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Japanese Devs Talk 360 Development

Posted by Zonk on from the friends-in-far-off-places dept.

Japanese developers have had the chance to work with the Xbox 360, and as Gamespot reports, there are mixed feelings over there. From the article: "...but even with Microsoft's development tools and strong technical support (another aspect for which the developers had kind words), there are still a number of issues game makers face. Many developers consider the system's graphic capabilities 'double-edged.' The Xbox 360 can handle much better looking graphics than previous consoles, but it also requires a lot more effort in development."

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. "even with"? by cahiha · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ..but even with Microsoft's development tools and strong technical support (another aspect for which the developers had kind words)

    I find Visual Studio to be one of the worst development environments in existence, and I have never gotten useful technical support from Microsoft. On Windows, one can at least work around that with third party tools, but for something like Xbox 360, the need to use Microsoft tools and to rely on Microsoft support is a big strike against the platform.

    1. Re:"even with"? by cahiha · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Whether you are right or wrong (I'm not a fan of VS either)

      How can I be wrong? I said "I find Visual Studio to be one of the worst development environments in existence". There is no "right or wrong" when it comes to choice of development tools, only personal preferences.

      Of course, there are people who think that VS is the best thing since sliced bread, but the appeal of Microsoft's use of Microsoft tools for Xbox 360 is limited to that group. People who don't already love VS will find Microsoft's choice of tools at best irrelevant and more likely a nuisance.

      The thing we can debate is how large and how significant the group of people is who think VS is a net plus for Xbox 360 development. Personally, I suspect that the class of people who loves VS is largely disjunct from the group of people who develop great games.

    2. Re:"even with"? by cahiha · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      You're absolutely right: I'm not a "developer" (a term that mostly seems to refer to people like you), I write software professionally. And I have done so since long before the rip-off called "Visual Studio" hit the market. Yes, it undoubtedly surprises you, but we did not hammer code into stone tablets before Visual Studio. Imagine that.