Microsoft’s indie arm, ID@Xbox is preparing for the Game Developers Conference by bringing some more updates from its drawing board. In a new update, the team has emphasised some of the plans that it has been dealing with following feedback.

Over at the Xbox Wire, the ID@Xbox has shown off some new things that have been enhanced for the growing number of developers that have signed in to the program. The first of these is cross-network play, which enables naïve support for cross-network, so players on Xbox One and Windows 10 can now play with other gamers who are on different online multiplayer networks. This enhances the then-announced native support for cross-platform play, expanding gaming experience even more.

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For now, however, the use of this new feature is in the hands of the developers. On the other hand, for players who just want to play with those who are on Xbox Live, the option is also still kept. As a sampler, the first game to take advantage of the cross-network support is “Rocket League.”

ID@Xbox is also introducing the MonoGame support for the Xbox One. This new program will essentially the open source solution that developers will need for any needs related to the XNA programming framework. This is because XNA is not natively supported for the Xbox One. There’s already one game for the Xbox One that makes use of this program, which is “Axiom Verge.”

“Our core principles haven’t changed though—make sure we deliver a huge variety of awesome games to players on Xbox One and Windows 10 by making it as easy as possible for independent developers to publish games on our platforms,” said Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox, over at the Xbox Wire.

For the coming GDC 2016, there will be 40 games coming from Microsoft’s independent gaming leg. Some of these will be showcased at the Media Showcase event, and others can be found in the Microsoft Lobby Bar, for those who are interested to check out the games.

For Xbox gamers, the new set of Weekly Deals with Gold has been announced. Over at Major Nelson’s blog, there is a long list of games that are offered at discounts as high as 80 percent. There are a couple of franchises that are on sale, including “Assassin’s Creed,” “Batman: Arkham Knight,” “Battlefield Hardline,” “Destiny” and “Killer Instinct.” Some DLCs and expansions are already in the mix, for those who are interested in getting some expansion bundles.

Xbox 360 players are not left behind. There are a couple of “Assassin’s Creed” titles, “Batman Arkham” titles, “Destiny: The Taken King” collections, as well as other individual titles like “Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe,” “Watch_Dogs,” “Monopoly Plus,” “Bound by Flame” and “Injustice Gods Among Us.”

As usual, all of the offers are for Xbox Live Gold members. All of the discounts stand until March 21.

Cross-network play with Xbox One, PS4 and PC (Credit: YouTube/PrestigelsKey)

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