Microsoft to abandon XNA.

[DinohScene]

MS has planned to abandon updates on the XNA developer tool.
The tool is very popular to create games for the XBLA, WPM and any other Windows based device by indie developers.

“XNA Game Studio remains a supported toolset for developing games for Xbox 360, Windows and Windows Phone,” a Microsoft representative told Polygon.

“Many developers have found financial success creating Xbox LIVE Indie Games using XNA. However, there are no plans for future versions of the XNA product.”

However there's a sunny side to the sad story.

"Microsoft is actively investing in DirectX as the unified graphics foundation for all of our platforms, including Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone," the representative said. "DirectX is evolving and will continue to evolve. We have absolutely no intention of stopping innovation with DirectX.

Source: 360Crunch

 

[Rydian]

Well if this means easier porting...

 

[Jayro]

Welp, there goes any and all hope for OpenGL's world domination. -.-

 

[FAST6191]

Granted making the leap from XNA to another .net based affair is probably not that troubling but given how hard they pushed XNA and that a few places and schools did make the jump I imagine there are a few people less than pleased right now. That said dropping it seems entirely justifiable from where I am sitting.

Edit: Re: opengl.
Save for it still owning the CAD world, Valve doing linux stuff and Valve's steambox looking like it might not run windows at its heart?

 

[Sychophantom]

Not entirely surprising, but really it doesn't mean a lot. If they continue to offer a software solution for indie developers on the next Xbox, it would probably be a different toolset anyways.

 

[shakirmoledina]

let's hope they bring something better cuz xna was fantastic

 

[Gahars]

So it's been XN-Abandoned, then?

Like others have said, this isn't a huge shocker. I'm sure Microsoft will offer something new for the next Xbox, and with the 360 on the way out, it makes sense to retire this toolset gently. Developers still have until 2014, too, so that should give them enough time to finish up or move on to something else.

 

[IBNobody]

I don't mind as long as they don't decide to lock all ports to Windows 8.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

Edit: Re: opengl.
Save for it still owning the CAD world, Valve doing linux stuff and Valve's steambox looking like it might not run windows at its heart?

OpenGL still have the mobile market to explore, also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought OpenGL was used in non-Microsoft consoles.

 

[Coto]

custom forked opengl libraries (in mobile, handhelds, consoles) platforms shouldn't be affected.. but porting to microsoft will be if the coder doesn't know directx very well. (they're forcing you to know directx or gtfo basically)

 

[Devin]

;A; A couple months before I was going to be able to use my DreamSparks account to develop some Indie Games. :/

 

[FAST6191]

OpenGL still have the mobile market to explore, also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought OpenGL was used in non-Microsoft consoles.

Yeah mobile/embedded openGL (well I guess I should use the proper name of openGL ES)... as for non MS consoles it gets odd. I am not so sure about Nintendo's stuff other than the GBA and DS (both or which were so primitive as to not really rank) as I have not played so much with it but Sony was a bit of a mix- the otherOS stuff was crippled openGL and from what I saw the actual devkit was not straight openGL but owed far more than a passing nod to it. (For what it is worth the token search says the wii was in a similar position).

Spin in homebrew to that mix and it changes again with various library developers doing things like replicating interfacing/calling methods. From what I saw commercial library makers did similar things and made translation layers, all that said if you were using openGL on a PC project you probably would not be able to do a simple recompile and have it work but the effort would probably not have been that great.

 

[Arras]

custom forked opengl libraries (in mobile, handhelds, consoles) platforms shouldn't be affected.. but porting to microsoft will be if the coder doesn't know directx very well. (they're forcing you to know directx or gtfo basically)

Wait, what do you mean? Not having XNA somhow prevents people from using OpenGL on Windows? That sounds odd.

 

[SifJar]

custom forked opengl libraries (in mobile, handhelds, consoles) platforms shouldn't be affected.. but porting to microsoft will be if the coder doesn't know directx very well. (they're forcing you to know directx or gtfo basically)

Are Microsoft in some way going to prevent any graphics library other than DirectX from working? Is that even possible? (Unless you mean official App Marketplace [or whatever they call it] apps, which they have a lot more control over)

 

[Rydian]

Yeah mobile/embedded openGL (well I guess I should use the proper name of openGL ES)... as for non MS consoles it gets odd. I am not so sure about Nintendo's stuff other than the GBA and DS (both or which were so primitive as to not really rank) as I have not played so much with it but Sony was a bit of a mix- the otherOS stuff was crippled openGL and from what I saw the actual devkit was not straight openGL but owed far more than a passing nod to it. (For what it is worth the token search says the wii was in a similar position).

Spin in homebrew to that mix and it changes again with various library developers doing things like replicating interfacing/calling methods. From what I saw commercial library makers did similar things and made translation layers, all that said if you were using openGL on a PC project you probably would not be able to do a simple recompile and have it work but the effort would probably not have been that great.

IIRC the PS3 was based in ES 1, but with a lot of non-standard stuff tossed in they felt they needed.

 

[Coto]

Are Microsoft in some way going to prevent any graphics library other than DirectX from working? Is that even possible? (Unless you mean official App Marketplace [or whatever they call it] apps, which they have a lot more control over)

Wait, what do you mean? Not having XNA somhow prevents people from using OpenGL on Windows? That sounds odd.

No but if the developer (indie) relied on XNA, it'll have to use and outdated sdk and of course older libraries for xbox. It shouldn't be much of an issue but if newer frameworks are developed, those will have to agree with "microsoft's wish" and support directx under their new SDK (also, leaving the XBOX360 aside, I guess..) or you'd end up with past gen close-to-hw functions to deal with your new framework. Plus, the fact, new SDK + focus on new directx (multiplatform) = you better get our newest SDK if you want your code to be run on our newer hardware.

My thoughts.. it's a personal opinion not a fact ..

edit: that, and yeah, newer SDK and directx means new SDK, and porting opengl calls over.