Microsoft Confirms No Plans To Remove Or Disable Dev Mode On Xbox

Microsoft's Jason Ronald has confirmed that Xbox has "no plans" to remove or disable developer mode on Xbox consoles following speculation this week that it was planning to do just that.

Ronald, who is Partner Director of Program Management at Xbox, confirmed this on Twitter. "We continue to believe in and support a healthy independent app and game development community on Xbox," Ronald said.

Some Partner Center accounts were "inadvertently deactivated," Ronald said, which is what caused the confusion and speculation that the developer mode feature was being removed. "We are actively working on identifying and reenabling these accounts as soon as possible," Ronald said.

Ronald said those who had their accounts accidentally deactivated can reach out to Microsoft at ReportApp@microsoft.com to speed up the account recovery. "We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working to remedy this as quickly as possible and thanks for your patience."

In other news, Xbox Game Pass is adding a big group of great games to kick off the new year, including Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Gorogoa, and Spelunky 2 this month alone.