Some interesting news over the weekend, apparently Microsoft will be dramatically altering their policies on indie game publishing for their next console. Many of you have probably heard of the ridiculous process (and costs) involved with not only publishing a game to the XBLA marketplace, but patching or updating it after the fact. It’s been extremely prohibitive for smaller developers, even leading to some noteable conflicts with certain games just not patching at all.

With the Xbox One, not only will indie developers be able to self-publish their games to the console, but the console itself can be authorized as a dev kit.

They won’t release more details until Gamescom next month, but the shift in tone to make it easier and more welcoming for indie developers can only mean good things for the console. Sony, in the later portion of the PS3’s lifespan, really embraced indie publishing by removing some of the headaches involved, and it worked out great for them. They landed some really solid exclusive titles as a result.

I’m looking forward to consoles that not only provide a wider array of games to choose from, but also entice some PC-only indie developers to consider porting their titles to the console landscape.