Lanning: Self-publishing on Xbox One Is Not A Breeze

In a massive interview spanning three pages on Venturebeat, Lorne Lanning talked about the future of the Oddworld franchise and many other things, including the self-publishing process on various platforms. He’s been vocal about the flaws of Microsoft‘s policy in the past and apparently, he still thinks that it’s lagging behind compared to Steam and PlayStation:

We’re self-publishing. With Sony that’s a breeze. With Steam it’s a breeze. With Microsoft it’s not a breeze. With Nintendo, something’s going to happen there shortly.

Earlier in the interview he said that they’re still in talks though, and commended the Microsoft team, especially Chris Charla, for their strides since the infamous E3 2013 - even though the parity issue is still there.

We’re still discussing with Xbox. We’d like to be on Xbox. They’re trying to encourage us to be on Xbox.

I really want to see Chris Charla succeed. They’ve done a good job of navigating out of E3 in ways they desperately needed to, or else they’d be in real trouble. But the parity issue is still there. What we want to know is simple. If we invest in our platform, are we releasing, or will we be denied?

The parity clause is a problem for indies. It’s something you might want to play with triple-A guys, but if you say, “If you’re not simultaneous on our system, you can’t release,” well, okay? You’re more concerned about your competition with Sony than you are about delivering great games at good prices to your customers. Not a great model. Pretty vulnerable. Hopefully it doesn’t continue that way and we’re able to get past it. I think we will. I just want to be certain.

In the meantime, I’m being nice. I want Charla to succeed. I think he’s a good guy for the role.

Indeed, the parity clause still seems like a sword of Damocles hanging over indie developers. Do you think Microsoft should just drop it? Voice your opinion in the comments section!

Also, look forward to an interview about Oddworld New N’Tasty pretty soon.