Residual will not be landing on Xbox consoles for another few months but which gives publisher Apogee Entertainment plenty of time to chalk out an Xbox Game Pass release with Microsoft.
Speaking with SegmentNext in a recent interview, developer Orangepixel stated that “an audience” is an important benefit for indie developers to take advantage of on current-generation consoles.
“If you can get onto new hardware as one of the first games, you will make a killing. Over time that advantage will obviously fade as more games hit that market, but the audience is still the main thing on offer.”
The awaiting audience is perhaps the reason why Apogee Entertainment has been “considering” an Xbox Game Pass release for Residual on Xbox consoles. The subscription-based service gives access to a large vault of existing and new games at a fairly cheap fees. Orangepixel hence understands that Xbox Game Pass “is now gaining traction on multiple platforms and also with gamers,” but at the same time is a bit uncertain of its sustainability for indie developers.
“I’m not sure it’s a good thing for sustainable businesses and many smaller game developers, but big shifts in the industry, like subscription models, usually open up new opportunities for games and developers. We’ll have to see in the next few years if the model works.”
Within the same vein of benefits provided by current-generation consoles, the developer pointed out that while indie developers have no issues with the new and improved hardware specifications, both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles could do well with “improved discoverability on the front-ends and marketplaces” which would be “welcomed” by all indie developers.
Residual will grace both previous- and current-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles somewhere in early 2022. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (Series S included) releases “most likely” being backwards compatible versions, but with the intention of pushing native versions down the road.
Residual was released for PC and Nintendo Switch last week ahead of PlayStation and Xbox consoles as a brand new survival platformer which marks the first intellectual property of Apogee Entertainment in well over two decades.
