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A More Accessible XNA

Company: Microsoft
Product: XNA Game Studio Express

During the Microsoft GameFest keynote speech, Chris Satchell, General Manager for the Microsoft Game Developer Group, announced a new development studio that is designed to help bring more people into the game development community.

Satchell cited the way that communities like You Tube have been made creating films and getting them in front of people easier than ever before. Satchell stated that the key is giving the general public tools and capabilities that are simple to use and that don't require extensive Computer Science experience to use.


"Imagine a site, like You Tube or mySpace, where the public posts their own games to share with others on a mass scale," commented Satchell.

Since its announcement at GDC '04, Microsoft has been pushing their new development framework, XNA. This "Xbox DNA" is a tool set that allows for innovations like the recent ally announced, XBox Live Anywhere initiative, that allows users to work with their Live accounts on the 360, Windows Vista or Windows CE Mobile device. With this complete package, developers will have access to "a unified development tool that liberates the creation of great Xbox 360 and Windows XP-compatible games".


And now, Microsoft is planning on releasing a community friendly and casual version of the framework and environment called XNA Game Studio Express. Much like the express version of Microsoft's other development studio, Visual Studio 2005 (which is the groundwork for this studio), this flavor of XNA Studio will be free for Windows development. Satchell made a point to say several times that this is to really help that 10 year-old kid who has an idea create their first game and show it to their friends.

And while development for the PC is free, there is still the possibility of developing a game for the 360 console. Users can buy a $99 a year subscription that will allow them membership into the Creators Club where their projects can be fully realized and brought to the Xbox.

What Microsoft hopes will come from this more accessible game development environment is communities that not only create developers, but also allow people to share their games, like You Tube, and extend the penetration video games have in the general economy. Satchell pointed out that in the last couple of years, the video game industry has almost doubled in the amount of revenue it generates, but the market penetration has stayed at 36%.

"This means we aren't getting any new people to buy our products, just the same ones. So we are having them pay more and more money; eventually, they will run out," he said.


XNA Game Studio Express is scheduled to come out this holiday season with a more professionally-slanted version due to hit the market for bigger developers sometime in 2007.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated