A bit of a strange situation developing today as small indie developer Blingame has cancelled their Xbox port of their game Haak. The reason? They say it is due to to a buggy Microsoft Partner Center that has made it impossible to get registered and certified on Xbox.
Haak released awhile in 2022 on PC and recently released on the iitchio marketplace. The team is working on a PlayStation 5 port and had been working on an Xbox port as well but that is apparently no longer happening. Responding to X user JaberAltarrah who asked how the Xbox version is going the official Haak account posted the following message via an image.
According to the developer they have spent 14 months trying to "apply for game publication" and "complete Microsoft Partner identity registration". Having reached out to ID@Xbox and exhausted all other resources they determined that it was a Microsoft issue more so than an Xbox issue and nothing could be done.
I have spoke to a handful of indie developers today since the Haak announcement to see if anyone has had similar issues. Every single one of them said they did encounter bugs and issues with the back end of the Microsoft Partner Center. One dev described it as "a maze and unfriendly". However all the developers said they received good and quick support from Xbox who were quick to guide them through and fix the problem.
One also said this is nothing new. They experienced these similar issues many years ago, though again, after reaching out to the proper channels it was rectified.
And finally I asked, is this an Xbox problem or an industry problem? The general response I got was that all console platforms are "not exactly user friendly" when it comes to the certification issue.
That isn't to say Blingame's concerns aren't valid or trying to dismiss their claims, simply that other developers have similar issues but get them resolved. Indie games get approved through the system daily so it is a bit odd that this particular one hit such a snag. But the fact that devs have this problem to begin with should certainly be addressed. Any difficulty getting a game on Xbox is one more reason to exclude the platform. Xbox/Microsoft should want the most user friendly option available.
Regardless, for Xbox fans hoping to see Haak on their platform, it appears those dreams are dashed at the moment, which is a shame.
