“I think people undervalue their own work” – ID@Xbox head Chris Charla on the tricky problem of indie game pricing

GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Chris Charla at GDC – who has headed the ID@Xbox indie program since its inception in 2013 – to talk about the current trends in the indie sector, the ongoing problem of discoverability, and the headscratching conundrum of how to price your game.

Xbox as a whole might be in a state of transition right now, with Asha Sharma being drafted in to replace former head of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer, but Charla remains upbeat, saying that over the last 12 months, people have spent “hundreds of millions of dollars on games from studios in the ID@Xbox program,” and that he feels good about the “sustainability of the Xbox store.”

He thinks that Game Pass has been “an incredible driver for success for developers” in terms of both the license fee they receive and the ability to put their game in front of millions of people, adding that Microsoft is “happy” with the service’s performance. “The fact that developers come back for a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth game in Game Pass to me is always extrinsic evidence that the system is working pretty well for them.”

But even though ID@Xbox has now been around for nearly 13 years, Charla says there’s still a drive to raise awareness of the program. “The last thing we ever want to do is rest on our laurels.”

“We’ve paid developers billions of dollars, but we internally spend a lot more time talking about, how can we do better? How are we making sure that developers in Jakarta know about ID@Xbox? … What about Marquette, Michigan? And so we see so much that we can do and so much that we can improve all the time.”

Pricing

When asked about the apparent shift towards lower price points for games on digital storefronts, he replies that “we’ve seen success at every price point you can imagine.”

“We’ve seen lots of games succeed all the way at $4.99, and we’ve seen games succeed all the way up to a classic AAA price point. And so it’s hard to pinpoint anything. When a $40 game or a $29 game has outsized, huge success, like Clair Obscur or Arc Raiders, it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, this is the new price point’. But I don’t know if I would anchor too much attention on it.

“When I talk to developers about price, I usually say two things. One is to encourage them to just see what other games and their comparables are priced at, and you probably don’t want to be too outside of that. And I also think that when you’re setting the price point, it’s a time you really need to set your imposter syndrome on the other side of the door. It’s so common amongst developers and all creative people to say, ‘I’ve made this thing. I’m so proud of it, I’ve put my life’s effort into it for three years. I was thinking about asking for 12… I’m gonna ask for five.’

“Really think about the price point outside of yourself, and maybe if you’re having an emotional problem with a price point, talk to other people… I think people undervalue their own work.”

Discoverability

Charla highlights how important the new releases page is for the visibility of indie games, but notes that in the last year or so, that page of the Xbox store has started to become crowded with bundle deals, where there might be “15 different types of bundles” for the same game. “And we made some policy changes to try and clear that out, and to make sure that new releases really focus on new releases. And the results have been great from fan response to some of those changes.”

Charla says they are making some backend changes to the store to “help developers maximize how they appear on the platform,” and they are focusing on placing games in front of the right audience for that particular title in order to improve discoverability.

“To me, I think it’s the best thing we can do. If you’re making a very niche game, like a model railroad simulation or something that is pretty specific, it would be great to know that you’re going to get it in front of the model railroad fans. So I think that’s the number one thing we can do in terms of discoverability.”

“Some days I feel like we’re just beyond even being able to talk about genre”

In terms of trends, meanwhile, he thinks the big shift at the moment is the “rise of games that almost defy genre,” citing titles that mix things like action adventure, RPG elements, strategy, and crafting elements. “Some days I feel like we’re just beyond even being able to talk about genre,” he says.

ID@Xbox is showcasing 13 games at GDC, some of which came through the ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program, which began in 2023 to support underrepresented creators. “It’s just a great way to ensure that games from all around the world are seen by players on Xbox,” says Charla.

“There have been some super cool games that have come through it,” he says, giving I Am Your Beast from Strange Scaffold as an example. “Obviously talent is universal, and so we just want to make sure we’re highlighting these games from all over the world to make sure that players get to play them. And then the fact that some blow up is not surprising at all.”

He says they have a big focus on presenting players with diversity. “We want to make sure players have great choice. And so you look at something like our Indie Selects program where we feature a bunch of games every week, and that program will have games … from teams that are a hundred plus and games from teams that are under two. It’s not prescriptive, it’s more just a reflection of the fact that great games can come in all sorts of shapes, all sorts of scales, all sorts of sizes.”

He highlights Delphinium from developer Heidi Borge, which forms part of the ID@Xbox GDC showcase. “It’s this beautiful, charming game from a solo dev – I think she started working on it in high school. And it totally stands next to Invincible VS, which is from a team of really experienced fighting game folks. It doesn’t take anything away from Invincible, but having them both together to me is like, that’s what the beauty of the independent game movement is. Those can be in the same room, they can have a burrito together at lunch, and play each other’s games, and enjoy both.”

From the way he lights up when talking about these games, it’s clear that even after 13 years on the ID@Xbox beat, Charla’s enthusiasm for indie games remains undimmed. “I definitely have the best job,” he smiles.