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In the 30 years of video game development, the art of making console games has been reserved for those with big projects, big budgets and the backing of big game labels. Now Microsoft Corp. is bringing this art to the masses with a revolutionary new set of tools, called XNA Game Studio Express, based on the XNA™ platform. XNA Game Studio Express will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.
During his keynote presentation today at Gamefest 2006, a Microsoft® game developer event hosted by Microsoft in Seattle, Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft, announced details of the new technology, which will be broadly available this holiday season. XNA Game Studio Express will be available for free to anyone with a Windows® XP-based PC and will provide them with Microsoft’s next-generation platform for game development. By joining a “creators club” for an annual subscription fee of $99 (U.S.), users will be able to build, test and share their games on Xbox 360™ and access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development progress. This represents the first significant opportunity for novice developers to make a console game without a significant investment in resources.
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The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform. XNA Game Studio Express will give anyone with a Windows XP-based PC access to a unified development tool that liberates the creation of great Xbox 360 and Windows XP-compatible games, providing a new alternative to the existing multithousand-dollar development kits that many console games require. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season.
Microsoft also said that more than 10 universities, including the University of Southern California and Southern Methodist University, will include XNA Game Studio Express and Xbox 360 development in their fall curricula.
I must confess to having developed some “hobbyist” games in the past, but that was in a much simpler time and that’s the likely problem here. The reason that modern games are developed by teams with massive budgets is that the standards are quite high and you need a team of specialists to handle all the aspects. That being said, there’s no reason that an individual or small group couldn’t successfully develop a so-called “casual game” and this is a good way to pull them on to the Microsoft platforms. Of course, this is the same approach as the free Visual Studio Express editions for regular programming.
In the face of escalating game development costs, expanding teams and ever more complex hardware technologies, Microsoft Corp. today delivered a pre-release version of the first XNA™ Studio tools and unveiled the XNA Framework to attendees of the Game Developers Conference 2006 in San Jose. Microsoft also announced that the company is opening its Xbox Live® Server Platform to game developers and publishers, allowing them to innovate and extend the Xbox Live experience in their titles.
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XNA Studio represents a set of tools and technologies Microsoft is building to help streamline and optimize the game development process.
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This community technology preview (CTP) represents the first public opportunity for game developers to get their hands on key components of XNA Studio.
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The XNA Framework contains a custom implementation of the Microsoft® .NET Framework and new game-development-specific libraries designed to help game developers more easily create cross-platform games on Windows and Xbox 360 using the highly productive C# programming language.
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In addition to XNA Studio, Microsoft today announced further enhancements for extending Xbox Live services with the Xbox Live Server Platform. Using this platform, developers can create their own back-end servers to run alongside Xbox Live. Developers will get firsthand experience with this update — which provides easier-to-manage and more scalable technology on Xbox Live — in the next Xbox Development Kit, expected in May. Microsoft Game Studios’ blockbuster Xbox 360 game, “Project Gotham Racing® 3,” offers an early example of how these services can work; up to 30,000 gamers can easily watch other racers play in real time through Spectator Mode. More recently, in the stunning “Burnout: Revenge” from Electronic Arts Inc., the Live Revenge feature and the Save and Share feature were made possible by functionality that will now be distributed through the Xbox Live Server Platform.
Just to be completely clear, “cross-platform” or “multiplatform” in the XNA context only means Windows PC and Xbox 360 games which isn’t unexpected and is useful. I do wonder though how many game developers will really use C# for any significant portion of their code. The Xbox Live Server Platform looks like an interesting idea.
Microsoft Corp. today announced the retail availability of its first cross-platform game controller and the latest addition to the Microsoft® Game Precision Series. The Xbox 360™ Controller for Windows® delivers the precision and control that will set the standard for next-generation game controllers.
“This controller is a great example of one of the many areas where the Xbox 360 and Windows platforms complement each other,” said J Allard, Microsoft corporate vice president and chief XNA officer. “The Xbox 360 Controller for Windows is an important step in making it easier for consumers to enjoy gaming on both platforms.”
The Xbox 360 Controller for Windows works with Windows XP-based PCs and the Xbox 360 system, with a comfortable, enhanced ergonomic design, force feedback vibration support and a familiar button layout across both platforms.
“For the first time, gamers can simply unplug their controller from their Xbox 360 system and plug it into their Windows XP-based PC,” said Chris Donahue, director of the Windows gaming and graphics team at Microsoft. “This is a great breakthrough for the gaming industry as we make it easier for developers to create multiplatform titles.”
The Xbox 360 Controller for Windows retail product will include a driver for Windows XP-based PCs. The wired Xbox 360 Controller, which comes with the core Xbox 360 system, will also work on Windows XP-based computers after users download the available driver from Microsoft. The Controller has a 9-foot breakaway controller cable that plugs into a standard USB port.
MSRP is $39.99. Yet another aspect of Microsoft’s cross platform game development push (cf. XNA).
