MS Looks to Spur 360 Development
Hoping to spur innovation in Xbox 360 video games, Microsoft delivered a pre-release version of its tools and technologies development platform at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose Monday. Dubbed the XNA Studio and Framework, the company is betting that it would help developers streamline and optimize the process of creating games.
As well as offering these new tools, Microsoft also announced it was opening up its Xbox Live platform to allow developers to innovate on top of it and add the functionality in their game titles.
Among the components of XNA Studio is XNA Build, which assists in the organization, debugging, and optimization process of coding game builds. It would also help developers to ensure that code is optimized to take full advantage of available resources, meaning they would have more time to focus on game play itself.
"XNA Studio enables all developers -- from major development studios to the two guys moonlighting on a dream project in their garage or dorm room -- to create games in new, more efficient ways," Microsoft's Game Developer Group general manager Chris Satchell said.
The XNA Framework is a customized version of the .NET Framework for the Xbox 360 platform that is optimized so that developers can easily create cross-platform games for Windows and Xbox 360. Microsoft says this will provide great benefits to developers, as they would be able to reuse code across platforms without sacrificing performance.
The programming language the XNA Framework would be based on is C#. Game developers say such a development is a refreshing change. "Anything that simplifies the process of creating great casual games and lowers the development complexity for Windows and Xbox 360 is something we're happy to support," said PopCap Games business development director James Gwertzman.
With the next Xbox Development Kit, due in May, Microsoft would add tools to allow developers to more easily integrate Xbox Live technologies into their titles. The company said its own title, Project Gotham Racing 3, offers an early look at the enhancements available through this new feature.
In Spectator mode in the game on Xbox Live, up to 30,000 spectators can watch racers play in real time. Microsoft said it expects that opening up the platform would provide for future innovative methods of game play.