Hmm... Unexpected competition for SL?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/08/14/microsoft.game.software.ap/index.html

Microsoft is going to release a consumer version of its powerful Xbox-game creation software, XNA Game Studio. Players will be able to share their games through Xbox live.

This intrigues me. I can easily see this becoming something of a SL for Xbox live. People could create "games" that are just virtual worlds for people to visit and have fun in.

I'll be snagging a copy of this when its released and see what it's like.

What would be REALLY cool is if you could play SL on XBOX Live! Maybe not build, but explore and interract.

I wonder if LL spend 10K on an XBox Development Kit yet

I don't think this is going to be packaged with any sense of place or space. Looks mostly like just a lite version of an SDK, with a site where you can put your stuff.

Or maybe a recruiting tool for future employees.

Both

This is facinating. Of course, it's $99 a *year* rather than a one time fee, and M$ is going to have a finger in it all...but it's still very interesting, and a possible sign of the shape of things to come.

"Unexpected competition for SL?"

No.

Actually if you read the other articles you'll find Microsoft is hoping to get more independents involved in game development. Next-gen title development is now in the $15-$30M range and you see fewer and fewer small developers dipping their toes in the water. Many people in the gaming industry cite this as a reason for stagnating creativity.

A second reason could be with the introduction of Nintendo's Wii console and their license with Sega, those users will have hundreds of classic Nintendo and Sega 2D games to play, and here's a chance for the home-brew audience to kick in some new cool titles to compete.

There are actually two versions of the IDE, which is what it is, interfacing the XNA SDK. The first version is free, the second a modified Visual Studio targeting game developers. The $99 yearly fee is for distributing games through the Xbox Live Marketplace. PC distribution will be free, and the coming "Live Anywhere" portion of Windows Vista shows Microsoft is moving closer and closer into a unified shared-world platform.

I had planned to use Garage Games' Torque Engine (http://www.garagegames.com) for my Xbox 360 project, but will be shifting to this if the 2D and networking options are better.

This interests me too, but it's not what I'd call "Ooh, SL competitor!" material. I think you're more likely to see more traditional games come out of this, given the tools that are being promoted with XNA: Garage Game's Torque engine products in particular (if you've played Tribes on the PC or Marble Blast on XBox Live Arcade, you've seen it in action.) The multiplayer cababilities of Torque are geared more torwards "FPS deathmatch" than "MMO virtual space", though I suppose it would be possible with considerable effort.

Instead, I'm interested in this from the prespective of "Hey, the student team of the strategy RPG project I've started freelancing models for is looking for an engine and our school allready has the licence to Torque..."

This also gives me a reason to actualy care about the XBox 360 for once *gasp* when all my gamer/wanabe developer attention had been directed torward the Wii. I'd been hoping for Nintendo to come out with something like this cause they seem to be hinting at it in much of their rhetoric and I'm surprised that Microsoft of all people beat them to it.

In terms of thinking INSIDE the xBOX, no it will never be competition for SL and I agree that on that platform more traditional games will dominate the skyline. However, thinking OUTSIDE of the xBOX pertaining the Windows XP/XOS platform things ARE ALREADY getting very interesting. Client side UI development toolsets are being used in testing now allowing the same base environment/feel as SL. So theoretically someone with enough clusters and bandwidth could create a turn key SL environment easier than they could deploy a conceptualized system. But like we all know, if it were that easy everyone would have a Metaverse system out there right now. We will see in time how things go.

*Goes back to work at his in SL desk to continue developing base content for the S.L.O.W. project. "Damn, these NightElf texture plates are pixeled badly"*

It's an SDK for sure.

You can think of it like a scenario creator like what Blizzard packaged with games like Starcraft. The difference is that you'll be creating more aspects of the game and not just placing pre-defined components.

SL is not the same animal at all. Though you can make games inside SL what a distributed SDK will not do is make a contiguous world.

When a robot visits furnation he may be asked to change his av to a fur. Had FurNation been a separate game, the robot wouldn't enter as a robot. The moment the user logs into FurNation, he becomes a furry avatar.

SL comes across as a platform or world where Looney Tunes, anime, Dragonlance, Gor, and just about everything we make can all meet at the Ahern Welcome area. While we lose the purity of sims unless entry is restricted, we gain the ability to cross over and be anything.

Where the SDK will excel is in making very playable games and that part will compete with some SL sims, but not the whole SL world.

Hm, maybe to make tiny little 16-player-only servers or something. But I doubt you'll be able to make something that can handle 5000+ players.....

LOL... SL can barely handle 5000+ players.

Well, I love microsoft to death, they are way better then apple and that other place, but when it comes to gaming, they dun did f*cked up. This is sony's and Japans industry, microsoft has no right to put their piece of crap system on mainstream!!

Anyways, everyone knows the PS2 is better.

OK after you heard that, you should also know that Sony has had a game making software on their system for ages now. There was this old one I liked.... uh... RPG Maker II I think it was called, that was fun, also some others.

Microsoft's X-box is just out of its league.

Anyways.... I couldn't see X-box supporting something like SL + player worlds + all that other stuff without us coming out of pocket with even more money then we do now for their "X-Box Live". *snicker* I don't have to pay anything to get "PS2 life"

Do you have any concept of how stupid this makes you sound?

Microsoft is gradually disintermediating the publishers, but needs to do it slowly.

Similar to SL, but there is no shared virtual space.

You must have missed E3 this year, right?

Since the article on Gamespot didn't mention the Torque factor I guess I need to revise my first post a bit. Torque is a multiplayer engine even for single player experiences, and there is already one MMO developed with it.

The big news here is that XNA is designed for PC-Xbox interop, with the first shared-space MMO being Huxley, the awesome Unreal 3 Engine powered MMOFPS. I'm looking forward to 100 vs 100 player battles here as the Xbox Live service expands from its current P2P routing roots. Microsoft's deal last year with AT&T and others for massive server fams may mean Second Life competition could be in the future.

Imagine developing and hosting a world through a rented server much like today's web servers, and having users from both worlds interacting. As I've said, "Xbox Live" is a platform, and both PC and Xbox users are getting new tools to exploit its features all of the time.

For X-Box, I guess. Sony beat them by a couple years.

Oh, of course I know Final Fantasy XI had this interop years back and now includes the Xbox 360 in the mix, I was merely citing the first example of shared space under Microsoft's banner. The question that remains to be answered is whether Huxley (and more importantly APB) shows a true evolution in the Xbox Live infrastructure rather than a mere bridge to a custom provider like Sony's PlayOnLine.

LOL! Considering the number of XBox owners I've met who dont even own a PC.... not to mention do we really need another 16 yr old's version of "Really Rad Snowboarding/skateboarding" or *insert over done genre here*

Yes, I think we do.

The game industry is stagnating and centering around the same few themes. We haven't seen a truly new concept in PC or console gaming for a long time now.


For every hundred "Rad-boarder XXX" games, we may see a genuine gem out there.

Rather than coming up with truly new ideas, companies are simply throwing more money and multimedia at existing platforms and ideas.

Very true. Most the games you see Online or Offline are either in the medieval setting or in the scifi futuristic stuff. Once in a while we get something different like silkroad or some pirate game, but there jsut isn't enough NEW ideas. I'm a very imaginative person, yet i even have a hard time coming out with ideas that haven't already been done. The thing is most those other ideas usually close before leaving beta. Anyone ever heard of Mythic Entertainments idea to creatre Imperator Online? It was going to have a futuristic view of the roman empire. Sadly they gave up on it to continue working on Dark Age of Camelot. :/ Now camelot is a good game but i would have liked to seen the other..

Hopefully someone soon will give us this.

One can sign up for the XNA beta program now.

https://connect.microsoft.com

Also to quote myself, Second Life was one of those new ideas that broke the mold. I just wish it's creator would give it and it's players more respect instead of trashing it how they are. I see a piece of software that has potentual, struggling to servive.