The End of XNA?

[Oliver Radini]

The End of XNA?

by Oliver Radini » Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:28 am

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »

Find out what developers think of Microsoft's decision to stop working on XNA.

[Brandon Schmidt]

The End of XNA?

by Brandon Schmidt » Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:37 pm

I'm very disappointed in this move by Microsoft and hope they have something else they're cooking up for the next console. I had just started dabbling in creating an Xbox indie game. and C# and the XNA platform seemed like the easiest route to creating a game for a so-so developer like myself.

[OnekSoftGames]

The End of XNA?

by OnekSoftGames » Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:45 pm

Yeah, it's definitely disappointing. Glad I could share a few words for this XNA writeup... it's been great getting to know the Indie devs of XBLIG!

[Don Anderson]

The End of XNA?

by Don Anderson » Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:49 am

It's a shame. l trailed hundred's of games and purchased worthy titles. Some were among my most favourite games l've ever played. Hopefully hey will come up with even easier tools and make the next Xbox a must have because of a plethora of amazing cheap games.

[Daniel Dobson (@_Eclectus)]

The End of XNA?

by Daniel Dobson (@_Eclectus) » Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:49 am

Its disappointing, as although XNA is still functional, it stopped growing as of version 4.0. It remains one of the best APIs that I've used, with an amazing community.

XNA showed us the importance of Open Platforms, a concept that will only grow. Lets hope we see lots of Indie games on the Durango - this would be progress, and allow the hardware to be celebrated by Independent developers.

[Oliver Radini]

The End of XNA?

by Oliver Radini » Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:04 am

I'm really hoping that Microsoft can follow up XNA with a tool set that opens up game design. The technology is in place to easily distribute games and filter them for quality. The easier it is to make games, the more variety we'll see, and that has to be good for gamers.

[Brandon Schmidt]

Re: The End of XNA?

by Brandon Schmidt » Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:54 pm

I'm really hoping that Microsoft can follow up XNA with a tool set that opens up game design. The technology is in place to easily distribute games and filter them for quality. The easier it is to make games, the more variety we'll see, and that has to be good for gamers.

I'm not so sure about the variety you mention. In a few years when people look back, I think the lasting memories of the XBLIG service will be the Minecraft clones, crappy avatar games, and the use of busty cartoon women in marketing. But you made a key point that if going forward there's a filter for quality, I think/hope a lot of the issues with repetition would go away. Anyway, something (even the current system) would be better than nothing.

[Oliver Radini]

Re: The End of XNA?

by Oliver Radini » Sat Feb 23, 2013 3:00 pm

I'm not so sure about the variety you mention. In a few years when people look back, I think the lasting memories of the XBLIG service will be the Minecraft clones, crappy avatar games, and the use of busty cartoon women in marketing. But you made a key point that if going forward there's a filter for quality, I think/hope a lot of the issues with repetition would go away. Anyway, something (even the current system) would be better than nothing.

Ha, you are right; XBLIG didn't have too many original games. Perhaps the fact that all games are paid made developers push towards games which sell - and minecraft clones sell.

But I do think that an indie market place brings more variety to a console. Whilst there might not be a huge amount of originality or variety within XBLIG, the console would not have as much variety if it didn't have an indie market place at all.

And there are some original games on XBLIG. They Breathe, OTO, Cell: Emergence. Granted, some of the other systems might have a more varied offering. But really it's down to indie developers to develop games that aren't just clones.

[Ross]

Re: The End of XNA?

by Ross » Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:18 pm

It will be interesting to see the steps Microsoft takes on the next generation console to include the indie community. I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Utah and our capstone project for the game design program has always been to create a game for XBLIG. Seeing how this is the last year, I hope that they embrace the small time developers in the next console cycle.

[Chris]

Re: The End of XNA?

by Chris » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:32 am

I haven't made an XBLIG game (yet) but I have been using XNA for 2 years just practicing and seeing what it can do. Hopefully Microsoft would announce something similar to be used for their next-gen console, though I think it wasn't such a good idea to announce its end in such a curt manner before announcing future plans. But that shouldn't stop people from using XNA for PC.