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Microsoft are trying to get a foothold on the games industry, and they have done something which no manufacturer has the expertise or knowhow to match their effort.
See Microsoft's venture into the console hardware business was booed and ridiculed by "hardcore" console gamers who thought that Microsoft were just atempting to carve out a nice little slice of the multibillion pound console games industry, and they'd be spot on, the same way Sony jumped on the bandwagon on the back of Sony's success, and the way Nintendo and Sega jumped on the bandwagon after Atari's success.
The difference between Microsoft and all the other "new comers" over the years is that they are the first company to enter the industry from a software engineering background.
Nintendo made their money for over half a century selling traditional japanese games and trading cards. Sega was a Korean hardware manufacturer who merged with a small Japanese games startup company to produce arcade games. Sony were already in microelectronics with their massively successful WalkMan, so entered the industry also from hardware perspective.
But Microsoft don't make hardware, and still don't, they just fund the manufacturing of the systems by another company under the supervision of the companis supplying the processor, GPU and mainboard.
The Microsoft gaming platform really only just took off this month, and it is a way of integrating the system development tools for PCs, Xbox and Windows Mobile Devices into a single modular development platform.
The first titles which will be released from the XNA platform will be available before Christmas, this is when we will begin to see the effects of XNA, but it will not be until the release of the Xbox 2 which the industry experience of Microsoft will begin to tell.
So, now that's I've told you what XNA will aim for, I'll tell you what it is :D
XNA is a set of routines which will be created for Microsoft to allow developers to concentrate solely on developing good games. It will provide a very competent de facto standard game engine where people can choose to use certain features, leave them out all together, or plug in their own improved or modified version of the modules.
In effect, the XNA platform will allow a developer to technically make a brilliantly rendered and efficient game using a standard Microsoft game engine, meaning that the game will be more directed liek a film rather than bounded by the limits of what an engine can achieve.
XNA will also allow PCs to connect to Xbox Live, allowing PC gamers and Xbox gamers compete against each other in the same games.
What this means for gamers is that the standard of the poor titles on Microsoft platforms is about to be raised considerably. The Sudeki's, Halo's and PGRs will still be leading the field in revolutionary and ground breaking technologies, but the average title such as MechAssault or Unreal Tournament will never be blighted by silly game engine bugs again, the devlopers will only need to concentrate on developing games which can be played and which are fun.
Suddenly Microsoft look to be taking the lead in the next gen console race, before any console specs are even announced, why? Because the developers with low budgets and small R&D departments and are only really interested in making good games to entertain people will not have to struggle with a new technology platform ever again.
Games will be developed for XNA, and will be supported by the hardware which supports the modules used.
If you want the full low down on XNA and what it means for the games industry, grab this months Edge :D
See Microsoft's venture into the console hardware business was booed and ridiculed by "hardcore" console gamers who thought that Microsoft were just atempting to carve out a nice little slice of the multibillion pound console games industry, and they'd be spot on, the same way Sony jumped on the bandwagon on the back of Sony's success, and the way Nintendo and Sega jumped on the bandwagon after Atari's success.
The difference between Microsoft and all the other "new comers" over the years is that they are the first company to enter the industry from a software engineering background.
Nintendo made their money for over half a century selling traditional japanese games and trading cards. Sega was a Korean hardware manufacturer who merged with a small Japanese games startup company to produce arcade games. Sony were already in microelectronics with their massively successful WalkMan, so entered the industry also from hardware perspective.
But Microsoft don't make hardware, and still don't, they just fund the manufacturing of the systems by another company under the supervision of the companis supplying the processor, GPU and mainboard.
The Microsoft gaming platform really only just took off this month, and it is a way of integrating the system development tools for PCs, Xbox and Windows Mobile Devices into a single modular development platform.
The first titles which will be released from the XNA platform will be available before Christmas, this is when we will begin to see the effects of XNA, but it will not be until the release of the Xbox 2 which the industry experience of Microsoft will begin to tell.
So, now that's I've told you what XNA will aim for, I'll tell you what it is :D
XNA is a set of routines which will be created for Microsoft to allow developers to concentrate solely on developing good games. It will provide a very competent de facto standard game engine where people can choose to use certain features, leave them out all together, or plug in their own improved or modified version of the modules.
In effect, the XNA platform will allow a developer to technically make a brilliantly rendered and efficient game using a standard Microsoft game engine, meaning that the game will be more directed liek a film rather than bounded by the limits of what an engine can achieve.
XNA will also allow PCs to connect to Xbox Live, allowing PC gamers and Xbox gamers compete against each other in the same games.
What this means for gamers is that the standard of the poor titles on Microsoft platforms is about to be raised considerably. The Sudeki's, Halo's and PGRs will still be leading the field in revolutionary and ground breaking technologies, but the average title such as MechAssault or Unreal Tournament will never be blighted by silly game engine bugs again, the devlopers will only need to concentrate on developing games which can be played and which are fun.
Suddenly Microsoft look to be taking the lead in the next gen console race, before any console specs are even announced, why? Because the developers with low budgets and small R&D departments and are only really interested in making good games to entertain people will not have to struggle with a new technology platform ever again.
Games will be developed for XNA, and will be supported by the hardware which supports the modules used.
If you want the full low down on XNA and what it means for the games industry, grab this months Edge :D
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I've been thinking about XNA being used as a cross platform environment, but I don't see it happening as long as MS and Sony are competitors. It's probable J Allard said it as a joke.
The hardware will also be very different for the NG consoles, both using completely different architectures. MS spending resources to create a platform for Sony and third parties to use will take business away from MS, not help them in the console race.
Also, as Sony, would you really want to tie yourself in using your rival's middleware to develop for your console? Of course, it can increase the number of developers for the PS3, but you'd always be making in debt to MS, probably paying small royalties in return for each copy sold. Additionally, what if the contract broke for some reason one day? At worst, this could come at a time where loads of mutliplatform developers are using XNA to make games for PC, XB(2) and PS3 - only to have to abandon the PS3 later on because they can't use XNA anymore and have no idea how to use the PS3 hardware, as opposed to having experimented with it form the start.
The hardware will also be very different for the NG consoles, both using completely different architectures. MS spending resources to create a platform for Sony and third parties to use will take business away from MS, not help them in the console race.
Also, as Sony, would you really want to tie yourself in using your rival's middleware to develop for your console? Of course, it can increase the number of developers for the PS3, but you'd always be making in debt to MS, probably paying small royalties in return for each copy sold. Additionally, what if the contract broke for some reason one day? At worst, this could come at a time where loads of mutliplatform developers are using XNA to make games for PC, XB(2) and PS3 - only to have to abandon the PS3 later on because they can't use XNA anymore and have no idea how to use the PS3 hardware, as opposed to having experimented with it form the start.
I've said something like this before.
Consoles are so powerful nowdays that middleware games still work well.
I think GTA3 was middleware, although I might've gotten mixed up.
Anysway, if I'm right, this is for next gen Xbox so middleware games will be able to do AMAZING things, and while they won't have the potential of games written from scratch, very few games will make decent use of such potential and it'll cut out a tonne of devellopment time and possibilities for programming bugs.
Being MS designed middleware it'll be designed to make the most efficient use possible of the Xbox hardware and will allow devellopers to focus all their efforts into making the game good, rather than spend 75% of the time trying to get to grips with the hardware.
I bet Rare'll snub it though! :-D
Consoles are so powerful nowdays that middleware games still work well.
I think GTA3 was middleware, although I might've gotten mixed up.
Anysway, if I'm right, this is for next gen Xbox so middleware games will be able to do AMAZING things, and while they won't have the potential of games written from scratch, very few games will make decent use of such potential and it'll cut out a tonne of devellopment time and possibilities for programming bugs.
Being MS designed middleware it'll be designed to make the most efficient use possible of the Xbox hardware and will allow devellopers to focus all their efforts into making the game good, rather than spend 75% of the time trying to get to grips with the hardware.
I bet Rare'll snub it though! :-D
Silent Scope wrote:
> Bonus you floor hugging crouching fool :P
Sniper, you camp "nasty word which SR wouldn;t like me to say".
> Bonus you floor hugging crouching fool :P
Sniper, you camp "nasty word which SR wouldn;t like me to say".
Bonus you floor hugging crouching fool :P
It could well be the beginning of true convergence, the starting point of gaming as a service, independent of hardware. But not for many moons yet.
As you can see, XNA aims to bring together PC, Xbox, mobile Windows systems. This isn't really a bad thing. Xbox Live brought all online gaming on the Xbox together and it worked brilliantly. If XNA takes the hardware out of it, games development can be simpler again. It should lead to better games as less effort goes into making it look good and more time can be spent making it play good.
Of course that depends on the developer. But it should make it simpler. What is should do is make games cheaper to develop, saving money across the board. Gone would be the mega budgets. In its place would be a system where small scale developers could make money, even if they never sold shed loads of units, simply because they had lower costs.
OK, so the re-appearance of bedroom programmers is highly unlikely, but at least small studios can have a chance.
Of course that is just one benefit. The more unified feature set would be another. Imagine being able to play a game on your Xbox Next NX V. Then you go to work or school or whatever, so you take the media card out, and stick it in your PDA for the bus ride. Then you play from where you left off, in the same game. Perhaps the graphics won't be as good on a mobile platform, but they would be good enough. Then you get to the office and continue playing on the PC at break time.
That is what XNA could offer. Couple that with the increase in Wi-Fi and 3G, Bluetooth even, and gaming stops being a hardware - software thing, but more of a service. At some point MS stop selling the hardware, they sell the service.
Now that sounds like it could be a fairly cool future to me. But more than likely I'm just dreaming. The real life implementation will more than likely be publishers churning out sequels even faster. Let's hope not.
As you can see, XNA aims to bring together PC, Xbox, mobile Windows systems. This isn't really a bad thing. Xbox Live brought all online gaming on the Xbox together and it worked brilliantly. If XNA takes the hardware out of it, games development can be simpler again. It should lead to better games as less effort goes into making it look good and more time can be spent making it play good.
Of course that depends on the developer. But it should make it simpler. What is should do is make games cheaper to develop, saving money across the board. Gone would be the mega budgets. In its place would be a system where small scale developers could make money, even if they never sold shed loads of units, simply because they had lower costs.
OK, so the re-appearance of bedroom programmers is highly unlikely, but at least small studios can have a chance.
Of course that is just one benefit. The more unified feature set would be another. Imagine being able to play a game on your Xbox Next NX V. Then you go to work or school or whatever, so you take the media card out, and stick it in your PDA for the bus ride. Then you play from where you left off, in the same game. Perhaps the graphics won't be as good on a mobile platform, but they would be good enough. Then you get to the office and continue playing on the PC at break time.
That is what XNA could offer. Couple that with the increase in Wi-Fi and 3G, Bluetooth even, and gaming stops being a hardware - software thing, but more of a service. At some point MS stop selling the hardware, they sell the service.
Now that sounds like it could be a fairly cool future to me. But more than likely I'm just dreaming. The real life implementation will more than likely be publishers churning out sequels even faster. Let's hope not.
It means that Microsoft would be willing to work with Sony to make a cross platform development environment where games could be made using XNA but run on a target platform. Allowing Sony and Microsoft platforms to be technically a single platform solution.
They could still choose to have different consoles which only games for that console would run, but the standard of those systems would be similar, and they would be able to communicate in online games.
Effectively, Microsoft has said it would be willing to move to a single development platform for the entire games industry.
They could still choose to have different consoles which only games for that console would run, but the standard of those systems would be similar, and they would be able to communicate in online games.
Effectively, Microsoft has said it would be willing to move to a single development platform for the entire games industry.
What does that mean exactly..?
It could be free. Microsoft charge developers licence fees for developing on the Xbox, nt sure the same applies to the PC in DirectX though.
J Allard has said that Microsoft would be willing to make the platform Playstation compatible though, that sounds like a good idea :D
J Allard has said that Microsoft would be willing to make the platform Playstation compatible though, that sounds like a good idea :D
As long as;
1) MS don't force it on companies
2) Everything doesn't look the same
3) It's cheap for companies (free?)
It's fine by me. From a Layman's point of view.
1) MS don't force it on companies
2) Everything doesn't look the same
3) It's cheap for companies (free?)
It's fine by me. From a Layman's point of view.
Bonus wrote:
> XNA is a set of routines which will be created for Microsoft to allow
> developers to concentrate solely on developing good games. It will
> provide a very competent de facto standard game engine where people
> can choose to use certain features, leave them out all together, or
> plug in their own improved or modified version of the modules.
Tells you exactly what it is in this paragraph, and if my post wasnt clear, there are plenty of other places on the net with info about it, I was just trying to discuss it :D
> XNA is a set of routines which will be created for Microsoft to allow
> developers to concentrate solely on developing good games. It will
> provide a very competent de facto standard game engine where people
> can choose to use certain features, leave them out all together, or
> plug in their own improved or modified version of the modules.
Tells you exactly what it is in this paragraph, and if my post wasnt clear, there are plenty of other places on the net with info about it, I was just trying to discuss it :D
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