Topic: MS offer Developement Tool for Hobbyist and like

[Ceric]

This is the article from Reuters

To sum it up quickly it's free to develope for the PC but its a $99 developer subscription for the 360.  Still sort of neat seeing them give out some sort of tools.  Just have to wait and see how good they are.

[GoldenPhoenix]

That has potential, and really the 99$ fee is not that bad if you utilize it wisely (Which can also help set a standard for Nintendo if they decided to supply programming tools to create VC games). You could end up making money if you play your cards right, now all we need is some good independent developers. BTW will you be able to sell the created titles on Xbox Live Arcade? I noticed he mentioned royality checks but that seemed to apply to HS students.

[KDR_11k]

From what I understand you can only redistribute the sourcecode, anyone who wants to run the software needs to compile it themselves, i.e. own the 99$/year package. Unless you strike a publishing deal with Microsoft, of course.

[Ceric]

How I read it was that you could distribute a Windows version all you wanted and use the kit for free but to do anything that would actually run on the XBox you had to pay the $99 developer fee for the system.  I also beleive that these games will go through the same approval practice as other Arcade and regular games.

Also I beleive that Nintendo would have a harder time doing something like this because when they designed the Wii there was no care to make it so that games could be easily moved to Windows.  While with the 360 there was, common API's in this case.  Making testing a little easier without developement hardware.

[couchmonkey]

Yeah, I imagine this would be harder to do on Nintendo.  I also really don't think Nintendo is into supporting the whole homebrew thing, sadly.  From what I recall Nintendo is trying to make the price of dev kits more reasonable for Wii, but it's still nothing like this.  I appreciate Microsoft's interest in homebrew.

[KDR_11k]

I also beleive that these games will go through the same approval practice as other Arcade and regular games.

No, that's the point. Anyone with the dev pack can download the games released by others for this and play them without MS interfering.

[Ceric]

But you can't release them for profit that way.  That's like saying that Nintendo games are free because if any developer wants to send there build stuff to another developer or the media, they do do this, they can play it.  That statement was in regards to actually making money off the games and being released into the Live Marketplace.  Part of the reason you pay the 99 to do XBox developement and not just Windows developement.

[SixthAngel]

While I kind of like the idea of being able to download homebrew games people make I don't like the idea of having to pay the $99 developer fee to do it.  Nearly everything made for it is going to be crap and the few things worth downloading certainly wouldn't be worth $99 a year.

[KDR_11k]

But you can't release them for profit that way.

If you want profit you make a deal with Microsoft.

[Ceric]

Exactly what I've been saying.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: SixthAngel
While I kind of like the idea of being able to download homebrew games people make I don't like the idea of having to pay the $99 developer fee to do it.  Nearly everything made for it is going to be crap and the few things worth downloading certainly wouldn't be worth $99 a year.

Well don't make crap and your game will hopefully sell well enough to justify the developer fee. Heck that is about 8.25 a month, that is not a bad deal if you ask me. If you have a good home brew game you made for free for Windows, then why not pay the 99$ to get it on Xbox 360? Yes it is a risk, but compared to most business investments, 99$ is not what I would call a huge loss if it turns out your game does not sell.

[KDR_11k]

Your game does not sell at all because you must distribute the source code and the receipnt must have the developer pack himself in order to compile it.