Has Microsoft decided to stop supporting UWP on Xbox?
Only a few days after I discovered great (czech) video review of my game NAZDAR! The Game, I noticed that Microsoft has stopped supporting the UWP version of my game on Xbox. Long time coming, UWP has been marked deprecated, but still, it hurts me. There are not many czech games available on Xbox and having my own, hand crafted game on this big console had been a really good feeling.
The only way to publish a game on the Xbox (One, Series S, and Series X) consoles was through the Creators Program on the UWP platform.
Now, indie developers have two options for self-publishing a game on Xbox. They can either use the Creators Program (which is probably now deprecated) or a program called ID@Xbox. The latter option is unfortunately complicated. You have to:
- Be a company
- Have an approved concept
- Sign the NDA
- Have Xbox GDK access
- Pass Xbox certification
- and maybe other things?
With the Creators Program, however, you can publish to Xbox the same way you would to the Windows Store. Just supply a UWP package of the game, which is easy with MonoGame templates.
So Nazdar! is now officialy deprecated on Xbox. I will not remove the game from the store, but I will not update it anymore. The game is still available on Windows, Android, and Linux.
