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[Xbox-Scene]

Gamefest Keynote Podcast and Official XNA Team Blog Posted by XanTium | August 15 00:34 EST

A bit more news about the XNA Game Studio Express and indie development of games on the Xbox 360. * Major Nelson posted an audio podcast of the full keynote addresss given today by Chris Satchell at Microsoft's 2006 Gamefest in Seattle Washington, where he speaks about XNA Game Studio Express and open Xbox 360 developement. You can go download it majornelson.com. * The official XNA team blog has been launched: When we showed off managed code running on an Xbox 360 earlier this year at GDC, there was quite a bit of speculation about how cool it would be if we let the community at large have access to managed code on their Xbox 360. We all smiled and bit our tongues and looked forward to today, when we could talk about things for real. The essence of our announcement today is this. We will ship XNA Game Studio Express this fall. It is all about helping the community at large develop games using the Visual Studio environment on the Windows computers. Then they can run those games on either Windows- or on their retail Xbox 360. Yes. That is right. You will be able to run your own code on a regular, bought-at-a-store, Xbox 360, including the one that you already own. After GDC in spring, someone correctly pointed out that opening the Xbox 360 would be a tough business model for us, as Microsoft, to support because of the economic realities of the game console business. They were right. Running unsigned code on your Xbox 360 will require a yearly subscription of $99.00. The tools Windows runtimes will be free of charge. The subscription allows us to open up the console within the bounds of the Xbox business model, invest in interesting sample games, and keep the program going. The program we are building, however, is more than a beginner tool. You will be able to write full-on games with shaders and high-end graphics if you want to go deeper. Anyway, we are all very excited about this stuff. It feels good to do something that will improve the community around us and create innovative new games at the same time. There will be much more new stuff to talk about as we move through the year. Because this is a blog and not the actual press announcement, I can talk about the big obvious hole in the plan. When we ship XNA Game Studio Express this fall, you will be able to share your final product with anyone on your windows machine that you want, but there is no support for sharing Xbox binaries other than sending your source around. We fully intend to fix this in the future, and if I have anything to do about it, it will be sooner than later. The more people that sign up for the subscription and start showing cool innovative content that everyone wants, the easier it will be to get this done. Read More: XNA team blog

[The Anarchist]

QUOTE

Running unsigned code on your Xbox 360 will require a yearly subscription of $99.00.

unsigned code w00t  

[Arch0n]

What - no comments? this is BIG news. Just gotta ask yourself, is $99 per year more than you're willing to pay to have XBMC360, emulators and other home brew.

Maybe a managed code exploit will turn up too  


Ed- oh too late

[the0ry]

This is big news to me.  Sounds like endless possibilities...
Just the thought of using XBMC on my 360 makes me drool.

[0794]

I think that we are still a while away from even a $99 per year XBMC on the 360.  And if so, what use is it until we can use larger hard drives?  And it sounds like the $99 per year is per 360 - sucks for those who want XBMC360 in more than one location in their home.

Nothing (not even home theater PCs) can touch a modded original xbox - the interface, ease of use, heat & noise production, size, cost, etc - it's absolutely amazing.

This XNA stuff is a great leap of faith for MS and a very interesting model for potential future game production.

[the0ry]

Agreed.  Original modded Xbox with XBMC is the best HTPC option all across the board IMHO.

[kidkinetix]

Keep in mind that there is still no support for 'online' play, and by that I also assume they don't allow access to the network card whatsoever in this so called debug mode.

So, everyone keep their Xbox and go make a game, and if it doesn't suck share it :]

This post has been edited by kidkinetix: Aug 15 2006, 04:44 PM

[jsrlepage]

i'm still betting hardcore and crazy-a$$3d freaks will be able to hack through the managed part and get access to hardware. Then, it'll only be a matter of doing our own Live!. Or, better yet, integrate XlinkKAI to the damn thing ^^