Wow it looks neat. Very, very neat actually, i'm really impressed. They might even be able to make it much, much more interesting by making it possible to use all 3 cores, have full GPU control and have the ability to read/write (parts of) the HDD. Then you could probably code almost anything with it.
But still, thats exactly what puts me off with the whole XNA thing: its 100% controlled by MS. In other words, the only things you will ever be able to do is what MS intends you to do with it. Admitted, it looks like that's quite a lot more than i expected, but i think we can forget about the really interesting things. For example, proper HW video playback will definitely be out, as it could disturb MS's own media center strategy. Full GPU capabilities will also be out, because it might open attack vectors through shader programs etc. Also full GPU access and 3-core support migh make it possible to create something that is better than some commercial games, which is something MS (and their development partners) probably wouldn't like. Finally, I don't like the 'XNA subscription' thing at all. It effectively means nothing you create will run on any 360 but your own, until MS allows it to.
So, technically its a very nice feat and MS deserves a compliment for that. The whole XNA initiative is one of the very few good moves MS made in the last few years. But I'll still be holding out for real homebrew on the 360. My 5 year old xbox-1 is still one of my most valued and most-used appliances, though i never use it for games anymore.
This post has been edited by d-range: Nov 30 2006, 06:36 PM