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Microsoft Announces XNA Game Development Platform
Thanks to GameSpot for its story revealing that Microsoft is unveiling its XNA game software development platform later this morning at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose. XNA is "designed for use with future iterations of all Microsoft game platforms, including Windows, Xbox, and Windows Mobile-based devices" to make simultaneous platform development easier and cheaper, and the company is also expected to announce "Xbox Live-style functionality for billing, security, and matchmaking being made available to Windows developers... [and] the introduction of controllers that are compatible with all Windows and Xbox game players" as part of this move. IGN Xbox has an interview with Microsoft's Jay Allard and Dean Lester which explains XNA as being a cross-platform, evolving toolset that will ensure backwards compatibility, giving the example: "...[if] Adobe was writing an application for Win95, and then WinNT came out there were special features they could take advantages of -- they didn't have to throw it all away and start again." Update: 03/25 00:46 GMT by S : Microsoft has made the official XNA site public, including streaming video from unspecified next-generation games.
Anyone remembers winmm ?
Anyone remembers winG ?
Guess this will end up just as useful...
Good, they can make xbox2 games backwards compatible!
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Jeepers. Killing a game after spending $3M on developing it? How does a game get that far only to be cancelled?
The Army reading list
I hope this doesn't come into widespread use for games, Deus Ex2 was designed for the xbox, and it shows when you play it on a Windows Pc.
well most games ive played on a pc which use gamepads, seem clunky and ill designed. but maybe this will stop bad console to pc ports (HALO) from happening. theres nothing i hate more than seeing options in an options menu which have been greyed out because they were there from the console version.
I was eagerly awaiting the day Microsoft would become frustrated on their losses with the Xbox, and just try to gobble up the entire industry from the inside instead! Yes!
So, basically, my understanding is that if I put together a solid DDoS exploit for Windows using XNA, it will affect XBOX and Windows Mobile devices?
.NET for games. .NET has yet to establish itself anywhere useful except as an architecture for Web Development. That's all back-end.
.NET Mobile Framework (where you can make calls to your heart's delight, but damned if they're implemented) to understand why this will never arrive as hyped.
Moreover, this sounds like
It reads interesting. I see it as vaporware. I can't imagine anything useful coming of this. How could something exploit the power of the next gen X-Box (which appears to be using a non-Intel chip in the future), and still run awesome on Windows?
And porting to mobile devices? One doesn't need to look any further than the slow adoption of the highly broken
The only interesting part is that you see people out in the game development sector (Gabe Newell of Valve, for example) excited about the technology. These are the type of people you'd expect to know better.
-m.
Let me guess: Microsoft, Microsoft and... hmmm more Microsoft?
Stéphane "Alias" Gallay
Now, where did I put this witty quote?..
Anyone remember that one? I don't think any games use it these days, right? ;-)
;-)
To be honest, this sounds rather useful, altho in an unfortunately "only for Microsoft developers" way. Porting apps between consoles and computers takes time, a lot of time, simply because portable toolkits don't exist, yet. Standard sets of game controllers between computers and consoles don't sound bad either, altho those have existed for some time.
Being able to write a game once, and with little modification have it running on both a PC and a console, is a Good Thing for developers and users. Lots of fun console games might start becoming available on the PC as well, for those of us that only need to own one game machine.
Of course, certain games will always remain best suited to a particular platform. i.e., playing an FPS with anything but a mouse and keyboard is just sick. Quit trying to make those damn things for consoles, will you?
Microsoft renames DirectX 10 - XNA and the crowd goes wild over nothing.
The more their console acts like a PC, has PC software, and generally offers the same look and sound of a PC title the more the console buyers will stay away. True, there are a few people who see a console as an alternative from buying a pricey computer and having to upgrade, but most console buyers are more interested in what consoles do that PC's can not do. Be it proprietary video hardware, to exclusive games. When a game is out on PC and a console, it is no longer is exclusive. This drove a lot of people away from buying XBox1 in the first place - Why bother getting a console to play games we already have on our PC that does a whole lot more?
billing, security, and matchmaking being made available to Windows developers...
Money, secure computing, and chicks - man, I want to be a windows developer! MS sure does take good care of their employees.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
I am surprised that more large companies haven't tried to make game development tools. There are a few things that nearly every game has, and that are really hard to do efficiently and quickly (the main game loop, for example). I honestly hope that Microsoft does make this and it does work, because that usually means some OSS people will make a knockoff that I can get for free and use, which will be awesome.
stuff |
Serious yet funny 28 year old male Microsoft DirectX developer looking for cute and timid Microsoft Windows software engineer, between the ages of 25 and 30 with shoulder-length dark hair and pale blue eyes. Looking for a serious and caring yet professional relationship to share experiences and get yelled at by Balmer together. Must be willing to enjoy coding, Pepsi Blue, anchovis pizza, good thrillers and a little bit of DirectXXX, preferably in combination with any of the former. Serious inquiries only. Respond to article nr. 123456
Hate me!
Microsoft is supplying their game-developement-platform. Is there any hope of a competing OSS platform? I know there are some tools out there, but OSS is generally quite anemic when it comes to gaming blood.
So id can compile Doom 3 for a P4/DX9/512MBDDR target, press a button, and it'll compile for a Nokia phone! I bet that'll work GREAT.
Sounds like the old CHIP8 games.
http://members.aol.com/autismuk/chip8/
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
If you are speaking "the Queen's English" then it is indeed correct to say "Microsoft are" because in this case "Microsoft" is logically the collective term used to refer to the people who work for the company. Since the nominative is plural, one uses the plural form of the verb.
Of course, we Americans don't usually see the people behind the company name but rather tend to personify the company as an individual rather than a collective, hence we are much more used to hearing "Microsoft IS a bad company" instead of "Microsoft are announcing a new piece of crap..."
MATCHMAKING?!?!
For the love of all that's holy, who entrusts their love life to the same firm that brought us Clippy and Bob?!?!
Not really, a 512MB flash RAM module is probably around $20 in volume. That's a significant cost savings. The other issue is that there's money to be made selling "memory modules". That's money MS left on the table with the XB1. I wouldn't hold my breath awaiting an HD in the XB2.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
All this is, is a new version of DirectX which they commit to making compatible across different flavors of windows (including possible WinCE devices) which also has Xbox Live functionality (I wonder if they'll roll it into Live or The Zone?) The DirectX SDK will be supplemented by these new tools they're talking about, and a new name will get stuck on DirectX.
It's not that it's an unwelcome advance, but it's not much of an advance. Frankly the thing I'm most interested in is "the introduction of controllers that are compatible with all Windows and Xbox game players" which says two things to me. 1> Microsoft will be releasing a controller which will work on Xbox and Xbox 2 (possibly with different pigtails) with a HID driver to match. Note that this might just be the controller S with an official HID driver. 2> The Xbox 2 will continue to use USB, no surprise there but always nice to see a confirmation.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I am probably the minority opinion here (I own a PS2 and won't ever buy an XBox), but gamers will be benefiting most, because the Windows and console platforms will be more likely to get the same games, rather than just exclusive for one platform over another. Microsoft will be able sign development houses to exlusive XNA development contracts, in addition to exclusive XBox or PC contracts. Gamers get more games on both platforms. Gamers get games that can play against each other on either platform with the joint networking code. Gamers get features that are accessible to both platforms.
.NET for gaming platforms. No matter what platform you write for, you have a standard you can code against and rely on for the future.
Developers win because they don't have to learn and develop with two separate middleware products. One set of middle-ware means standardized development that saves time and money. Developers can spend more time designing and implementing games rather than struggling with the platform's issues and quirks. I see XNA like the Java or
With XNA, the Windows PC and the XBox will be both first-class citizens. Everyone wins, including MS.
Why oh why does every new product have to have the letter X in it? I find myself longing for the days of iEverything or eEverything.
Except for XML and Mac OS X, the X doesn't make any sense to me in any of the 48,000 "cool" products starting with X. Other letters are cool, too! How about M, B, or W?
C'mon! Innovate a little!
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
While there are a few exceptions, XBox/PC cross platform games are not normally the best idea.
Good PC games are written with the PC in mind. The type of game, the interface, the use of keyboard and mouse, and generally the depth is much greater on a PC.
The XBox's strength, OTOH, is generally more geared towards action, platforming and relaxing on your couch with a controller.
Just because a game can be released on two platforms doesn't mean that it will be equally as good on both.
We've got both platforms, 95 and XP!
Two things.
1. I have no avid, passionate, deeply ingrained hatred for Microsoft, which, compared to people around slashdot, makes me a Microsoft whore. That said, doesn't this sound exactly like Microsoft is using the fact that most people use Windows on their PCs to further the Xbox2? Essentially, because of DirectX and Windows, MS seems to be considering the PC as a sister platform to the Xbox. Seems to me this is a distinctly unfair advantage over Sony or Nintendo, both of whom obviously do not have an OS to speak of and basically have only one platform to speak of. Seems to me this is dangerous ground for Microsoft to tread, particularly after all the stink in the US they just went through and the whole EU morass that they're going through now.
2. I am no programmer, so perhaps this makes a lot more sense to someone else. But isn't it difficult to co-develop for something that will essentially be an Apple box with something that is Windows? Maybe it's the whole virtual machine thing MS picked up, but it seems kind of unlikely to me. Anyone care to explain?
XBox Live style addtion to next-gen DirectX (Oh, sorry, XNA). This translates to OS-level CD-Key checks and other 'game calls home to see if it may run'-features for *SURE*. Next we get to pay monthly fees for simple head-to-head gaming.
And developers will scream in joy and jump into the bandwagon. Especially if same libraries are used in XBox2, so porting PCXBox2 will be easy.
Oh, and we get XBox controllers to PC. Well, on some level it's good - lots of great console-style games suck on PC due to non-standard joypads and/or keyboard-based controls. However, the day they start making PC First Person Shooters that *require* a crappy gamepad to play is the day I go berserk and feed the stupid joypad to the MS loonies.
Let companies make more money by making games easier to port, but at the same time lock them into a Microsoft based system.
Some gaming companies are keeping code portable in order to sell it on PC, PS2, XBOX, etc., and sometimes this leads to a Linux port. If you give management the tools to keep it on multiple platforms (albeit Windows-centric platforms) in half the time, I think it's safe to say that this is going to take a chunk out of potential Linux ports.
The only possible saving grace is that some companies will want to port their games to competing platforms like the PS2, but those games are likely to be console-oriented and as such not as well suited to a PC. Of course there are always exceptions.
MS is once again using it's market penetration to leverage more lock-in. Brilliant move on their part if you ask me.
Cheers
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
It may not be popular (yet) on PC/Mac/Linux/whatever environments, but portable toolkits do exist in the video game industry. Renderware is an example of a modular toolkit that is used to make a game that can be ported to several consoles. Just recently, Sega's Sonic Team used it for a high-profile cross-platform project you might have heard about, it's called Sonic Heroes :p . This is getting increasingly popular because of market issues. EA, Konami, Namco, Capcom and many others use this kind of cross-platform toolkits because it can cut development time by an order of magnitude when they want their products to be launched to a wider, multi-platform market.
This is also a problem for the console manufacturers, as they want to push their own, proprietary toolkits and get exclusivity for as many important titles as possible. This is why Microsoft is going to push this XNA thing very hard, it wants developers to stay inside the DirectX world.
Cross-platform, feature-complete, strongly supported APIs and toolkits are a big necessity in today's marketplace to comply with the very high standards the video game industry demands.
By the way, I'll start my little rant about OpenGL. I love the thing very much and it used to be great, but I'm really sad to see it's very outdated now and it doesn't reflect current game developers' needs, for example, fragment shaders support is something not well defined yet and it's a market requirement, you can't just port games from Windows and not support fragment shaders. Then there's the thing about OpenGL supporting SO MUCH F'ng more than just games-related functions (the API is still very strong in the professional apps space), remember the API subset some games had during the Voodoo era? This is also a requirement for today's games, a lightweight, full-featured API without unnecessary bloat.
To make matters worse, OpenGL doesn't include equivalent cross-platform audio and input APIs/toolkits, so you need to rewrite these parts for each new platform, or create your own API (and you still need to write support for it in every platform), or maybe look for some of the half-baked efforts out there.
Here's the reason DirectX smokes everybody else: We don't have a good cross-platform alternative to game development.
id Software, however industry-leading it may be, can't sustain our only true cross-platform open API in existence alone forever.
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
Blackmail's such an ugly word. I prefer extortion. The X makes it sound cool.
The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
Seems to me this is a distinctly unfair advantage over Sony or Nintendo, both of whom obviously do not have an OS to speak of and basically have only one platform to speak of.
So what you're saying is that because Microsoft is making it easier for it's developers to develop for all of its systems, it's a monopoly? It's somehow MS' fault that Sony and Nintendo don't have a computer OS?
I am no programmer, so perhaps this makes a lot more sense to someone else.
Ugh, how is this insightful, mods? No offense to the parent at all, just stupid moderators.
Anyone care to explain?
Absolutely. Basically, you said this: But isn't it difficult to co-develop for something that will essentially be an Apple box with something that is Windows?
You're assuming that what they're proposing is an "Apple Box" (not quite sure what that means). It's nothing fundamentally different from a developing standpoint, the platforms are running stripped versions of Windows. MS is just bringing unified functionality to all of these platforms.
It must be stressed that the news is merely that Microsoft is making it easier for developers of its platforms to cross-develop or be able to jump to another system without too much of a porting hassle. Think XBox2 to PC conversions and vice versa that are simple to implement. This benefits MS since they're now making it easier for developers to bring their games to other platforms which MS owns. PROFIT!
No other letter can compete with X, certainly not a VOWEL. Innovate all you want, but let me X-PLAIN...
;)
Sex - it's almost all X, except for the curvey S parts, and that voyeurist silent e. uh huh, huh huh
eXciting, eXploding, eXterminating - Like ninja's who have real ultimate power.
Letter X - Once you get to this letter there you can relax because your almost done with the alphabet. It's a letter that even looks like a throwing star! If you dis the letter X again ninja's will apear and chop your damn head off!
XXX - Porn or alchohol? It's up to you!
xXx - A little different, but he's like this buff snow board, uzi totin, snow boarding bald dude that really cares deep down about cars and his country and blowing shit up, but not bosses so he's cool.
Triple-X - another different big sweaty guy who pretends to kick peoples asses for a living, but doesn't blow shit up. This one's not bald, but I bet people in the front row wish he was when his long hair flips sweat on them.
XXX - super rare genetic condition where someone is all girl and then some, probably like the powder puff girls.
Chemical X - yeah that's it Powder puff girls. Bubbles, Blossum, and Buttercup. Find the Marilyn Mason Remix.
X - Sign here please, or even I'm to damn lazy to sign my own name. The all-time official winner of Tic-Tac-Toe.
Malcom X - like asterisk it's a wildcard - it can mean anything you want it to mean, or that it doesn't matter. Or that your cool and pissed off.
eXtreme [sports|games|etc|X] - extreme anything. Exterme sports, extreme sailing, extreme grocery shopping. Do something wild and crazy to get a thrill. Now even wearing helmets is cool!
Base X - roman numeral for our standard number system. Uh... The simpsons had Bart almost get eaten by a lion because of this roman numeral thing.
XXX - Roman numerals for when people become OLD. Until next year when it will be changed to XXXX
Programming - For loops always use X. It's a law or something.
Math - the whole horizontal part of the 2D co-ordiate system. Without X all graphs would be straight up and down lines. Y is nothing without X.
Generation X - Lazy good for nothing little bastards who can suddenly vote, buy cars and even video game systems. I think I may even be one of them.
XeroX - the coolest company in the freakin WORLD! I mean they START and END with X!!
eX-laX - Helps you out when you don't want to be full of shit anymore
XML - Extensable Markup Language. Could have been EML but then no one would have used it because that's just not COOL.
XBOX is the most incredible piece of hardware because they have 2 X's which implies they some how cram all that X goodness in that big ugly box.
So to summarize...
X is cool, X rocks, X MARKS THE FUCKIN SPOT!
(:D bring on the ex-lax responses)