Over at The Pensive Gamer I've continued my series that is taking a critical look at each of the consoles.

This week I'm looking at the Xbox 360.

Some quotes from the article. On the positive side ...


On the negative side ...


Please enjoy! ...

Over at The Pensive Gamer I've started a new series of articles doing a current evaluation of the launch strategies taken by the console makers, and what they will need to consider longer term.

The first article discusses the Nintendo Wii. A snippet is below:


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Over at The Pensive Gamer I've started a Developer Diary concentrating on exploring XNA.

The first Developer Diary describes how to get started in XNA. Includes useful tools, community sites and blogs related to XNA.

Here is a snippet from the article:
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Each week I like to set aside a few hours to explore software development technologies I haven't tried. This past weekend I started to take a deeper look at XNA.

I'll be documenting my XNA investigation with periodic updates as a Developer Diary. Today's Developer Diary is simple, I documented what I did to get a base understanding of XNA.
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I'm also curious to hear of any other tutorials or tools people have found valuable for XNA development. ...

Over at The Pensive Gamer I've put the final article up that discusses the coming of mass market homebrew. It looks at the past by discussing the barriers and looks to the future by looking at where each console might be going. Full article below:

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Over the past few weeks I've explored the mass market homebrew options on the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360. Today I finalize the 'Here Comes Homebrew' series by looking at what was preventing mass market homebrew and, for everyone's amusement, sticking my neck out with a few predications; appropriate on the eve of GDC.

What were the Barriers?
Four inter-related things: complexity, support, distribution and publishers.

Complexity
Console development is typically a complex undertaking. While Nintendo is historically credited with providing better tools than Sony, Microsoft and the Web changed things. Microsoft was built on the idea of providing tools to ease development and XNA lowers console development complexity to a new level.

As for the Web, its success was driven by the notion that anyone could bring their ideas to the world. Web development is more complex than envisioned in the early web days, but it is much less complex and more broadly reaching than traditional console development.

Support
Support needs cannot be understated. Not only are good tools needed, but so is good documentation and strong developer communities. This has been a strength of Microsoft's, from their developer website, MSDN, to Microsoft developer blogs, to communities built around Microsoft technology. The web is no different. Numerous companies provide free and commercial tools and there are plenty of communities built around Flash, JavaScript and HTML development.

Distribution
Until Xbox Live Arcade publishers owned the primary game distribution channel, retailers. With all consoles equipped with Internet connections and download services, along with two providing web browsers, getting homebrew to the console directly is no longer an issue.

Publishers
This one is not yet solved. It is easy to argue homebrew development isn’t competition for publishers but the consumer's time at the controller is likely a publisher concern. Particularly if homebrew games are free and publishers having rising development costs.

Microsoft Xbox 360
First off let's be clear, the $99 US annual fee for the XNA Creators Club isn't about Microsoft making money from the subscription. The number of people paying won't cover the engineering cost that has gone into creating and supporting XNA any time soon.

Requiring a fee and needing to provide source is about not drawing the ire of publishers and acting as a form of minimal quality control; only those serious enough to spend money will tend to create something. Microsoft is testing the waters while they complete full development and finalize their strategy.

So my predictions for Microsoft? I expect expanded APIs for Live support, including multiplayer, lobbies, etc. I do think they will eventually add VB.NET as a language choice, but they might wait to see some success first.

Microsoft will expand the Dashboard UI in a coming update. This will allow people to browse, play and rank homebrew games. Some form of both automatic and manual filtering mechanism will be put in place to minimize garbage, malicious and inappropriate homebrew applications.

While I don't believe they will remove the paid subscription for developing 360 homebrew apps, playing them will be free or require a Gold subscription. Publishers shouldn't view this as competition but as a way to find rough gems to turn into full titles. As a case in point, Sony took the free Flash game flOw and released it last week as a downloadable game.

Nintendo Wii
With the only current legitimate homebrew avenue being web, the question becomes what can Nintendo do to enhance it? They have already provided a strong browser. Providing some level of web API doesn't make sense when there really isn't the notion of a single sign-in/user focused central service nor the same kind of game completion tracking/achievements as on the 360.

They could offer extended support in JavaScript or Flash for mapping all aspects of the controller input, or offer application and game style guides including simple JavaScript/HTML/CSS templates. I don't believe this is high on their list and ultimately I don't think it matters. I really see the Wii community, not Nintendo, as the ones to carry Wii web homebrew along.

As for attracting native developers to the platform, a dev kit costs just ...

Over at The Pensive Gamer I've put a new article up that takes a closer look at the benefits for Developers and Gamers for Microsoft's XNA approach to indie and homebrew development. Article is also below.

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As I was writing the final article for the 'Here Comes Homebrew' series, it become clear how important XNA really is for Microsoft's gaming future. If I were to hazard a guess I would say Microsoft is going to heavily evangelize the next release of XNA and XNA Game Studio Professional as much as possible, particularly to Xbox Live Arcade developers.

Before I go into the details, let me try to give some important technical background.

What is the XNA/.NET Framework CLR?
XNA uses what is called the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is what is called a virtual machine. Essentially you can think of the CLR as the software equivalent of a CPU. When developers create programs typically they create it for a particular CPU family, like say x86 processors (what Windows PCs and new Macs use) or PowerPC processors (what old Macs used and all current consoles use). Problem is when you create a program for the PowerPC it won't run on the Intel CPUs without some rather impressive feats of software engineering.

Having a 'software-based CPU' changes that. Developers don't have to worry about, say, Windows or Mac. Instead they create a single version which will run on both, assuming the CLR exists for both.

So, as a I was saying, I'm guessing Microsoft is going to try to sell developers on the idea of XNA. There are definitely tangible benefits for all parties.

Multiple Platform Support
This is the obvious one, particularly since XNA targets Windows and Xbox 360. However, this gets interesting when you consider things like Zune or mobile phones. Developers can easily and cheaply target multiple electronic devices and therefore expand their potential market.

For consumers, the idea of buying a single version of a game that works on different devices becomes a possibility. You could even imagine being able to send games between devices, including Windows, 360 and Zune.

Side note: There are even efforts by third parties to get XNA working on platforms such as the Mac and Linux.

Backward Compatibility
Future Microsoft consoles can change hardware and not need to worry about compatibility issues with XNA-based games. Microsoft simply needs to build a CLR to support the new hardware. But this is A LOT easier than having to do software-based emulation like they are doing now for Xbox games on the 360.

Backward compatibility is also great news for XNA homebrew. Presuming XNA homebrew succeeds, there will be a lot more XNA based games and applications than Xbox Live Arcade and disc based games. The homebrew community of games would not be abandoned.

If we are lucky, backward compatibility may also mean XNA-based Xbox Live Arcade titles wouldn't need to be purchased again on a future Microsoft console.

Lowering the Barrier to Entry
The barrier to entry for writing commercial games just dropped through the floor. Microsoft has said there will be an XNA Game Studio Professional. I would hazard a guess that the biggest change is going to be an expanded set of APIs and better tools. But the amazing thing is, if it is the same as XNA Game Studio Express, the only thing you need to build an application for the 360 is a copy of XNA Game Studio Professional and a retail Xbox 360. Development kits would no longer be required. That would be a significant costs savings for developers and tend to draw more developers to the platform.

What does this mean?
Since XNA is a recent development and not yet complete, the benefits need to be proven. But it definitely shows Microsoft is thinking very strategically and it underscores their statements that their gaming and console plans are for the long haul. As a customer I find the backward compatibility and multiple platform ideas compelling.

Selling Live Arcade developers on XNA shouldn't be too hard particularly as developers consider costs, the risks of backward compatibility and the ability to expand their own market. Shortly after XNA Game Studio Professional is released I expect to see a growing list of XNA games.

Given the number of fronts being attacked by XNA, if I was Nintendo or Sony I would certainly be at least a little concerned even if the impact isn't immediate. ...

A couple of days ago the site Pensive Gamer explored Homebrew on the Wii. Today it continues with the XBox 360:

As a company, Microsoft's success is partially attributed to its support of the developer community. So when Bill Gates saw a modded original Xbox it seems appropriate that he was curious how homebrew developers could be engaged.

In August 2006 Microsoft's answer came with the announcement of the free development tool XNA Game Studio Express and the subscription-based XNA Creators Club.

Released in December, this is the only mechanism to do legitimate homebrew on the Xbox 360. Unlike the PS3 and Wii a web browser is not available. Until Microsoft believes people really want a browser and Microsoft is comfortable with the security implications, a browser won't come.

Unlike like the other console makers, however, Microsoft has built and continues to build infrastructure, tools and marketing programs around their homebrew platform.

The XNA Strategy
The enabling technology for Microsoft's homebrew strategy is the XNA Framework and its Common Language Runtime. In a nutshell, the framework provides APIs to access features of the Xbox 360, and the CLR is the sandbox/operating environment applications run on.

For amateur game developers there is plenty to like about Microsoft's strategy:

1. The tools are free and allow you to build applications for Windows and the Xbox 360.
2. There is plenty of information on the Internet and at Microsoft's developer site.
3. Your code runs on the 360's standard operating system and allows remote debugging.
4. The framework gives you access to much of the console's abilities including 3D graphics acceleration, audio, private storage and rummblable controllers.

So what has been created so far? There are emulators for the NES and ZX Spectrum, third party development tools, and of course people are building various games.

While the XNA strategy is starting strong, improvements and changes are needed in order to gain mass market appeal.

First, some examples of minor annoyances ... 3D sound is not supported and Achievements cannot be dished out. The lack of 3D sound support is odd considering the betas had it. The lack of achievements, however, is understandable. They require coordination with Microsoft to integrate with Live, let alone malcontents would artificially inflate their Gamerscores.

Higher on the missing features list is the lack of networking support. Without it you cannot create networked games or full media centers. The Microsoft XNA FAQ states networking support is actively being worked on. It is unclear if this is a new Live-oriented API or if they are going to enable the .NET Framework's existing API. I'm hoping for both. But Microsoft will want to attempt to prevent applications from accidentally or purposefully attacking Live or other machines.

The biggest impediments to mass market homebrew, however, are the need to spend $99 US on an annual subscription (or $49 US for four months) and the requirement to share and compile source code in order to use a homebrew application. This is undoubtedly a situation of testing the waters. After all they have a lot of customers to consider. By customers, I mean:

1. The homebrew app writer who wants to create anything they can think of.
2. The mass market homebrew app user who wants to use a homebrew app without compilation, worrying about security, and paying for the privilege of homebrew.
3. The existing publishers and developers who probably want to minimize competition from free applications and won't pay for dev kits, tools, etc, if full featured alternatives are freely available.
4. Microsoft itself, who wants to support a development community but minimize the impact on the customer support team from users of homebrew applications. This is on top of Microsoft's need to manage the situation should any of the above groups get particularly unhappy.

Essentially we are in the early stages of a longer term strategy. I equate this to how Microsoft approached Xbox Live in 2002. We are witnessing the developer-oriented first homebrew step. I'm hoping Microsoft's second step is both broader from an audience standpoint, and deeper from a technical standpoint. Let's see what they reveal at GDC.

Bottom-line: Unlike the other consoles makers, Microsoft is attempting to ensure the homebrew experience is part of Xbox 360 proper. The potential is strong but the mass market showstoppers include the need to purchase an annual subscription and the need to compile the source code of the application. Undoubtedly Microsoft will address this. Hopefully they will address it soon. ...