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Microsoft wants to change the way it develops games to allow fans to provide their feedback much earlier in the development process, and let their input shape the type of games it makes in the future.
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Speaking in the latest issue of Game Informer, Microsoft Studios vice president Kudo Tsunoda explained that “one of the interesting things that we can be doing going forward is letting people like you be a good sounding board and to participate in the way that the games are being built at a much earlier stage. I think that’s one of the big shifts that you’ll start seeing in our products.”
The process will be slightly different to initiatives like Early Access, however, which allows early adopters to play a pre-release game during development and help provide feedback on how to update it.
“There is some difference between [this] and Early Access, where people get to play the games and then, based on the way they play, updating the product to make it better for people playing in the future,” Tsunoda continued. “That’s certainly one part of things. [There’s] a way of engaging the community that is allowing them to give feedback on existing things that you’re building and give input on future things you should be building – anywhere from what types of games you’re building to features you’d like to see.
“[It’s about] getting the running dialogue between the development teams and the game fans going in a stronger way – really bringing fans in and making them feel like they are a core part of the development process. People are so passionate and have so many great ideas about the products.”
Having spearheaded work on Kinect and HoloLens earlier in his career, Tsunoda was promoted to vice president of Microsoft Studios last month where he’ll oversee various studios across the US and Europe, including Rare and Lionhead.
Details on how Microsoft intends to gather feedback from fans earlier, however, have not been revealed.
Source: Game Informer | May 2015
