Xbox lead thinks "we have been in a golden age for indies" since 2008, and it's "a fantastic time to be a developer" if you ignore all the smoke: "The present is awesome"

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Xbox lead thinks "we have been in a golden age for indies" since 2008, and it's "a fantastic time to be a developer" if you ignore all the smoke: "The present is awesome" News By Ashley Bardhan published 11 March 2026

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Awesome. No, really, perfect. Seriously… it's great. Everything about the video game industry right now is great, ID@Xbox director Chris Charla tells GamesRadar+ at the Game Developer Conference 2026, and especially when it comes to indie games.

That latter point is inarguable – indie games seem to keep outperforming the most megalithic budget, with titles like Mewgenics, which acted as the highest-rated game of 2026 at one serendipitous point, or Slay the Spire 2, which destroyed its release date competition on Steam the way a mouse destroys a block of Swiss cheese. The rest of the games industry doesn't seem quite as lucky.

Xbox itself is turbulent, having had thousands of layoffs in 2025 ahead of the more recent leadership changes at Microsoft that saw Xbox lead Phil Spencer replaced with new CEO Asha Sharma. But Charla assures us "the future is going to be awesome," and, actually, "the present is awesome, too."

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• From Dispatch to Spilled and Peak, covering indie games every week in 2025 has been packed full of welcome surprise

He explains, "We're in a golden age for indies, and we've been in a golden age for indies for almost 20 years. That summer of arcade in 2008 with Castle Crashers and Limbo – that ushered in a golden age that just hasn't stopped. And the creativity you see downstairs from developers from all over the world, from all different places in their development journey – first game, fifth game – is, like, it's unbelievable."

"We're just living through one of the best times there is to be a player, and, you know, a fantastic time to be a developer," Charla says. "And whatever we can do as Xbox to help that and to help developers do that, and to keep this golden age going, we're gonna do."

Early Xbox Project Helix specs promise "next-generation" AI upscaling and an "order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance" as Microsoft tries to win the next-gen console war before it even starts.

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS Microsoft Xbox Game Studios CATEGORIES Xbox One Xbox Series X Ashley BardhanSocial Links NavigationSenior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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Logout Read more 2025 proved Xbox is trading exclusivity for a multi-platform future    The head of Xbox Game Studios on Developer Direct reveals, multiplatform strategy, and hard lessons learned from 2025    From Dispatch to Spilled and Peak, covering indie games every week in 2025 has been packed full of welcome surprise    PC gamers and Steam customers are "a really bright spot" as the games industry struggles with prices, analyst says    What to expect from Xbox in 2026    "We are buying into your vision": Blue Prince publisher Raw Fury reflects on 10 years of indie game magic    Latest in Xbox Xbox teases "some iconic games from the past" to be re-released in 2026 from its "game preservation team"    Resident Evil Requiem Grace actor might be even more scared playing Capcom's horror game than her character is living it    Early Xbox Project Helix specs promise "next-generation" AI upscaling as Microsoft tries to win the next-gen console war    Xbox Project Helix dev kits to roll out in 2027, narrowing possible launch window as Microsoft doubles down on PC    Pocketpair publishing head reacts to Pokemon and Palworld ripoff Pickmon: "Someone is a fan of the genre, I guess"    Full walkthrough for the Marathon Parasitism contract for Sekiguchi    Latest in News Xbox teases "some iconic games from the past" to be re-released in 2026 from its "game preservation team"    Steam expert advises devs stick to the "Little League" section with friendslop before attempting anything like Mewgenics    With Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo learned "it is more fun to destroy that which is beautiful"    Severance star Adam Scott's new horror movie Hokum just got an intensely creepy first trailer    Valve pleads for "a line on a bunch of RAM, we are in the market" as AI makes building Steam Machines a challenge    Dispatch is lying to you about RNG just like XCOM, but don't worry, it's for your own good    LATEST ARTICLES

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