Retro City Rampage dev sheds light on Microsoft's restricted approach to indies

Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano has discussed the restrictive nature of Microsoft's Xbox Live indie publishing policy. It has come under fire recently for being expensive, demanding that indies sign up with a publisher, and asking that studios sign an exclusivity deal.

Speaking with Penny Arcade Report, Provinciano stressed that Microsoft's reluctance to allow indies to self-publish is causing teams to look elsewhere.

He stated, "Like any publisher, Microsoft Studios takes more from you than a simple platform revshare. In addition to their publisher cut, Microsoft Studios also requires at minimum a timed exclusivity, so you won't be able to release on other platforms day one.

"They feel that if they're publishing your game, they want to be the end-all-be-all publisher. They want to publish all platforms, even those which you could self-publish on. Long story short, this means that on all other platforms, you're needlessly giving a chunk of your revshare to a publisher for nothing more than the ability to get your game onto Xbox and the freedom to release on the other platforms, which you can already self-publish on, at the same time."

Provinciano's statement comes after Oddworld co-creator Lorne Lanning slammed Microsoft's need for indies to have publishers as insulting and nonsensical. You can read up on what he had to say here.

What do you think of this policy? Is it needless? Let us know below.

Thanks NeoGAF.