ID@Xbox Has Paid Out Over $5 Billion to Developers to Date - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 March 2025 / 3,140 Views
Microsoft has announced the ID@Xbox program has paid out developers over $5 billion since it launched in 2013. ID@Xbox has also seen the launch of over 1,000 games.
Read the Xbox Wire post below:
With GDC kicking off, our team is in San Francisco to celebrate with independent developers who continue to inspire us every day with their ambition, creativity, and passion. In the past year alone, ID@Xbox has seen over 1,000 games launch, including fan favorites like Balatro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Phasmophobia, bringing new experiences to console and PC communities.
Since ID@Xbox was launched in 2013, more than $5 billion have been paid to independent developers from all over the world. We’re also proud to offer developers the ability to use our platform to maximize the opportunity to reach an audience across multiple screens.
As announced last week, over 1,000 titles are now supporting Xbox Play Anywhere (XPA). When players purchase an XPA game, they can play on Xbox and Windows 10/11 PCs at no additional cost, bringing their saves, progress and achievements across devices. This means players can access their favorite games in more places which has led to these titles getting 20% more play time.
Today, Xbox offers more places than ever to play independent games: Xbox consoles, gaming PCs, and laptops, Windows handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally X or Legion Go, mobile phones, tablets, Samsung and Amazon FireSticks enabled by the Cloud – all of these are an Xbox, and all a potential home for your next favorite ID@Xbox title like Another Crab’s Treasure, Neva, and Animal Well.
In addition to offering more ways for people to play, the Developer Acceleration Program (DAP) is ensuring that we have content that speaks to everyone. The program fosters innovation for over 200 teams and creators from different countries around the world. We help developers by hosting information sessions with studios, providing port and prototype funding, and helping to reduce costs of bringing games to Xbox and building new ideas. The Xbox Excellence Award-winning Botany Manor and the recently released Mullet Madjackare recent DAP titles, both of which are available today with Xbox Game Pass.
Our mission with ID@Xbox has always been to empower teams to achieve more with Xbox. Over the years, our program has evolved to bring ID@Xbox games to players on more screens and in new ways through Game Pass and Stream Your Own Game. We’re focused on helping independent teams enable Xbox Play Anywhere to reach more players – allowing seamless play across console, PC, and cloud. No matter where people choose to play, we’re working with developers to make the most of the features unique to that device or screen. Looking ahead, our lineup is incredible with upcoming games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Descenders Next, and FBC: Firebreak to play across the whole Xbox universe… and of course Hollow Knight: Silksong too!
Today, we’re excited to host developers from 10 countries at our annual hands-on preview event for press and creators. Among them are 11 Xbox Play Anywhere and six Xbox Game Pass titles, including Winter Burrow from Pinecreek in Denmark, Detective Dotson from Masala Games in India, and Promise Mascot Academy from Kaizen Works in the UK.
Our team is thrilled to work with so many developers around the world to bring you unique and innovative experiences. Whether players buy, stream, or discover their next favorite game through Xbox Game Pass, now is the perfect time to join the Xbox community.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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As in support and funding? Not just in revenue the games made right?
According to an article from a few years back (found via the wiki) the games from the plan has generated 2.5bil revenue (2022) and an article from 2020 said it had helped 2000 games release. Odd how they said over 1000 if it's been more than double that. But support for the small devs is good.
Now, just gotta work out how I can get some of that so they can just pay me to make a game for the rest of my life (even at 2000 games, that's 2.5mil each from that 5bil, I can live for the rest of my life on that).
It means support and funding. The 1000 games was over the past year. It's a bit confusing because the first sentence in the article it mentions this says it has supported 1000 games, but this is clarified in the next paragraph. The total amount of games is probably somewhere between 3500 to 5k.
Oh, so that’s why Xbox gets so many timed Exclusives in the Indie and AA space
also easier to port
