ID@Xbox has been helping bring amazing indie games to Xbox gamers for a decade now, and we’ve always strived to find new ways to highlight our favorites. We’ve sponsored our own dedicated showcases, we’ve featured rad games and creators in our E3 Briefings and Xbox Games Showcases, we have an awesome ID@Xbox community team, and we run monthly ID@Xbox theme sales.
To build on that legacy we’re excited to announce that we’ve found a new way to bring attention to some of the top indie games on Xbox through our new “Indie Selects” program, which launches today!
Indie Selects includes a curated, dedicated collection in the Xbox Store featuring indie games chosen by the ID@Xbox team – along with support on our social and community channels, and even right here on the Xbox Wire. In the Games section of the Xbox dash, we now have a permanent hub that showcases indie games we are passionate about. A new collection, featuring various channels and rotating themes, will go live every Wednesday.
The first channel, which we’re calling simply “Featured Indies,” includes recent indie games that the ID@Xbox team recommends. These are games we’ve played and liked, and we feel positive indie game fans will enjoy too. Note that we’re not including titles that are in Game Pass here even if they’re fantastic, simply because they’re featured regularly in the Game Pass hub.
Our second channel features a rotating selection of games that fit with a weekly theme. Looking for “Games to Play With Your Cat,” or “Games that Need a Laugh Track,” or “Games for Evil Villains”? You’ll find them here. We’re working on a bunch of different, fun ideas for themes right now to roll out over the coming months, and we’ll always take suggestions for new themes (or games to include in existing themes) from players through our social channels.
Other channels will include themes to highlight games from around the world, games from new creators and voices, our ID@Xbox theme sales, and select games available for pre-order. Finally, we now have a channel to feature upcoming indie games that can be added to a gamer’s wishlist – one of our indie devs’ most highly requested features.
And now the best part: once a month – the last week of the month – we will showcase our choices for six titles to be designated our ID@Xbox “Indie Selects” of the month. The whole ID@Xbox team will vote to select their favorites and these are the six games that we feel confident you’ll love. These are games that we want to put our stamp of approval on. Not only will the Indie Selects be featured in a special collection for that week, we’ll also release a monthly highlight reel on our social channels, and publish an Xbox Wire article to dig more deeply into which games were selected, and why we like them. In addition, the developers will receive a digital award featuring the Indie Selects logo that they can show off on their own channels (example above).
So why are we doing this? The short answer: we love games made by independent developers, and we want more people to discover them, buy them, and play them! We know there are a lot of games out there right now, and it can be difficult for unique titles to find an audience in crowded marketplaces. With a dedicated, permanent, curated collection in the Xbox Store, we’ll be able to bring more attention to games that we feel are particularly special – everything from current favorites, to older gems, to games from new creators from around the world.
Make sure to check out the collection, updated each Wednesday, with our Indie Selects being featured the last Wednesday of each month. You can find the collection on the Xbox dash by going to the store and then selecting Games from the menu on the left. From the whole ID team, thanks, as always, for supporting indie games!
