Microsoft is not going to remove developer mode on Xbox. The company’s program manager confirmed this on Twitter. This week there were rumors that Microsoft might be discontinuing the mode and its program after some accounts were deleted.
Notably, on the Xbox Series S and X, gamers could use that mode to use the console as an emulator. For this, they had to pay a one-time amount of about twenty euros to register with Microsoft as a developer. Both professional game developers and fans of, for example, retro games did this.
Microsoft removed Dev Mode from some users earlier this week. Players also noticed this on the forum. It is not clear how many accounts were removed, but many players concluded that Microsoft had become stricter about the policy. The terms and conditions allow Microsoft to shut down Dev Mode for non-developers, but that hasn’t happened in practice so far.
Jason Ronald, Xbox developer program director, contradicts on Twitter that the program is stopped. “We have no plans to remove or disable Developer Mode on Xbox consoles,” he says. According to Ronald, the accounts were accidentally deleted during scheduled work to clean inactive accounts. He also says Microsoft will re-enable the accounts itself, but users can also email [email protected] if they want access again sooner.
