Turn your Xbox One into a dev kit for free, starting today!

ElyosOfTheAbyss · Mar 31, 2016

If only Nintendo would do this with the Wii U and/or 3DS

Deleted User · Mar 31, 2016

Holy shit!! I have every single one of those requirements minus the core device I need - an Xbox One.

(although I can get one in, like, 2 months anyway...)

Well... before I wet myself even more, I want to see if Unity will be doing something about this. Because I won't ever develop for a console without using Unity. And I'd like to see if they will be integrated into this new system!

Okay.... so MS doesn't want everyone making games... only apps...... cool....

Anyway... I will wait for the final build. I will get an xbox one again. And this'll probably be the fourth console now that I will be developing for.

Vappy · Mar 31, 2016

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/uwps-on-xbox-microsoft-wants-apps-not-games/
Shame you can't use your video game console dev kit to make video games. At least, not without registering for ID@Xbox.

FAST6191 · Mar 31, 2016

The times, they are a changing.

I wonder where this ends up. I can't wait to see what goes here.
Doubtless it will be costly, locked down, proprietary and annoying but small steps and all that.

ElyosOfTheAbyss · Mar 31, 2016

Well down, front page. Guess I need to find better news story's then

Saiyan Lusitano · Mar 31, 2016

This is a good step in the right direction. PC devs don't need a special dev kit so Console devs shouldn't have to pay more than retail customers either. Just make the feature available and let 'em have it at it.

nxwing · Mar 31, 2016

Vappy said:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/uwps-on-xbox-microsoft-wants-apps-not-games/
Shame you can't use your video game console dev kit to make video games. At least, not without registering for ID@Xbox.

Thanks! Added to the OP!

Foxi4 · Mar 31, 2016

That's excellent and makes me want to pick up an Xbox One even more than I already wanted to - I love screwing around with my tech.

Saiyan Lusitano · Mar 31, 2016

Foxi4 said:
That's excellent and makes me want to pick up an Xbox One even more than I already wanted to - I love screwing around with my tech.

Regrettably Microsoft lost a good chunk of their 360 fanbase to PlayStation due to that horrible Xbox One presentation they did back then. Naming it "Xbox One" didn't help either but that's the least of its worries. Also, shamefully games on XO tend to run mostly at 900p/30fps which is very underwhelming and while I'm no expert the hardware could probably do a lot better than that if the developers optimised the games properly for it.

Foxi4 · Mar 31, 2016

FAST6191 said:
The times, they are a changing.

I wonder where this ends up. I can't wait to see what goes here.
Doubtless it will be costly, locked down, proprietary and annoying but small steps and all that.

You mean "the times, they are a rolling back" - consoles didn't use to be nearly as locked up as they are now. I remember PS NetYaroze, Saturn Game Basic and other such packages, not to mention even older systems that either came pre-loaded with BASIC or had some add-on that allowed user-created content. I like this direction, mostly because I hope against hope that developers and manufacturers will stop assuming that their audience consists of thieves and will provide a more open environment in the future. It only makes sense to allow users to code for the machines they own - they'll do it anyways, so you might as well provide them with a playground to do so right out of the box.

Saiyan Lusitano said:
Regrettably Microsoft lost a good chunk of their 360 fanbase to PlayStation due to that horrible Xbox One presentation they did back then. Naming it "Xbox One" didn't help either but that's the least of its worries. Also, shamefully games on XO tend to run mostly at 900p/30fps which is very underwhelming and while I'm no expert the hardware could probably do a lot better than that if the developers optimised the games properly for it.

Honestly, I really don't care about the resolution race - the difference between 900p and 1080p is imperceptible to me in real-life conditions, meaning sitting on a couch at least 6 feet away from my TV. The original Xbox One design was interesting and had some points that I think would make gaming better, but since gamers are crybabies, they rolled it all back to a more classic setup, which is fine. The Xbox One has some structural flaws and I think the PS4 is a better piece of hardware, but I also think that the Xbox One has a lot to offer in terms of software and features, so it's a wash in that respect. They're both excellent systems, so I'm sure that both will do well in the long run, even if the PS4 retains its lead throught this generation.

FAST6191 · Mar 31, 2016

True, however it seemed to be the way the world went so I kind of got used to it.

Vappy · Mar 31, 2016

Foxi4 said:
You mean "the times, they are a rolling back" - consoles didn't used no be nearly as locked up as they are now. I remember PS NetYaroze, Saturn Game Basic and other such packages, not to mention even older systems that either came pre-loaded with BASIC or had some add-on that allowed user-created content.

Can't forget the PS3's OtherOS, and the huge lump of irony in that they removed it arguably out of fear of enabling piracy, but in doing so provided a major reason for hackers to break the system, leading to piracy.
It's unfortunate, though understandable, that homebrew indie programs like this are almost always fairly limited compared to what regular indie devs get. Like PS Mobile, had a lot of potential before they shut it down. Hopefully Microsoft are receptive to opening up the system a little more. This is a nice step in the right direction, though the decision to lock out game development without leaping through further hoops is a little offputting.

Foxi4 · Mar 31, 2016

Vappy said:
Can't forget the PS3's OtherOS, and the huge lump of irony in that they removed it arguably out of fear of enabling piracy, but in doing so provided a major reason for hackers to break the system, leading to piracy.
It's unfortunate, though understandable, that homebrew indie programs like this are almost always fairly limited compared to what regular indie devs get. Like PS Mobile, had a lot of potential before they shut it down. Hopefully Microsoft are receptive to opening up the system a little more. This is a nice step in the right direction, though the decision to lock out game development without leaping through further hoops is a little offputting.

OtherOS was removed *because* it was used in the original PS3 exploit and due to the nature of how it worked, it couldn't be patched or fixed. If you want to point fingers at someone for the loss of OtherOS, Geohot is the culprit here (I'm talking about the retroactive removal of the feature from compatible models via a firmware update, not about the absence of the feature from Slim models. Companies can change the feature sets of different models, it was the removal that made people upset, and that was the result of the exploit going public). The same can be said about PSM - it was nuked because of Rejuvenate, that's plain as day to me.

XavyrrVaati · Mar 31, 2016

Can't be used to make games? The only thing I can see the RAM limitation affecting is more intensive games, I don't see how they could stop you from making a 2D game with 1 GB of RAM, which is plenty imo.

tech3475 · Mar 31, 2016

Foxi4 said:
OtherOS was removed *because* it was used in the original PS3 exploit and due to the nature of how it worked, it couldn't be patched or fixed. If you want to point fingers at someone for the loss of OtherOS, Geohot is the culprit here (I'm talking about the retroactive removal of the feature from compatible models via a firmware update, not about the absence of the feature from Slim models. Companies can change the feature sets of different models, it was the removal that made people upset, and that was the result of the exploit going public). The same can be said about PSM - it was nuked because of Rejuvenate, that's plain as day to me.

From what I've read, Sony over reacted to that exploit (potentially illegally, at least where I live) and it did them no good in the end anyway.

One big difference between OOS and XBone 'dev mode' is that the latter will be inside a VM from what I've heard so in theory it could be both more protected and more vulnerable depending on how secure it is, I hope they open this up more because it would be interesting to see what people will do with it.

Foxi4 · Mar 31, 2016

tech3475 said:
From what I've read, Sony over reacted to that exploit (potentially illegally, at least where I live) and it did them no good in the end anyway.

Oh, no doubt - they shouldn't have done what they've done, I'm far from defending a company removing features of a product post-purchase, I'm merely stating why a firmware update was made to remove the functionality from early models.

CathyRina · Mar 31, 2016

wow, this is amazing.
Microsoft is doing all the right things with Xbone

filfat · Mar 31, 2016

nxwing said:
The content you're going to be creating isn't going to be games though, it's only going to be apps for the Xbox One. Only time will tell if Microsoft will allow us to create games

Um, no this is completely false. If you actually watch the Build2016 session you'll see that you know can deploy & debug UWP packages on a Xbox One that means both apps and games (since they're the same platform).

EDIT: source https://channel9.msdn.com/

GreyWolf · Apr 1, 2016

filfat said:
Um, no this is completely false. If you actually watch the Build2016 session you'll see that you know can deploy & debug UWP packages on a Xbox One that means both apps and games (since they're the same platform).

EDIT: source https://channel9.msdn.com/

Yeah, you should be able to create games, you just can't submit them with the standard $19 dev license. You'll have to apply to ID@Xbox for that.

Well-Known Member

Deleted User

Guest

Well-Known Member

Techromancer

Well-Known Member

Saiyan Lusitano

Guest

Well-Known Member

Endless Trash

Saiyan Lusitano

Guest

Endless Trash

Techromancer

Well-Known Member

Endless Trash

Hobbyist programmer?

Well-Known Member

Endless Trash

Digimon Tamer

CTO @ Nordcom Group Inc.

Well-Known Member

Similar threads