Over the last few years, Xbox has invested heavily in global expansion, specifically around engaging creators. We established a global expansion team to find content from around the world such as Southeast Asia. From the start, we were floored by the degree of passion and energy we were welcomed with at IGDX in Indonesia. The event saw more than 70 game developers, 600 public attendees and 125 business partners--including Xbox, Valve, Unreal and others—resulting in more than 1,000 meetings and countless networking opportunities.

It's easy to imagine a bright future for game development in the region, and we look forward to what we will achieve together. In that spirit, we want to share more about our vision and our approach to supporting developers -- and why that matters to you.

Our primary goal at Xbox is player choice--to empower players to play the Xbox games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want. We do this through efforts across console, PC, community, and cloud, and much in part by delivering a vast library of diverse experiences that speak to gamers around the globe. A critical part of our work is to make sure we’re empowering world-class creators of all sizes with the resources and information they need to successfully deliver world-class experiences to players everywhere. 

We continue to grow beyond the Xbox console by investing in PC Game Pass and our storefront to make our games available to players across that immense gameplay ecosystem. We have partnerships with companies like Samsung to bring our experience to Smart TVs, and we support handheld and mobile devices through Cloud play and other initiatives. In short, we focus on growing our universe in a way that puts our philosophy of player choice at the center of the experience.

Our Focus on Indonesia

Southeast Asia is a critical area of focus for this global growth effort. As part of our ongoing effort to strengthen Xbox in the region, we recently launched PC Game Pass in five markets in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. With such an immense (and young) audience to serve, the market opportunities in the region are huge. But it isn’t just important as a market for players. Indonesia, in particular, is a hotbed for tech, with an amazing community of developers and entrepreneurs doing cutting-edge work, including games.

In Indonesia alone, Games like Mojiken Studio’s A Space for the Unbound, Stairway Games’ Coral Island, and GameChanger Studio’s My Lovely Empressprove that Indonesian games can draw a global audience while maintaining a unique identity and authenticity that speaks to its roots. We have a history of supporting games like these through a variety of different programs aimed to support small developers at varying stages of the development process. Let's go over some of the ways we can help your game thrive in the Xbox ecosystem.

ID@Xbox

The Independent Developers at Xbox program, also known as ID@Xbox, enables qualified game creators to unleash their creativity by self-publishing digital games on Xbox platforms, including, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Windows, and Cloud. This year, ID@Xbox celebrates 10 years of enabling game creators to share their vision with a global audience.

Since the program’s inception, we’ve partnered with over 5,000 studios across 100 countries, who have released more than 3,000 games through ID@Xbox. Three thousand more are currently in active development. To date, we've paid over $4 billion dollars to developers in the program.

You can sign up on ID@Xbox today to learn more about this program.

Developer Acceleration Program

As a part of ID@Xbox, we began the Developer Acceleration Program to empower developers from underrepresented communities and emerging markets, like Indonesia, by providing essential resources and information they need to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox in the areas detailed below.

Porting

Launching a game on multiple platforms can be challenging, and the investment required can frequently conflict with other priorities, such as further development, polish, or marketing. To help new developers get over this hurdle and deliver their content to as many players as possible, we offer non-recoupable funding. We also help developers with their go-to-market plans, making available Xbox-owned channels to support their key marketing beats. This includes Xbox social channels, Xbox Wire, or spots in live events.

Education

Program partners also gain access to resources and information through a variety of engagement events hosted by Xbox. This includes our ID@Xbox Green Room live virtual event series, where leaders from Team Xbox speak on a range of developer-requested topics, and host live Q&A sessions. New developers can also access key subject matter experts for sessions among a small group of peers.

Prototyping

The Prototype initiative exists to help you develop an early playable version of your game that communicates your vision and kickstarts production. Aimed at a select number of promising developers from underrepresented communities early in the process, we offer non-recoupable funding to help get their innovative ideas off the ground.

For a more complete breakdown of the program, check out this blog from ID@Xbox Program Manager Annette Gonzalez. 

Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass is a critical component to our partners' success on Xbox, and an immense value to gamers around the world. From Game Pass Ultimate, which offers the most comprehensive and feature-rich product (including Cloud Gaming), to PC Game Pass, which we recently launched in Southeast Asia, each offering is tailored to meet the specific needs and preferences of different types of gamers.

Game Pass subscribers are immensely engaged, playing 30% more genres than non-subscribers, with 40% playing more overall after joining. Titles from ID@Xbox developers on Game Pass reach 15 times the Daily Active User count in their first 90 days versus comparable titles that release on Xbox. With all the marketing support, boosts to engagement and discovery, and more, we believe that developers stand to reap amazing benefits from bringing their titles to Game Pass.

Resources

During gamescom, we announced new initiatives designed to make it easier for developers to learn how to pitch their games to us regardless of whether they have existing connections at Xbox. Our goal is to provide a fair opportunity for everyone interested in participating in initiatives like the Developer Acceleration Program or getting their games on Game Pass. We've also made investments in personnel in the region and have been actively engaging with hundreds of developers across Southeast Asia to help creators navigate through the Xbox ecosystem.

We are actively looking to Indonesia for great games and we're eager to invest in your success! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about these initiatives by contacting us at Xboxgxi@microsoft.com.