We first started talking to game developers about ID@Xbox at GDC way back in 2013, and we love using the show as a great way to connect with them and take stock of the year. It’s been an excellent show this week, from Jason Ronald offering the first public information on Project Helix to hundreds of meetings with game developers to showcasing some fantastic games at our ID@Xbox Xbox Play Anywhere showcase.

Independent developers routinely deliver incredibly innovative games, and we’re stoked to see that innovation rewarded. Last year continued their record of success, with games in the ID@Xbox program generating hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in sales on the Xbox Store. It’s always cool to see the huge hits that change gaming forever coming from the independent space — and certainly we had our share of those games ship with Xbox last year — but it’s also important to acknowledge that for independent developers there are many different measures of success. And it was gratifying to see that titles at many metrics continued to have sales that were as strong as ever.

Obviously, the core reason for these sales are the fantastic devs who make the games, and our amazing audience of enthusiastic Xbox fans who buy and play them, but we’re also proud of programs and policies we’ve set specifically at the platform level to enable you to discover cool new games.

Continuing to be a place where Xbox players find great games is crucial to us. Some of the details of that can be, um…. dry, so you may want to skip ahead, but we’ve made some policy changes to improve our algorithmic promotions, such as New Releases. These changes ensure you won’t see the same bundle five times across New Releases, and we’re continuing to do work here: you will see more changes soon. Our developer code of conduct is clear: folks can’t try to crowd out other games, and it’s important to us that we host a store where every game is treated fairly!

Our team continues to work hard to highlight crucial new games with editorial placements on the Xbox Experience on PC and Xbox Store on console, as well as with Indie Selects. This program, which focuses on surfacing great games from developers all over the world, and especially those which are not part of Game Pass, has been a huge needle mover for games and players. Of course, Game Pass is also a great way for independent developers to bring their games to a massive audience, and we’re stoked to see just how many games continue to come to Game Pass via the ID@Xbox program.

We’re really gratified that Xbox remains a standout home for sustainable game development and sales for creators. Not every game is a hit, but the potential for success on Xbox is tremendous, and a crucial part of thousands of developers’ and players’ journeys.

As always, when we take stock, we see so many changes and improvements we can make for players and developers. This past week at GDC, in addition to showcasing some great games and meeting tons of devs, we’ve had our crew from across Team Xbox sharing some of our plans for the future of play as part of the GDC Festival of Gaming. It’s been awesome to see the reaction of developers, and we can’t wait to share more soon.