Homebrew Software Enabled on Xbox 360

Some of you may remember my earlier opinions on modchips and some of the challenges they pose to the industry. Many folks stated that one of the primary reasons they liked the idea of modchips was that they could enable the development of homebrew software. And several folks suggested that we investigate how we could enable console owners to develop code on the 360 in a way that wouldn't damage the business model as modchips do. At the time all I could say was that we'd heard your feedback loud and clear. What I couldn't tell you is that the XNA team had been working on just such an idea for the last couple of years and that today we'd be announcing it. Press releases went out at 12:01 AM today, and as I type I'm sitting at Gamefest waiting for the keynote to begin where the audience of game developers is going to hear a lot more detail. Lots of curiousity in the room - I can hardly wait to talk to people afterward and see what they think.

I'm going to point you to LetsKillDave for more details and a lot of links, but simply put, today is the first step toward allowing all you creative types to develop your own games on the Xbox 360 and Windows. XNA Game Studio Express allows you to develop games on both Windows and the Xbox 360 and share them with your friends. Yes, there's a $99/year subscription on the Xbox 360 side. That subscription helps us solve the console business model issues, but it also enables the sharing of your code (to other XNA users in this crawl step) and brings you ongoing updates, content, and code.

You may remember the E3 where we announced the Xbox 360 and talked about Marketplace, and a vision of user-created content being shared across the Xbox Live community. Today's announcement is "just" the first crawl step, but rest assured that vision still drives the teams and any little "why can't I do Foo" questions will be answered sooner than you might expect. Smile

Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | live it!

Posted: Aug 14 2006, 08:44 AM by Ozymandias | 16 comments

Filed under: XNA

Comments

nopants727 said:

This is very exciting news and will hopefully open up development to new talent that might not have been able to make it right into the game industry, as well as a valuable learning tool. Also, $99 dollars yearly is not a bad price at all considering you pay $50 for 12 months of xbox live, for double that price you can have your own games on the 360 and possibly even share them with the world or make a career out of it. Hope you have a good time at Gamefest.

# August 14, 2006 9:30 AM

Mattias said:

How in the world will the distribution be taken care of? Will the 360 be able to run code from a burned cd/dvd, or will the software be distributed over Live to those who subscribe?

# August 14, 2006 10:28 AM

Mattias said:

I think Joystiq has some very valid comments on this announcement: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/14/will-xbox-360-xna-succeed-where-sony-failed/

One example:

"What can Microsoft learn from all of this? The first lesson is to make the system as accessible as possible. Microsoft has indicated a vision for a "community arcade" where developers can "share this stuff with people online, potentially sell it in time to people online," but it's not yet clear how this system will manifest itself. Anyone with Xbox Live should have access to anything created by XNA developers, without additional hardware or subscription fees. If Microsoft puts up too many walls to distribution, it could prevent a hot game from finding its niche and breaking out into the mainstream."

# August 14, 2006 10:33 AM

Ozymandias said:

You'll be able to share your 360 game with other XNA Game Studio Express subscribers - that's the crawl step. Obviously, you can share your Windows code with any and all other Windows users really easily.

We also announced XNA Game Studio Professional, which enables a path to create "professional" Xbox 360 games that can be published and shared with anyone. So think of XNA Game Studio Express as the first step. It's free to develop for on Windows, and if you want to create 360 games you can do the $99/year subscription as of this month. Later XNA Game Studio Professional will allow more serious developers to develop games that could be released at retail, or on marketplace. I say "could" because it would all depend on the quality of the game you make, whether you find a publisher, find a way to self-publish or what. But the key point is that there's a migration path people can follow if they find they have the interest.

# August 14, 2006 10:36 AM

Twist said:

Now if they would just add the Mac OS X into the mix. Imagine being able to write code once and then compile a game that would run on Windows, Xbox 360, and Mac OS X. And of course being able to do this from Windows or Mac OS X would be great as well. I know of a number of Mac shareware game developers who would love to get their stuff onto XBLA but have no interest in using Windows to do so. Maybe XNA Game Studio Express teamed with Intel based Mac's that can boot Windows will get some of them to reconsider but adding Mac OS X to the XNA build targets and releasing a Mac version of XNA tools would definitely get them interested.

# August 14, 2006 10:38 AM

Mattias said:

This comment in the FAQ made me even more excited: "Eventually, you’ll be able to distribute that code to other Xbox 360s, opening up a unique publishing avenue which will democratize game development on consoles."

I look forward to the day, when we can download software from the marketplace, created by other users. Damn, if that's the case, you're sitting on a goldmine now! ;-)

# August 14, 2006 10:42 AM

Escobar said:

Awesome news. I can't wait for it. But I don't know how to code. I'll check out tutorials and stuff.

By the way people, with XNA Studio Express Pro have access to 'Achievements' and other cool features.

P.S.: Ozymandias, do you think it's possible for one person to create a somewhat deep 2D game? (Castlevania: DoS, FFIV, etc. maybe not as deep but you get the picture). I am thinking of creating a 2D game (once I have knowledge in coding) but most likely I won't work with anyone else. I'll possibly ask someone to create the music and sounds. But that's about it.

# August 14, 2006 11:09 AM

Ozymandias said:

Re: "By the way people, with XNA Studio Express Pro have access to 'Achievements' and other cool features.

Yep, the intent of XNA Studio Express Pro is to enable developers to create games that can pass Xbox TCRs (such as Achievement requirements) and ship as a real, retail game (be it on disc or marketplace or some futuristic "other" means of distribution).

As to a single person creating a 2D game, I don't see why not. That's where this industry started, after all... and XNA Studio is just letting people like you express your creativity. I'm personally super-excited to see what people come up with.

# August 14, 2006 11:17 AM

platinumacetric said:

This is amazing.. Microsoft you have just slahed the request of thousands for mid chips. This is very exciting. I for one am gonna by the license to develop and be in the network of the developers.. Thank god microsoft has ears and is listening to users. I am so overwelmed with excitment , that i am really really disappointed that i could not go to gamefest. Damn. well i am gonna see if i can catch some webcast..

Thanks Ozy...

ohh and Thanks J.Allard for doing this. I knew putting him in charge of the xna development will be the best decision..

# August 14, 2006 11:25 AM

Escobar said:

I'm gonna get started checking out tutorials and all that good stuff. I'll be using Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition.

Anyways, I have another question, do you know any details about putting up games on the marketplace? I don't know how it's going to work. I hope people can put their created games on the marketplace and sell them (assuming the created game meets the requirements).

I'm personally going to put my games as free on the marketplace (and charge a small amount in future games). I think thats the best thing I should do to get noticed in the near future. And yes, I will get XNA Express Pro when I have more knowledge in coding.

# August 14, 2006 11:37 AM

las6 said:

ooh, nice. This is very nice.

You might just start seeing binaryzoo (http://www.binaryzoo.com) games (mono, duo or duotris anyone?) for xbox360 sometime in the future.

I personally love the controller for 360 even though I don't like consoles much at all.. and The controller alone would want me to make games for the Xbox 360. Like this very simple concept game I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUQsQpzYt6Y

it just wouldn't be the same without the controller...

# August 14, 2006 12:45 PM

Lee said:

Will it be possible to get like a basic game with the XNA tool to see how it all fits together. I learn best from looking at everything put together rather than looking through books and learning how each section fits together etc i.e. throw me in at the deep end. I'm currently a trainee for a company learning SQL, PL/SQL so might try throw this into the mix!!!

Basically I'd like an example to first copy and tweak to understand how it works.

Thanks

# August 14, 2006 1:06 PM

Ozymandias said:

Re: "Will it be possible to get like a basic game with the XNA tool to see how it all fits together. I learn best from looking at everything put together rather than looking through books and learning how each section fits together etc i.e. throw me in at the deep end. I'm currently a trainee for a company learning SQL, PL/SQL so might try throw this into the mix!!!"

Yes, there will be sample code and games with XNA Game Studio Express... and in fact, you'll also get more of this content on an ongoing basis with the subscription if you decide you want to do the 360 development.

# August 14, 2006 3:56 PM

imaginedbug said:

I still don't undestand why the games created with the tools aren't cross-platform compatible? Shouldn't the software be smart enough to build in a function that checks what platform you're running the game on and then automagically enable/disable certain features (think Achievements disabled on Windows XP, enabled on the 360 and Vista with Live Anywhere).

On a more personal note; those of us who don't want to read through dozens of pages with technical mumbo-jumbo would like to get a shortlist of links telling us where to find what. For example: how do I export my objects from Maya 7 so they can be correctly used in an XNA project? Which exporter should I use? Where can I get it should I not have it yet.

It's cool that there's a lot of info for programmers, but what about the people who make the graphics for the games?

# August 15, 2006 2:45 AM