Create Your Own Xbox Games
Microsoft will be releasing an engine that will allow anyone to create games for Xbox and Windows XP.
Aug 22, 2006
A long time ago, video games were being developed in basements, often with no budget at all.
They would be coded using BASIC (a language developed by a young Bill Gates) on a Commodore 64, downloaded onto a cassette tape and then sold wherever they could be sold.
Now Microsoft is looking to bring back what its founder started with the upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express.
XNA Game Studio Express is a free game development suite for Windows XP and Xbox games.
This is huge news, since the creation of console games usually required purchasing licenses and framework that could cost millions. Soon, anyone will be able to do it.
The framework uses the modern C# programming language, though more tools are expected to be released, some allowing the creation of games simply by dragging and dropping elements, so there will be something for the novice game designers and more for the experienced coder.
The only catch the free XNA Game Studio Express is that in order to allow others to play your Xbox games, you need to join the "creators club" for $99 per year. And then, only other members can play your game.
However, Microsoft has also announced that a professional version of XNA Game Studio will be out next spring that will allow the development of commercial Xbox games.
That said, games developed to run on Windows XP with Express can be distributed freely or even sold.
Although other game development software has been made public before (Pie in the Sky 3D comes to mind) most of it proved unsuccessful commercial.
But with backing from Microsoft and the ability to make console games, it's probably a safe prediction that this may result in the next big thing on the Internet.
A beta version of XNA (which apparently stands for XNA's not abbreviated) will be available for download on Microsoft's website August 30.
