The Xbox One indie game parity clause doesn’t appear to be quite so strict as it was once believed to be, according to new comments made by ID@Xbox’s director Chris Charla.
It had been reported that the ID@Xbox parity clause was preventing some indie games from launching on Xbox One after releasing on other platforms, but Charla says this isn’t the case. “What we’ve always said is that developers should just come talk to us,” Charla told GameSpot.
“If it’s a situation where a developer needs to ship serially on console because they don’t have the resources to simultaneously ship, we totally get that. It’s no problem.” The situation changes if a game ships first on a rival platform by choice. In this instance Microsoft will require the title to be updated to offer something new not available on other platforms.
“If it’s a case where a game is coming out significantly later on Xbox One than another console, in that case we just ask them to add something to the game that makes it fresh for Xbox players,” Charla added.