“It’s been a huge pain in the a–.” We spoke to New Blood Interactive about its big Xbox launch and how the Xbox Ally inspired the team to jump on board.

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The Xbox Ally is here, and it’s pretty good.

The Xbox Ally X is a high-end device at $1000, but the standard Xbox Ally is a more budget-friendly option, though it’s not as powerful. It offers similar performance to the Steam Deck, but a key issue is the lack of well-optimized games specifically for the Xbox platform on PC. This often means users end up relying on Steam for games, even when trying to use Xbox Play Anywhere’s cross-platform features.

Independent developers, such as New Blood Interactive, are filling this gap. Known for their success on Steam, New Blood Interactive is credited with popularizing the term “boomer shooter” – fast-paced, retro-style first-person shooters with updated features, as seen in games like Dusk and Ultrakill. They are now bringing their collection of games to Xbox Play Anywhere in the months ahead.

Blood West is an immersive, story-driven game launching on Xbox on October 16, 2025. It blends the atmosphere of Western and gothic horror with the open-world exploration and player freedom found in games like STALKER, and features plenty of action.

I recently spoke with Dave Oshry, the CEO of New Blood, to get his perspective on publishing indie games through Microsoft. I’ve previously discussed how Microsoft needs to significantly improve its offerings to attract more indie developers to the Xbox platform, especially on PC.

I’d long believed that dealing with company rules and procedures was a major frustration for developers, and Oshry confirmed this, explaining that even successful studios like New Blood Interactive struggle with it.

Oshry admits the process was incredibly frustrating. A major reason for the delay in getting started was the difficulty of setting up their system with Microsoft. While the ID@Xbox team was helpful and responsive through email, the initial sign-up and paperwork were a constant struggle. There were times when things stalled unexpectedly, with no communication, leading them to prioritize other tasks.

Oshry also pointed out that recent layoffs might be causing problems. Several people who were let go from Microsoft’s indie game publishing team, ID@Xbox, this past summer told me they were responsible for generating significant revenue – millions of dollars, in some cases – before the layoffs.

Honestly, things seem to be improving, but there have been a lot of layoffs, which is tough. You get close to people who are really great to work with and help you get things done, and then suddenly their email doesn’t work anymore – they’re just gone. It’s frustrating. The actual development work isn’t the hard part, getting the Xbox Dev Kits and building the game itself is actually pretty straightforward. It’s all the red tape and bureaucracy that’s killer – like waiting half a minute for web pages to load just to update basic stuff like your tax information. It’s a real pain.

As an analyst, I’ve observed Steam’s impressive growth over the last twenty years. However, it’s always struck me that Microsoft had plenty of chances to create a similar platform for publishing and supporting independent developers, but ultimately didn’t fully capitalize on those opportunities.

Steam offers developers great ways to connect with their players. However, the Xbox PC app doesn’t allow players to comment on games or share content with the wider Xbox community. Many developers find this lack of control over their games within the Xbox system frustrating.

I was listening to Oshry talk about the differences between selling games on Steam and Xbox, and he really highlighted how much more complicated Xbox is. He said that on Steam, everything is instant – you control your store page, set your own discounts, and generally have full control. He pointed out that nowadays, people expect a launch discount – like 10% off with a little visual indicator – and you can set that up immediately on Steam. But on Xbox, it’s a huge hassle. You have to email someone, wait for approval, and it can take *weeks* to get a discount live. He seemed really frustrated by the whole process.

It’s surprisingly easier to run sales on Nintendo – I can set them up myself with custom names. Steam has a dedicated tool for discounts, too. But with PlayStation and Xbox, it’s still a slow process that requires requests and waiting for approval. This creates a lot of extra work for indie developers like us, who are used to moving fast.

Seeing Xbox Play Anywhere become a reality, and then the Xbox Ally handheld come along, really made us think it was time to bring our games to Xbox. It felt like the right moment, a good enough reason to finally do it.

Dave Oshry, CEO, New Blood Interactive

Oshry praised Xbox Game Pass as a great value for players, but he initially had some concerns from a developer’s perspective. Ultimately, the features Xbox Play Anywhere and the Xbox handheld device, the Ally, convinced his team to support the service.

Xbox Game Pass is a tricky thing for developers like us. On one hand, we want people to play our games, and it’s hard for indie games to get noticed unless they’re on a service like Game Pass. That’s why we hesitated for a long time. But with features like Xbox Play Anywhere and the Xbox handheld, we finally felt it was a good enough reason to release our games on Xbox.

Over the past few years, Microsoft reports having distributed billions of dollars to developers through its ID@Xbox program on Xbox Series X|S and PC. Now, with the ability to tailor games for handheld devices and various platforms like cloud gaming and the Xbox handheld, Microsoft has a significant opportunity to make independent game publishing more accessible, help players find new games, and expand the overall gaming landscape.

The rest of the YouTube interview with Dave Oshry covers New Blood Interactive’s influences, how they compare to big-budget AAA games, their plans for the future, his positive outlook, and even some critiques of the Xbox platform – plus a lot more! You can watch it at the link above, and don’t forget to check out Blood West below.

A huge thank you to Dave Oshry for joining us!

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2025-10-16 22:10