Over the past few years, we've seen occasional grumbles amongst the Xbox community when it comes to certain games - especially with new bundles of older titles, which can sometimes hog the "New Releases" section on Xbox.
This was actually addressed last year when developers were accused of manipulating the Microsoft Store, and Team Xbox clearly wanted to do more work in this area, hence why they've announced policy changes as part of GDC 2026.
The changes are being made to treat games more "fairly" and ensure "folks can’t try to crowd out other games" through tactics like publishing "the same bundle five times across New Releases".
"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!"
A lot of this is targeted at indie games that need the exposure made available to them through the "New Releases" section on Xbox. We recently covered a story about an indie publisher that spent $0 on marketing and praised this "New Releases" section specifically as being a reason why they were still able sell plenty of copies.
Here's what they said at the time:
"The "New Releases" tab on Steam is a waterfall; games disappear in seconds. On consoles, specifically Xbox and PlayStation, the flow of content is more curated. Even a small game gets its moment in the spotlight. Players browsing the "New Games" section actually saw our cover art. You don't need to fight an algorithm; you just need to be there."