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Indie studios usually operate on tight margins at the best of times, and funding opportunities for them are increasingly scarce.
That makes the decision by Speculative Agency to return Microsoft Xbox funding and break their developer acceleration programme contract all the more brave and important.
The studio, currently developing All Will Rise, a narrative courtroom deck-builder about "ordinary people who make the powerful pay for destroying our future," cited Microsoft's complicity with Israeli military operations as the reason for the move, aligning themselves with the growing No Games for Genocide boycott movement.
"We can win. Corporations like Microsoft might seem impossibly huge and impossible to move, but they're not."
"We are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together," narrative director Meghna Jayanth told Eurogamer. Jayanth acknowledged the financial reality of the decision frankly, noting the funding shortfall it creates and the increased pressure now placed on their ongoing Kickstarter campaign.
Microsoft, for their part, agreed to the contract break. "The people we corresponded with at Microsoft have been very understanding of our decision," Jayanth noted.
The studio is now calling on fellow indie developers to consider joining the boycott, arguing that collective action can move even the largest corporations.
Whether others will follow remains to be seen, but the courage of a small, funding-hungry studio making this call deserves to be recognised. We sincerely hope all will rise to support Speculative Agency's decision.
We strongly recommend reading Eurogamer's full piece by Robert Purchese, who reported this story in full. Go give them the traffic - they've earned it.
