17 replies to this topic

[Onikhaosifix]

http://news.com.com/..._3-6052255.html

Interesting...

[Mjolnir]

Related article...

[.oisyn]

I don't believe this rumor. To get an actual devkit (the hardware I mean) MS charges about $10k, plus you need to be a licensed gamedeveloper. Why would they release the XDK for $100, which you can't use as any normal xbox360 requires the executables to be signed? So how are you going to run your game, by emulation? That's just nonsense.

[baldurk]

Did anyone else catch this:

Quote

Microsoft plans on announcing Wednesday a developers kit that would make it possible for anyone to build games for the console, or for PCs, and that the kit will cost only about $100.

A dev kit for PCs? I'm not sure what that implies. I can't see the next SDK being charged for, so what kind of kid would MS supply that anyone would need or want for PCs?
(ignoring the fact that the article implies that anyone being able to develop games is new :)).

[.oisyn]

Sounds like that XNA framework MS introduced yesterday on the GDC that lets you develop games for both PC and XBox 360.

[Methulah]

Quote

licensed gamedeveloper

Just wondering, what the hell does "licenced gamedeveloper" mean? Surely the only "licence" you need is the Xbox 360 development licence to develop for the Xbox 360. I'm not sure what it mean tgo buy the kit and be a licenced developer. I'm probably missing something though. Any ideas?

[.oisyn]

Are you quoting my post? You're a licensed (xbox 360) gamedeveloper if MS acknowledges you as a gamedeveloper for that platform. Without the acknowledgement, you won't be able to by a development-kit (the hardware I mean). Those kits are the only (official) hardware around that allows running of unsigned executables, so what is a normal person able to do with merely a XDK? He can only compile his code, but not run it, so he can't test it.

[Nils Pipenbrinck]

.oisyn:

1st of: you're right. becomming a licensed developer status is not easy. Especially if you're a indy developer (I know what I talk about - although we finally got approved and shipped a title). Things might be different if your company is owned by a large publisher/distributor.

MS (and neither Sony or Nintendo) is interested in freaks having access to the hardware. Those guys are more interested in getting a linux kernel to boot than to ship a game.

2nd: XNA shouldn't be overlooked. It (as far as I know) contains among other things the xbox sound library (xact) on PC. This alone is a reason enough to take a closer look at it since it can save years of tool development. We've used it for xbox, and it was a dream.

All the modern soundcard features (reverb, filters, whatever) are in the hand of a sound designer. Coders just published information (in our case position on a race track, speed of the cars ect.), and the sound designers where able to do an entire soundscape without ever disturbing the coder.

[.oisyn]

Nils Pipenbrinck said:

This alone is a reason enough to take a closer look at it since it can save years of tool development.

Well, unless you already have spent years on developing tools and an engine that runs on PS2, Xbox, XBox360 and PC, which basically is the position we're in right now

[Methulah]

.oisyn: Thanks for clearing that up. I was under the belief that you became a licenced MS Xbox developer the instant you bought their SDK.

This is a very interesting topic. I look forward to seeing the results of these rumours.

[dave_]

.oisyn said:

Well, unless you already have spent years on developing tools and an engine that runs on PS2, Xbox, XBox360 and PC, which basically is the position we're in right now ;)

This is where Mono could get in on the action.

[.oisyn]

I fail to see the relevance with .Net. Care to explain?

[dave_]

Me?

.NET is microsofts implementation of the common language runtime (CLR).

C# is a language used for development in that language, it has lots of classes no doubt part of the XNA. Microsoft will have to release CLR VM for Xbox360.

Mono is an opensource cross platform implementation of this. They probably dont have XNA but its not such a massive leap to port to non-microsoft platforms.

Oh but I dont believe microsoft will release cheap dev kits, however you can plug the 360 joypad into a PC and probably use this XNA when it comes out, something which I will be doing!

[.oisyn]

Well you're quoting my post, I don't see why we have to look into .Net development

[PnP Bios]

yeah... if they can't even port the system.windows.forms to mono, what makes you think they can port XNA?

[SamuraiCrow]

If they can't get a full version of Windows Media Center Edition onto XBox 360 then what makes you think that games developed for the PC can easily be ported to the XBox 360?

[dave_]

SamuraiCrow said:

If they can't get a full version of Windows Media Center Edition onto XBox 360 then what makes you think that games developed for the PC can easily be ported to the XBox 360?

I don't, what makes you think games developed for the Xbox 360 on the PC can't be easily ported? People at microsoft obiviously do, there was a presentation a couple of years back describing how to do exactly that!

[Josh1billion]

I've read that the XBox 360 would have some nice homebrew support and that the homebrew games could be distributed over the new Live (I think they call it "Live Arcade"?). Maybe that's it? I don't think so because I thought homebrew games for the 360 were already out.. any of you have a 360 and could clarify this?

On the other hand, if this IS for games that can be packaged and sold commercially.. !! That might just be reason to buy a 360 if the whole idea works.