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Make Xbox 360 games, for a price

One of the reasons that Microsoft has been able to break into the video game business is because they've done a good job sleeping with developers. Not literally of course, but they've gone out of their way to help dev shops make the most of the hardware and get their stuff out there. That's why there are so many great games out there.

So now they've announced a development tool for the masses so anyone can develop for the console. This is a fabulous idea... except for the price. Why would you do something so brilliant to foster indie-style software development and then charge them for it.

Come on guys... the Xbox group is the one part of the company that gets it. Don't do something stupid like this.

Posted: Aug 14 2006, 09:40 AM by Jeff | with 6 comment(s)
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Comments

MarcLaFleur said:

While developers have made Windows great, they have also given the platform a reputation for instability. The last thing XBox needs is to be categorized as unstable - Sony has inappriate dreams about saddling XBox with those labels.

And don't diminish what they are doing here. They have just changed the ball game by allowing anyone to develop for their console. The console market has been historically very selective about who gets access to their customers. Microsoft may not be opening things up to the hobbyist here, but they are opening things up for real software companies that might have been excluded in the past.

# August 14, 2006 10:28 AM

Jeff said:

I'm not entirely sure I agree with all of your points. Part of "opening up" means having the ability to publish and distribute your stuff. I understand that there has to be a QA process for this, but this strikes me as a half-measure at this point.

# August 14, 2006 10:39 AM

Brent Johnson said:

I completely agree, Jeff. $99 per year? That's more than I pay for Xbox Live which brings me real value without having to roll up my sleeves and build my own game. Now they are telling me I have to PAY $99 per year for the RIGHT to build on my 360? No thanks - I'll just continue building games on Windows. At least on Windows I can decide to sell or distribute them if I want to. On the 360 with XNA it requires that my friends are also paying $99 / year if they want to play my game. That's just B$.

# August 14, 2006 11:39 AM

Matt Guest said:

A hobbyist that is willing to put the time and effort into working on something as difficult as writing a video game should be more than willing to pay $100/year to have his/her game available to play on the xbox 360. In my opinion the cost will help drive away all of the trash that would flood it otherwise.

This is a truly revolutionary step in console gaming. Generally even if you have the money to pony up $12,000 for a dev kit you still have to go through all kinds of hoops before they'll sell you one.

This will give serious hobbyists the opportunity to get their ideas out there for the world, and maybe a publisher, to see.

Once the real details of this come out not only will I be purchasing a license, but it will also be the push that makes me finally buy an xbox 360.

# August 14, 2006 11:49 AM

Jeff said:

You make a pretty good point there in terms of acting as a filter. I had not considered that before.

# August 14, 2006 1:33 PM

afsdfsdfa said:

Same problem with developing for the iPhone not to mention that NDA that basically forbids an open source project like SDL being released into the wild (Or at least into the hands of anyone that hasn't agreed to the NDA).  

# August 20, 2008 9:23 AM
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