Indie Dev: Xbox Game Pass Is The Biggest Financial Deal I've Ever Gotten

Solo developer Davionne Gooden has been talking about his surreal adventure RPG She Dreams Elsewhere in a talk at GDC Summer, highlighting the impact of his game being selected for Xbox Game Pass (via GamesIndustry.biz).

She Dreams Elsewhere will be coming to Xbox One and PC when it releases with Xbox Game Pass later in 2020, and Gooden revealed that the game was selected for the service following an ID@Xbox open house event last year, resulting in "the biggest financial deal I've ever gotten":

"After the ID@Xbox open house, I got a few little hints that I was going to get a Game Pass deal, but I didn't really know what that meant or what it involved.

"It was formally offered in October 2019, and it was pretty huge. It's still the biggest financial deal I've ever gotten, to the point where I had to ask them to repeat the numbers on the phone call."

While Gooden was unable to talk about specifics aside from "upfront support" as well as "a bonus system of sorts, too," he noted that the Game Pass deal has ultimately proven essential for the project:

"Until that point I'd been bootstrapping. The game was funded out of pocket, through videography gigs and other one-off hustles. I was also doing publisher negotiations at the time, too, and the Game Pass deal allowed me to fund the rest of the game, make it profitable, and still do everything I wanted to do with a publisher, without having to get a publisher."

Pleased to see indies getting financial support through Xbox Game Pass? Let us know your thoughts below.

[source gamesindustry.biz]