Microsoft does away with XNA
2/2/13 7:40pm
According to CVG, Microsoft sent out a mass email earlier this week, in which the company states it has decided to discontinue its XNA platform.
For those who don’t know, XNA is a tool kit many of these studios use to make games for Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox Live, so without it, XBLA may no longer be an attractive option for devs with a tighter than average budget.
The news is leading to some to speculate this could mean either Microsoft is phasing out XNA in order to make way for a new and improved tool kit designed for the “Durango” or it could be a sign that Microsoft is planning to cut the Xbox Live Indie Games section from the Marketplace.
I’m really hoping it’s the former rather than the latter. I know the indie games section has its fair share of crap on it but there’s plenty of cool stuff on there if you look hard enough. Not too mention there’s also plenty of fantastic XBLA games like Fez, Dust: An Elysian Tale, and Bastion that have been developed using XNA as well, so this decision could potentially prevent a lot of talented people from developing for the Xbox brand.
So my fingers are crossed for the reveal of an XNA successor, cause if Microsoft is going to hurt the indie developers who helped build XBLA as a marketable platform, it’s going to shoot itself in the foot.
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
darkhyrulelord
Hm. Hopefully it might make a return.
werdman24
Would surprise me if Microsoft did cut the indie games market out. After all, Bill Gates has a butt ton of money.
Janos
Considering the fact that Microsoft has been making things much harder for Indie Game devs, they're probably killing it off.
Whatthefnu
My team and I dropped XNA not too long ago, and focused on using Dark GDK instead for our own project. Man, did we make the right choice.
pinshadow
2013 so far has had two of the three 1st Party Developers we know getting ready to shoot themselfves in the foot. First Sony with the PS4 not playing used games. Now with Microsoft making games harder to develope and might even be getting rid of indie games. Not to mension the other facts that THQ and Atari are bankrupt. This year is already going down the toilet.
Whatthefnu
Things are looking pretty good for Nintendo. Hell, Fire Emblem Awakening comes out tomorrow. The Ouya is on its way, and from what I've seen, E3 is going to kick ass. Try to see the glass half full.
Tom the Iron Man
If you look at the time table on which it is going to expire, April 1st, 2014, that is several months AFTER the new console launches. This falls right in line with the same time table of the original Xbox being discontinued after the launch of the 360. Expect the new indie dev tools to be shown off at either GDC 2014 or E3 2014, and it will no doubt cover Windows 8 in addition to Windows Phone 8 and the new Xbox console.
This is right out of their playbook, if history is any indication.
CJRodman
Between the new console on the horizon & how desperately Microsoft wants the Windows Phone 8 & RT to take off, they can't be so asinine as to remove a tool that made it easier to create content for those 2 things. I'm sure we'll see some new kits come out that are designed more towards each platform individually and some designed to help bridge the gap between them.
Linklex7
Of course Microsoft took the kits away. These developers weren't making what Microsoft really wanted, First Person Shooters. Originality has no place here. lol
Zubzero120
I hope it doesn't mean the end of Indie XBLA. It's better for indie games to be more diverse, and besides PC, Xbox is as diverse as it gets.