome content... We're excited to open the Xbox One to everyone so anyone can get started developing." He went on to point out that the software is presently a preview so users should approach with caution. "It's also a preview, and we want to be able to test things still in the preview."

At present, a console that has had Dev Mode activated may experience some issues with running retail games and won't be able to access the full 8GB of RAM in the console, instead being limited to 448MB. The full version will be available in the summer and at that point the RAM limitation will be lifted. 

The scheme is open to anyone running Windows 10 and Visual Studio 2015 with 30GB of free console space. It's part of the free Windows Insider program so if you're not a member, you'll need to join up. Full instructions are presently available on the Windows dev centre.

 With titles like Rocket League, Castle Crashers, Binding of Isaac and Shovel Knight all getting a huge amount of respect from the gaming community, there's arguably never been a better time to be an indie developer; especially with a number of free engines now available including CryEngine, Unity and Lumberyard. This could prove to be a very shrewd move from Microsoft as they look to bridge the sales gap between them and Sony this generation. If they can tempt high quality indie devs to build some more exclusives for them, it could be just the push they need to catch up with the Japanese giant.