How to publish your indie game on Xbox after Steam

Of 5,860 paid indie games launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022, 980 (17%) are on Xbox consoles today. Two thirds of them got there after their Steam launch, a median 18 months later.

If your game is already out on Steam and you wonder whether Xbox is still open to you, it is. Here is how Microsoft’s process works for a released game, what it costs, and what happened to the games that went before you.

We make games ourselves, and a console version is the job that sits on the list for years because nobody says how it really goes. So we read Microsoft’s documentation, then counted.

Xbox publishing runs through ID@Xbox, and applying is free

Microsoft’s developer documentation lays the path out in four steps, and says in plain words: “There are no fees to register as an XBOX partner or to apply to ID@XBOX.”

1. Register as an Xbox partner and sign the NDA. Microsoft lists three hard requirements: you are 18 or older, you sign the NDA, and you are in a country Microsoft can do business with.
2. Enroll in Partner Center, the portal where you later create the store page and upload builds.
3. Join ID@Xbox by submitting a game concept. If it is approved you sign two agreements: a Title Licensing Agreement for the game, and a license for the development kit.
4. Finish setup. You register as a Microsoft supplier so you can be paid, and you get access to the store where dev kits are ordered.

You don’t need a studio. Microsoft’s FAQ says “you can get started and ship games as a solo developer.”

The concept form expects games like yours. It asks for the platforms your game “is already released on” and for “any actual release dates if your game is already available on other platforms.” A game that is out on Steam is an ordinary answer, and your Steam page and trailer are your evidence.

Microsoft says a concept decision typically takes 10 to 15 business days, and that a concept can be rejected.

Then comes the real work. You build with Microsoft’s Game Development Kit, add Xbox services such as achievements, and submit for certification, where Microsoft tests the build against its Xbox Requirements. Only a certified build can go on sale.

Free to apply is not free to ship. Three costs sit outside the documentation.

A dev kit. You test on Xbox development hardware, ordered through Microsoft’s developer store. Microsoft doesn’t publish the price. The Verge reported in October 2025 that the kit was moving from $1,500 to $2,000, citing an announcement to developers.

Your engine. Unity’s support page says Microsoft does not offer free Unity tools for Xbox, so you need a Unity Pro or Enterprise seat. For Godot and GameMaker, Microsoft’s docs say there is no first-party Xbox plug-in and “you’ll integrate the GDK yourself.”

The share. The documentation points you to your licensing agreement for payment terms and prints no percentage. You see the terms after concept approval.

The largest cost is time: controller support, certification fixes, and a second set of patches for as long as the game lives.

One in six of the indie games we tracked is on Xbox

We took every paid indie game that launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022 and drew at least 10 Steam-purchase reviews in its first year. On October 12, 2026, we read Xbox’s US store listing and matched titles and credits.

980 of the 5,860 (17%) are sold for an Xbox console. A bigger Steam audience made it likelier. Among games with 10 to 99 first-year reviews, 11% are on Xbox. Among games with 1,000 or more, 50%.

1. 10 to 99 reviews (4,209 games)11.0%
2. 100 to 299 (776)21.3%
3. 300 to 999 (474)31.9%
4. 1,000 or more (401)50.4%

Paid indie games launched on Steam 2020 to 2022 with 10+ Steam-purchase reviews in year one. Share with a matching game sold for Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S in the US Xbox store, read October 12, 2026.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam and Xbox store data

Review score barely mattered. Among games with 100 or more first-year reviews, 33% of those at 80% positive or better are on Xbox, against 29% of the rest.

A publisher mattered more. Games with a publisher on Steam are on Xbox 27% of the time, self-published games 13%, and the gap holds in every size band.

Xbox is also rarely a game’s only console. 84% of the games on Xbox are on Switch too, and only 157 games, under 3% of the 5,860, are on Xbox and not on Switch.

When we measured how indie games get to Switch, 23% had made it there. Xbox is the smaller door.

Xbox versions arrive late, and half the late ones change publisher

Only a third of the Xbox versions came out in the same month as the Steam launch or earlier. 653 came after, a median 18 months after. For Switch that median was 13 months.

1. Same month or earlier (322)33.0%
2. 1 to 6 months later (94)9.6%
3. 7 to 12 months later (132)13.5%
4. 13 to 24 months later (230)23.6%
5. 25 months or more (197)20.2%

Share of the 975 games on Xbox whose store listing carries a release date. Measured from the Steam launch month (the Early Access start for games that sold in Early Access first) to the earliest Xbox release. Read October 12, 2026.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam and Xbox store data

427 games, 44% of the Xbox versions, arrived more than a year after Steam, and 58 more than four years after. If your game came out in 2022 and you are only now thinking about Xbox, you are in ordinary company.

When a game launched on Xbox alongside Steam, the Xbox publisher was a company missing from the Steam credits 19% of the time. When the Xbox version came later, it was 47%: 309 of 653 games.

For games that were self-published on Steam, it was 224 of 382, or 59%. Most self-published developers who reached Xbox after launch did not go through ID@Xbox alone. Someone who already held the agreements and the dev kits carried the game through.

Microsoft’s process allows for it. The ID@Xbox application asks whether you are acting as a developer, a publisher or both, and the concept form names the game’s developer and its publisher separately.

The 309 games went through 96 different Xbox publishers. The busiest were Ratalaika Games (34), eastasiasoft (31), QUByte Interactive (23), Ultimate Games (20), Sometimes You (14) and ChiliDog Interactive (12). Most of the rest handled one or two games from our list.

The other half matters too. 158 self-published developers put their own name on the Xbox store after launch. The door is open to you directly, if you have the time.

A late Xbox version reaches a smaller audience

The Xbox store shows how many star ratings a game has. We set that beside each game’s Steam reviews. The median game on Xbox has 23 ratings there, about 10 for every 100 Steam reviews.

Timing changes that sharply, at every size.

1. 10 to 99 first-year reviews, same month (136 games)32.8
2. 10 to 99, over a year later (188)12.2
3. 100 to 999, same month (112)16.0
4. 100 to 999, over a year later (144)3.5
5. 1,000 or more, same month (70)10.5
6. 1,000 or more, over a year later (84)1.6

Median across games with a rating count. The Xbox store's rating count for the game divided by its Steam-purchase reviews through August 2026, times 100. A rating is not a sale, and the two stores' players may not rate at the same pace. Read October 12, 2026.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam and Xbox store data

A game with 1,000 or more first-year Steam reviews that launched on Xbox the same month has a median 901 Xbox ratings. One that arrived over a year later has about 125. Launch attention does not wait for a second platform.

A rating is not a sale, so read this as scale. Plan a late Xbox version as a modest addition to what Steam already earns, and budget the work to match.

When Xbox is the wrong move

You are counting on Game Pass. After concept approval you can pitch for “strategic funding opportunities, including XBOX Game Pass.” On the day we read the store, 15 of the 5,860 games were in Game Pass. 13 had 1,000 or more first-year Steam reviews, and five are published by Electronic Arts or Microsoft itself.

That is one day’s catalogue, not every game that has rotated through. Pitch if your game fits, and plan as if the answer is no.

The window is closing. Of games not on Xbox a year after their Steam launch, 8.0% got there later. After two years, 3.9%. After three, 2.0%.

You need the money soon. Onboarding, a dev kit, the port and certification all come before the first Xbox sale, and a late arrival reaches a small audience.

The game is built around mouse and keyboard. Then the port is a redesign. Test controller play on a Steam Deck first. The fixes that earn Steam Deck Verified are the ones a console needs.

Steam still has room. A major update and a visibility round reach more people than a late console release, for less work.

What to do next

1. Register as an Xbox partner and read the agreements. It costs nothing and it is the only way to see real terms.
2. Make the game play fully on a controller, with readable text on a television.
3. Check your engine’s route to Xbox before you promise anyone a date.
4. Decide who carries it. Doing it yourself keeps the whole share and takes months. A console publisher takes a cut and already has the kits and the certification experience.
5. If you talk to a publisher, look up their Xbox releases. The store credits and rating counts are public.
6. Plan Switch and Xbox together. Most games that did one did both, and 58% of those released on both in the same month.

If you would rather hand consoles to someone else, that is part of what a publisher does after launch. How that works for a game that is already out is in our post on finding a publisher for a released game.

How we measured it

• Games. Every paid indie game (Steam’s Indie tag) that launched on Steam from January 2020 to December 2022 with at least 10 Steam-purchase reviews in its first 12 months: 5,860 games, the same population as our Switch, GOG and Steam Deck studies. A game that sold in Early Access first is dated from its first review month.
• Xbox records. The US “Browse all games” listing on xbox.com, read in full on October 12, 2026: 17,004 products with credits, release date, devices and rating count. We also searched Microsoft’s store catalogue for each Steam name, which added 175 products the listing lacked.
• Matching. A product counts when it is sold for Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S and its title matches the Steam title, ignoring punctuation and edition words, with a developer or publisher credit shared across the two stores. An exact title of six or more characters also counts without a shared credit, unless it came out on Xbox six months or more before the Steam game. Numbered sequels don’t count. 96% of matches share a credit. We read all 69 matches that rested on a partial title and removed 16 that were spin-offs or sequels.
• Timing. Months from the Steam launch month to the earliest matched Xbox release. Five games whose listings carry no release date are counted as on Xbox and left out of the timing figures.
• New publisher. The publisher on the earliest Xbox listing matches none of the game’s Steam developer or publisher credits. Self-published on Steam means every Steam publisher credit names the developer.
• Game Pass. The store marks which products a Game Pass plan includes, read the same day.
• Checks. We read 30 random matches with a shared credit and all 37 without one. The 30 were all the same game. Of the 37, two were different games with similar titles and four were uncertain, under 1% of all matches.
• Limits. US store only. Games removed from the Xbox store, renamed ports and bundles are missed, so the 17% is a floor. A different publisher credit can be the developer’s own label under another name. Rating counts are not sales, and we can’t see Xbox revenue, so nothing here says a port paid off. The Switch comparison uses our September 29 reading.