Microsoft takes steps to official X360 homebrew

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 13th December 2006
Comments (10) Stumble
Do you fancy developing for the X360?

Do you fancy developing for the X360?

Microsoft has officially launched XNA Game Studio Express. The software will allow average joes the ability to write Xbox 360 and PC games using DirectX and the full set of libraries across the two platforms.

The XNA Express platform is built on Visual C# Express, which is free to download from Microsoft. The Windows runtime environment is also free to download - so you can get creating shareable Windows games in next to no time.

If you want to create Xbox 360 games, or share games with the 360, you'll need to subscribe to the XNA Creators Club, which costs $99 for a year - not too shabby.

The same code will work across both the 360 and Windows - one of the big advantages of the XNA development platform, which does all the platform specific compilation itself.

Microsoft is insisting that anybody wishing to share games for the 360 with friends release the source code to those friends for them to compile manually - meaning that they must also be Creators Club members. It's also an interesting way to avoid gamers creating proprietary / paid for games, since the source code will be out there for anyone to compile. An interesting move in the direction of Open Source, or a way of making sure top talent signs up to the Xbox Live Marketplace?

This is clearly a big move for Microsoft - most console manufacturers go out of their way to prevent gamers running their own games on such platforms. For Microsoft to open up in this way is quite spectacular, and could be a massive boon to the indie development scene, allowing kids and students and enthusiasts to get programming for two important platforms.

Check out the XNA Express FAQ and let us know your thoughts over in the forums.
MSI 9800GTX Graphics Card
Quote simosaurus 13th December 2006, 11:00
this is a masterstroke by MS imo. Everyone with programming knowledge will wanna have a go at this.
in fact ive started developing a little shooter a week or 2 ago using XNA and running it under windows, its fun to do :) quite complicated to figure out all the code, but its a good learning experience
Quote ralph.pickering 13th December 2006, 12:47
It's a step in the right direction. The compulsory XNA membership requirement for people to use the games you create is a bit lame - how many people are going to stump up $99 so they can play one or two games a mate has knocked up in his spare time? If they really want to create a grassroots developer community, they need to allow those games to be freely distributable (or even semi-commercially). They could include a compulsory splash screen or watermark to limit the appeal to commercial game developers instead. Or maybe place a limit on the size of code that it will compile.

I'll only get excited when MS allow free, open source tools to create games or apps for the platform.
Quote landi_uk 13th December 2006, 12:59
Sorry but all this talk about MS money making gets to be very boring. Why should they be open source? I notice nobody complains about pharmaceutical companies licencing of products which prohibits another manufacturer making a cheaper "generic" version.

Lets cut to basics, if it wasn't for the clever marketing and product placement in the early versions of windows, the majority of people would still be working on dumb terminals, and the home PC would still be a niche enthusiast market instead of the mainstream it is today.

So what Microsoft have made a fortune on their products, if you'd been in at the early stages of windows and had MS share options I doubt you'd be complaining or campaigning for open source.

Personally I'm glad to see the possibility of enthusiasts being able to produce for the windows and xbox 360 platforms.
Quote Cthippo 13th December 2006, 13:10
Hardly. It would just mean that Apple would be the major player and the field would be much more diverse today.

As for the current topic, MS is trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want other people to develop games for their system, but still give them money. Hopefully some clever soul will figure out how to end-run them and make this a truly open community.
Quote Duste 13th December 2006, 14:09
A step in the right direction indeed! Open Source is the way of the future, and it's about time Microsoft realised it. Could this be the start of more Open Source developments from Microsoft? :o
Quote TheDean 13th December 2006, 18:08
This is a totally genius move by MS! Genius! The emulator community will go mad for this

I may even buy a 360 come the new year - Shock horror!
Quote BioSniper 13th December 2006, 18:17
Maybe a new XBMC on the 360 is on the horizon now then.. and legally too ;)
Quote DXR_13KE 13th December 2006, 19:49
nice..... has anyone tried using it?
Quote DougEdey 13th December 2006, 20:15
One of the lecturers at uni is at the launch night today.
Quote Agamer 13th December 2006, 22:13
Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
Maybe a new XBMC on the 360 is on the horizon now then.. and legally too ;)

First thing I thought to, And this one should be able to stream HD content without dieing, Smiles, It's only a matter of time now:D
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