The product aims to address three unique challenges Microsoft sees facing the games industry: keeping people in the industry (crunch mode sucks), building up the pipeline of new entrants coming into the industry (they'll work with universities), and helping grow the audience to match industry growth (new ideas mean new gamers).
This enthusiast offering will be followed next spring with a professional offering, allowing small studios to sell the games they're developing. While they have no price point fixed just yet, they did tell us they "are looking at a price point of absolutely under $1000," a fair share cheaper than existing devkits.
The $99 subscription grants you access to the (tentatively titled) "creator's club," which will also offer downloadable sample games to help would be game developers get started. Unfortunately, these sample games will not be available outside of the subscription service to entice curious coders to participate, but they are a launching point for the most exciting, innovative, and (understandably) long-term goal of this project. A community-powered Xbox Live Arcade gaming space. Scott Henson, Director of the Game Development Group at Microsoft, told us:
"In the future -- we don't have a specific time frame -- we envision investing in the infrastructure to create a friction-free distribution environment very similar to what you see with YouTube. You've got these really cheap accessible tools, now wouldn't it be really cool if you had a way to share this stuff with people online, potentially sell it in time to people online, and what if we, Microsoft, created the platform and the distribution mechanism as a part of the Xbox Live service so you could do that. So our vision and our ambition is to actually create a community-powered arcade."
As a result, they imagine a "cultural phenomenon" similar to YouTube where would be game designers upload their creations and participate in an online community with the meritocratic notion that better games will inevitably rise to the top. With the announcement that 10 universities will be integrating XNA Game Studio Express into their curriculum, we imagine a great deal of content on just such a future service.
Just as Xbox Live debuted with the original Xbox, but took the concentrated focus of the 360 to fully exploit it, we wonder how long it will be until we as gamers really start to reap the benefits of these ambitious plans, either in the form of a community-powered arcade or innovative indie games. Continue reading the entire press release, pasted below, for all the details.
SEATTLE - Aug. 13, 2006 - In the 30 years of video game development, the
art of making console games has been reserved for those with big projects, big budgets and the backing of big game labels. Now Microsoft Corp. is bringing this art to the masses with a revolutionary new set of tools, called XNA Game Studio Express, based on the XNA(tm) platform. XNA Game Studio Express will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.
During his keynote presentation today at Gamefest 2006, a Microsoft(r) game developer event hosted by Microsoft in Seattle, Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft, announced details of the new technology, which will be broadly available this holiday season. XNA Game Studio Express will be available for free to anyone with a Windows(r) XP-based PC and will provide them with Microsoft's next-generation platform for game development. By joining a "creators club" for an annual subscription fee of $99 (U.S.), users will be able to build, test and share their games on Xbox 360(tm) and access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development progress. This represents the first significant opportunity for novice developers to make a console game without a significant investment in resources.
During his keynote, Satchell talked about academic institutions that are lining up to include XNA Game Studio Express in their course offerings. Also showcased was the work of key XNA supporters Autodesk Inc. and GarageGames. Through the Microsoft XNA relationship with Autodesk, the leading provider of 3-D authoring software, game developers and enthusiasts can now more easily incorporate content into XNA Game Studio Express via Autodesk's FBX file exchange format. Joining Satchell on stage was Mark Frohnmayer, president of GarageGames, who showcased ports of its next-generation Torque tools and technology over to the XNA Game Studio Express platform.
XNA Game Studio Express Opens Up Game Creation to the World
By providing an integrated, seamless development environment based on Visual Studio(r) Express and .NET that simplifies the integration and use of game content, XNA Game Studio Express makes game development easier to accomplish for smaller projects, strongly increasing the chance for great game ideas to make it out of the concept stage and into the hands of gamers everywhere.
The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform. XNA Game Studio Express will give anyone with a Windows XP-based PC access to a unified development tool that liberates the creation of great Xbox 360 and Windows XP-compatible games, providing a new alternative to the existing multithousand-dollar development kits that many console games require. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season.
"XNA Game Studio Express will ignite innovation and accelerate prototyping, forever changing the way games are developed," Satchell said. "By unlocking retail Xbox 360 consoles for community-created games, we are ushering in a new era of cross-platform games based on the XNA platform. We are looking forward to the day when all the resulting talent-sharing and creativity transforms into a thriving community of user-created games on Xbox 360."
Not only will XNA Game Studio Express turn the community into creators, but a second XNA toolset geared toward game development professionals is scheduled to be available in spring 2007, fundamentally changing the way commercial games are developed.
The Beginning of the Game Developer Revolution
From students at colleges, universities and high schools of the future to the proverbial "guys in the garage," Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express will liberate anyone with a great game idea to create titles for Xbox 360 and Windows XP simultaneously. More than 10 universities and their game development schools - including University of Southern California, Georgia Tech College of Computing and Southern Methodist University Guildhall - have already pledged to integrate console game development and XNA Game Studio Express into their curricula for the first time, and Xbox 360 will be the only console at the center of all coursework.
"Great game ideas are incubating in the minds of students everywhere," said Michael Zyda, director for Gamepipe Labs at the University of Southern California. "With XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft is investing in these next-generation innovators, creating the canvas for dreamers to express their powerful game ideas. In incorporating XNA Game Studio Express and Xbox 360 consoles into our Gamepipe program, USC will be able to better provide game studios and publishers around the world with a newfound wellspring of talent and opportunity. It's ingenious."
In addition, GarageGames, technology provider and developer of one of the most successful Xbox Live(r) Arcade titles, "Marble Blast Ultra," has migrated both its Torque Shader Engine and new Torque Game Builder 2-D visual game designer over to the XNA Game Studio Express platform.
"The GarageGames mission has always been to provide top-tier technology, tools and community to independent and aspiring game developers," said Josh Williams, CEO of GarageGames. "We are excited that Microsoft is demonstrating leadership by taking the revolutionary step of opening up game development for Xbox 360 to hobbyists and students. In aligning our tools and technology with XNA Game Studio Express, we're helping even more individuals with the creativity and drive to make video games bring them to life on both Windows XP and Xbox 360."
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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And it wasn't a contender before?
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Consider me impressed!
I wonder how the 360 development will actually work. Will XNA Studio be able to compile onto PC and 360, and we'll have to develop in Windows and *pray* that the 360 version will just *work*? Or will we somehow be able to run XNA Framework code on retail Xboxes?
Or will we have to buy into the (absurdly) expensive dev kits?
I see a security problem here really... The XNA Framework is a specialized and limited implementation of the .NET CLR (as far as I can tell), which allows C# functionality on the 360. For one thing, the potential for this to be exploited for piracy is huge. Secondly, what's to stop someone from distributing something that nukes your savegames? Or at least messes with a whole slew of other things. The Framework will probably be secure enough to prevent client code from killing the box, but it can probably do enough to make someone's life hell. 360 viruses, anyone?
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Oh no by all means no. I'm a proud owner of a 360, I just meant proving to other people who don't consider it a current gen system and who are still stuck on saying Xbox 1.5.
"This is a really cool idea, though $99 seems a bit much for someone with a small interest only to find that oops, this isn't what they wanted. They've just wasted $99 on it. Hopefully MS can provide a demo of some sort."
You pretty much do have a demo with the beta coming out for free in a couple weeks. It's just that the beta we're getting can only develop for PC, and with the $99 you can take the games you've been making and port them to 360. So if you can make it on PC, you can make it on 360. So in essence you'll already know what your getting. $99 is a good deal considering the other things you get to help you make the games. Plus it's annually and should only for people really planning to make games such as myself, when for people with little to no money (myself lol) and people who aren't as serious should just stick with the free beta.
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Sounds stupid, and it probably is but there's nothing to stop dedicated programmers from doing it. I do wonder how they're going to emulate the PowerPC architecture of the 360 on x86-based PCs with Intel and AMD chips.
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Let's see what Sony can do now...so far, they've dropped every ball on the PS3.
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If Sony had bothered to explain it properly you'd all be aware that part of the reason PS3 has Linux built in is to drive user created content, the same way as Sony's own PS2 Linux kit worked. Except this time its as standard on every machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps2_linux
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.NET is secure - like a sandbox. Its not C++ where you can do anything. This means people won't be able kill save games, allow piracy or anything like that. Its also $100 a year... but thats nothing really.
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Secondly- The loophole in the taxes has now been closed (neither "computers" nor "games consoles" attract import duty in Europe), and has been since 2004- so Sony clearly have some deeper plans for PS3 Linux other than cost-cutting.
Thirdly- Its ties in very closely with what Sony have said about their E-Distribution Initiative, and as a result will probably work with that. It is likely that whilst privately created titles can be shared amongst select users, impressive titles can be submitted to Sony through this system for further development and large scale exposure (if they are deemed suitable).
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9290
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9931
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*sigh*
MS will certify anything that comes through, obviously. They're not going to let a random person toss up an arcade game. Also, obviously, there would be contracts and paperwork to deal with too. It's not like someone will write some code and BAM, Marketplace content.
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To play other peoples games, they need to give you the entire source code and everything else and you have to compile it and then place it on your 360. This means if someone makes a virus or backdoor in a game, you'll be able to catch it.
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I am pretty sure they were just saying that XNA and its libraries were written in C#, not that your app's will need to be written in it.
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Online, homebrew-capable, devtools-included, overheating, noisy, virus-packed, hacked, modded... thankfully, it lacks blue screens... for now.
Just kidding.
Great news indeed, and masterfully played, Microsoft. Now that may be a reason for me to pick this console next year, depending on how this all works in the real life. Here's to hoping it succeeds. Cheers.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm
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This could put to rest the debate whether encouraging homebrew game development is in a console manufacturer's best interest or not. It's all well and good to talk about how many more PSP's Sony MIGHT sell IF they opened it up to legitimized homebrew, but here Microsoft is going to have cold hard figures showing how much of their audience has in interest in creating their own games, how serious they are about it, and how much profit potential there is in it.
If it fails, it will validate the idea that homebrew is little more than an excuse for piracy. If it succeeds, it could be the beginning of a whole new era of user-generated game content like we haven't seen since the C64 days.
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I am glad to see you are a fellow believer in the PS3. I thought you might be interested to hear some more awesome things about the PS3. I got all this directly from Sony's marketing department so you know it is completely true. So it turns out the PS3 has been ready for quite some time but Sony has been so busy selling them to important organizations they just haven't had enough to sell to gamers. So here are some of the awesome things about the PS3.
-The NSA was having trouble going through all the data they were getting from AT&T on American citizens. Sony stepped in and set up a bunch of PS3s which can filter over a thousand inane phone conversations a minute.
-Everyone thought the Dallas Mavericks were going to win the NBA Championship, but the Miami Heat beat them. Do you know how the Miami Heat practiced? That's right, with NBA 2K7.... on a PS3.
-Ever heard of Ned Lamont? His top political advisor got ahold of PS3 to run super complex election models that showed that maybe a few Americans were less than happy about the war in Iraq.
-Fidel Castro? Dead. What is shown in the news is in game footage from an upcoming version of Tropico for the PS3.
-The PS3 can cure most known diseases, but it is not FDA approved.
-The PS3 Cell has computed sums past infinity, three times.
-The PS3 has no internal clock. It's new 4d features allow it to decide what time it is.
-The PS3 Cell can divide by zero.
-In the PS3 Cell, every Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) is faster than every other Synergistic Processing Element.
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But instead, they're being dicks about it, going to want $1000 for you to get your game on the arcade, and I would be absolutely AMAZED of they let the creators keep more than 10% of each sale. So if you make a nice simple game, want to price it at 400 points ($5), you'd be making $0.50/sale. You'd have to sell 2000 copies of the game even to break even, and if you had a real hit on your hands and sold 20,000 you'd only make $9000. They obviously don't want individual developers to be making games that the community loves and be able to surrport themselves doing so. Which is unfortunate for everyone involved.
Bastards.
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Arcade makers get 70%, MS only keeps 30% as seen here, unless MS does the porting:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/687/687336p1.html
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3 people on your team? $33 a year. 5 people? less than 20 a year.
Besides, making one game on your own, unless incredibly simplistic, would take WAYY too long to do.
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Loque: It's going to be $1000 to offer your game for sale, not $100. The $100 is just for access to a developers community. And a single person game taking too long? Not at all, something like Geometry Wars could easily be done by a single person in a short amount of time. And if the platform were open enough, you can be certain that easier tools for game creation would be made available.
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Ethan, putting aside the fanboyism of the image, I just have to say that Photoshop should be for art designers, people with of visual design and/or people who can draw. Everyone thinks he/she is a Photoshop guru nowadays.
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I have E3 of 2005 still on my harddrive and I remember being told we could do this. Tshirts and skate parks we can download from Velocity Girl. Where the hell is this feature?
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There isn't much cause to worry about malware. Only other people with the kits would be able to run from your source and nothing would appear on XBLA until it has passed full scrutiny. Microsoft states in their press release that criteria will include content and IP considerations, too. So no porn games and no blatant clones without a sufficient amount of original ideas added. You could do a game in the spirit of Gradius but not an outright Gradius clone.
$100 is cheap indeed when you consider the amount of support and other benefits promised. For student in a serious game oriented curriculum, this would be a minor expense compared to what textbooks for a single semester can run for just about any major. That $100 serves to pay the salaries of the MS people doing the support work and creating things like code samples, and also helps filter out those who aren't serious about learning to do this stuff.
While doing a clone of King's Quest would be unacceptable, creating an engine for others to use for games reminiscent of the Sierra classics would be reasonable. Make a version with tools for the PC and just a runtime for the Xbox 360. A popular engine could garner a whol library of games around it.
What Microsoft should do to build on this is a yearly contest modeled on the Atari Program Exchange fromt he 8-bit days. APX took submissions in several categories and winnowed those down to a quarterly set of leaders. Those then vied for the annual championship of the category and overall Best of Show status.
A number of people got their start with APX. 'Caverns of Mars,' a scrolling shooter, was so popular it was eventually published on cartridge as a mainstream Atari title. A version is also on the Atari Flashback 2 mini-console.
Fernando Herrera, submitted a education app he'd created for his visually impaired child. He eventually co-founded First Star Software (named for the APX annual contest's Star Award)which published a number of memorable games including the original Boulderdash and Spy vs. Spy.
APX was a great thing back then and could be far better today with wide access to broadband making the Xbox 360 community able to actively vote for their favorites. The winners could be collected annually on a budget pried DVD with some interviews of the creators. In this way the budding game makers could see their first commercial console success. It would look very good on a resume, no doubt.
#26
Derek, if you already have a substantial investment in C++ code for reuse, this isn't likely for you. You're more likely at the stage where you should get serious about a shareware release on the PC and then pitching an XBLA port.
Moving your code from C++ to C# shouldn't be sweating blood chore. I'd wait and see what code MS provides in samples first since that might accomplish much of the same tasks or provide a starting point which would save a lot of labor.
Since this is aimed at beginners, keeping a certain amount of seperation between them and the bare metal is preferable. Keeping everything in C# makes the porting almost effortless and performance shouldn't be an issue with the highly optimized CLR on the 360 side. Especially not for the scale of projects intended.
#38
Get a grip. A console is a pay to play environment. You can do shareware games on the PC as much as you like without any involvement from Microsoft at all.
As for this, pay closer attention to the article. There are NO revenues. This is for those who want to produce free games and demos to hone their skills and develop a reputation that will be handy when trying to turn pro. The games would be made freely available on XBLA with Mcirosoft picking up the tab for bandwidth. This is why the YouTube analogy was made. Is YouTube ripping off amateur video makers by giving them an elaborate yet free distribution channel?
As for XBLA revenue, keeping 70% or 60% for handing the port work to MS, is incredibly good money compared to the typical console game sold at retail. This enables devlopers to reach the market who could never hope to operate in the retail disc model.
#45
No, he is completely wrong. Flash and Shockwave runtimes are available for developers and used in demo discs for retail stations. The nature of those environments would prevent developers from being able to fully exploit the hardware. You could port a game like Alien Hominid easily but would hae a lot of trouble doing anything serious with the GPU at a non-generic level and several XBLA games do make direct use of those features.
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5-10million xbox’s (we will say 6M)
50-60% attachment rate of live (we will say 50%)
Sell your idea to 1% of those people and you make $30,000.
Now that is motivation for the homebrew crowd!
“Innovation Via Motivation” That should get the attachment rate up.
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