MS To have X360 "Homebrew" games

[Yaka]

Microsoft have reviled that they are going to allow bedroom programmers to develop games for the X360 with the anouccment of XNA: Game Studios. this nifty tool set shall be available to x360 owners for a yearly subscription of $99usd. a free beta version will be available by august 30th with a full release penciled in for the end of the year.

Just wonder if this would enable Xbmc to be ported over.


more info on the thing @ GamSutra , Gamespot, arsetechnia & Eurogamer

 

[cHodAX]

Great news and the shot in the arm that amatuer coders have needed, now they can make money off a whole sector that was previously closed to them.

 

[bob269]

Just wonder if this would enable Xbmc to be ported over.

I suspect MS still have to sign any code written before you could create an executable that can be used on any xbox, altho i suppose it's possible to recreate the xbmc to run on the "development 360" however would you really pay $99 per year to run xbmc?

It does however give the talented schoolboy hackers a chance to knock up some games (lets face it a 2yr old could of ported over pacman) and actually get paid for their talents

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Taken from slashdot (in turn taken from the XNA FAQ) regarding sharing your new spangly homebrew games with others;

From the XNA FAQ:

Q: How exactly can I share my 360 game to other 360 users? Will my game only be available to people with the XNA "Creators Club" subscription? Will it be available to all 360 users that have an Xbox Live account?
A: There is currently no supported way to share binaries on the Xbox 360. Currently, there are four requirements that must be met in order to share a game targeting Xbox 360 which is developed with XNA Game Studio Express.

1. The individual you are planning to share the game with must be logged in to Xbox Live and have an active subscription to the XNA Creators Club
2. The receiving user must have downloaded the XNA Framework runtime environment for the Xbox 360
3. The receiving user must have XNA Game Studio Express installed on their own development PC
4. The game project, including all source and content assets, must be shared with the receiving user. The receiving user then compiles and deploys the game to their Xbox 360.

(http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=193959&cid=15902259)

 

[Whipped]

Sorry, but that sounds shit. I love the idea of developing my own stuff for the 360, but they should have some kind of free run-time environment that people can download so they can then run something you've compiled.

$99 a year to develop things and play things other people have developed is not worth it.

 

[KevinUK]

I'm sure they will publish the good stuff for the masses, it's so we don't get spammed with a load of rubbish games I think.