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Microsoft Publishes Free XBox Development Tools
prostoalex writes "Microsoft announced the release of free XNA Game Studio Express tools for developing C# games that run on both Windows and XBox. They're also selling XNA Creators Club subscriptions, which, similar to MSDN subscriptions, offer access to sample code and additional documentation. Also, Microsoft is explicitly aiming towards uniting the Windows and XBox development platforms: 'You will have to compile the game once for each platform. In this release simply create a separate project for each platform and then compile them both. Our goal is to allow as much code as possible to be shared between those two projects, allowing you to use the same source files in both projects, but platform-specific code will need to be conditionally-compiled.'"
oh, please. STFU already. $99 is about the cost 2 of any PS3/Wii/360 games. if MS give their product away, you'll be crying like a little girl about how MS is abusing their powers.
Because you could download and use pygame, crystal space, irrlicht, ogre, sdl, whatever for free (both beer and speech) and be able distribute the game however you want. The only thing using this Microsoft download earns you is the ability to run the code on the 360.. which Microsoft is already making money on.
A lot of people are going "holy cow! xbox programming! yay!" and ignoring that they're giving us tools that have existed in the pc world for decades. Microsoft isn't giving anyone anything.. they're seeing how much we'll pay for what we can get for free.
Wow. You buy every word that PJ on Groklaw says, don't you? Sheep.
You might ask "why am I so anti-XNA"?
Well three reasons since you asked so nicely.
1. XNA allows you to build stuff for your PC for free, and pay 100 bucks a month for building for the 360? WOW! unless you care about the second half, ANY compiler allowed you to build stuff for your PC for Free. What's worse is unless a prospective employee has creators club (or wants to get it) they can't really see your work unless it's on the PC. So basically you're stuck.
Instead you can get Visual Studio with just DirectX and learn how to REALLY program, rather then relying on an enviroment. If XNA is easy to use, everyone will use it and there will be a lot of worthless demos. Companies want to see that you programmed, not that you did something easy.
2. C# is not a great programming language. Ok it has uses. However making games is NOT one of them. If you program for a console you're probably in C++ if you're not programming for a console you use what language you want. C# might make some stuff easier, but unless you know C++ you're not going to be a real asset to a company.
In addition C# is Microsoft's programming language. It's a bastard of C++ and Java, basically so Microsoft could own a language. Don't buy into it. Java and C++ are both good languages as well, I have heard of few jobs that want C# currently.
3. As people have mentioned to get access you need to pay 100 bucks a month then your friend has to pay 100 a month, then your other friend has to pay 100 a month. It's not a "cheap" development studio. A cheap development studio is your PC. Besides which unless you know how to do multi core processing (don't you DARE say you do unless you've done it and shipped a product, it's much harder then you realize) the 360 is going to be weaker then your PC. It's true you don't have a unified system, but even on the 360 you no longer have it with hard drives and non hard drives. In addition you have to submit to Microsoft's rules at times (mostly during production), which limits your freedom a little more.
This might be an option for some people but if you're doing professional grade work you will almost definatly have a dev kit. If you arn't it doesn't really matter because the work is the important part, not the final product so skip XNA and work on other stuff. The only person who needs XNA is the idiot who MUST program in C# and must program on the 360. Just remember anything you do in XNA will likely be only for the PC and 360, and not for any other console.
Microsoft is doing good positioning themselves, but if you look into their motives it's not for the fans. It's to improve their brands (C#, XNA, Xbox 360, DirectX). Unless you want to only support those brands you are better off moving on.
Microsoft has a history of obtaining things through unscrupulous means. For those of you who don't know the story about DOS 6.0 and Stacker, I'm going to tell it quickly because I think it highlights very well how Microsoft does business. Basically, drive compression became very popular during the DOS 5.0 days, and a company named Stacker produced the most well-known product (called Stacker, surprisingly enough). Microsoft decided that DOS 6.0 needed drive compression built in, both to put Stacker out of business, and to improve their own product. After Stacker refused to sell (if Microsoft even made the offer), Microsoft simply stole it and repackaged it as DriveSpace. Sure, there was a legal settlement (a couple million, IIRC) but it was hardly fair, given how much people thought DriveSpace was great and used it to market DOS 6.0. Stacker should have received royalties from every copy of DOS 6.0 that was ever sold. Instead, they dried up since there product was rendered useless. Remember: It was proven that Microsoft illegally obtained this code!
This kit and it's associated distribution requirements smacks of the same sort of thing; watch people make stuff, steal the best stuff and sick the lawyers on the poor sucker who was dumb enough to do something useful with a Microsoft tool. I hope the best developers stay away from this latest attempt of Microsoft's to find cool stuff to steal.
mandelbr0t
"Please describe the scientific nature of the 'whammy'" - Agent Scully