Xbox live creators program: As a group of students, which account type to pick?

Question

Hoping this is the right forum to submit this to!

We are a group of university students currently developing a video game in Unity as part of a capstone course. As an extra challenge, we would like to develop our game for the Xbox One. As we've started to look into the process of getting this done, it appears that the Xbox Live Creators Program would be our best bet moving forwards (https://unity3d.com/partners/microsoft/creators-program).

When registering for an account, there is an option to choose between an individual or company accounts. The description for the individual is: "Develop and sell apps, add-ins, and services as an individual, student, or unincorporated group" which we think would apply to us. However, when reading the store policies page (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/publish/store-policies?redirectedfrom=MSDN#1014-account-type), there is a section that specifies: "If a reasonable consumer would interpret your publisher account name to be that of a business entity, you must publish from a company account type, not an individual account type."

Due to the fact that we have a name for our group, and would likely be releasing under that name, it seems like that might apply to us as well. We don't have any plans for monetizing our game in any way, and as students, we would like to avoid incurring unnecessary costs. Do we have the option of selecting the individual account type, or do we have to register as a company since our group name might be interpreted as a publisher name?

Thank you for any input you can give.

Answer 1

Hi,

I can't tell which account type might be better for your scenario. But you do have the option for selecting the individual accounts type. You could check the differences between these two account types here:Account types, locations, and fees.

Company accounts are intended for organizations and businesses. For company accounts, we require greater verification to confirm that you’re authorized to set up the account for your company. That means the verification will be more complicated than Individual accounts.

Individual accounts are usually appropriate for a single developer working on their own, although you have the option to add additional account users to either type of account. If you choose individual accounts type, it will be better not to use your group name as the publisher name.

Best regards,

Roy

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