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Microsoft
Announces XNA (Press Release)
New
Software Development Platform Integrates Innovations Across Industry
SAN
JOSE, Calif. — March
24, 2004 — Microsoft Corp. today announced XNA™, a
powerful next-generation software development platform. XNA empowers
developers to deliver breakthrough games while combating rising
production costs and ever-increasing hardware complexity. Games for
future iterations of all Microsoft® game platforms — including
Windows®, Xbox® and Windows Mobile™-based devices — will be
unleashed by tools and technologies from the XNA development
platform.
XNA
is the catalyst for a new ecosystem of interchangeable,
interoperable software tools and technologies from Microsoft,
middleware and game development companies. By integrating software
innovations across Microsoft platforms and across the industry, XNA
forms a common environment that liberates developers from spending
too much time writing mundane, repetitive boilerplate code. Instead,
XNA frees game creators to spend their time where it matters most
—on the creativity that differentiates their games.
“Software
will be the single most important force in digital entertainment
over the next decade,” said Bill Gates, founder and chief software
architect of Microsoft. “XNA underscores Microsoft’s commitment
to the game industry and our desire to work with partners to take
the industry to the next level.”
The
industrywide XNA initiative will be unveiled today in a keynote
speech delivered by Microsoft’s Robbie Bach, senior vice president
of the Home and Entertainment Division, and J Allard, corporate vice
president, Xbox platform, and chief XNA architect, to hundreds of
game developers at the annual Game Developers Conference in San
Jose, Calif. In the speech, Bach will outline some of the challenges
that game developers will face in the near future.
“Silicon
advancements and new features like high-definition and pervasive
broadband will send game development costs skyrocketing,” Bach is
expected to tell conference attendees. “The video game industry
must band together to find a solution that ensures vitality and
sustainability for years to come, while responding to consumer
desires for bigger, better games.”
As
part of the XNA unveiling, Microsoft also announced Allard’s
responsibility for overseeing and driving the XNA initiative
companywide. “At the heart of XNA is choice. No game today is
built with just one tool, and no game tomorrow will be either,”
Allard said. “By creating an environment where software
innovations flourish and work together, XNA will allow game
developers to redefine what’s possible in games and give gamers
the freedom to pursue their own paths. XNA closes the gap between
what gamers want and what developers dream.”
Illustrating
the potential of the XNA development platform, Microsoft will make a
series of announcements about its own video game tools and
technologies in four key areas: online, input, graphics and audio.
In
response to strong customer demand, Xbox Live™
development tools for functionality such as billing, security,
login, friends and matchmaking will be made available to Windows
developers. The tools will make it easier to create the same social,
unified online gaming experiences on Windows that game players have
come to expect on Xbox.
On
the input front, as part of XNA, Microsoft will develop a common
controller reference design and unify input APIs and button
standards across multiple platforms. The result will be a family of
common controllers for Windows and Xbox game players. In addition,
the move will fuel a whole new wave of compelling, cross-platform
input devices from peripheral manufacturers.
In
graphics and audio, many tools such as PIX (an analysis tool) and
XACT (an audio authoring tool) — previously available only to Xbox
developers — now will be available on Windows as part of the XNA
development platform. Likewise, innovations from Windows such as
High-Level Shader Language (HLSL) will come to Xbox. The DirectX®
API and the Visual Studio® development system will continue to be
the baseline environment for both platforms. Collectively, these
tools and technologies will enable movie-quality graphics while
forming the impetus for new software that will help developers cope
with the looming complexity of high-definition video and audio.
“On
the PC we have tools like HLSL. On Xbox we have tools like PIX.
These are both really powerful, and XNA combines the power of the PC
and the power of the console into a best-of-breed platform,” said
Gabe Newell, founder and managing director of Valve Software LLC.
More
than 20 game development and middleware companies already have
recognized that XNA will drive advancements in the industry. David
Lau-Kee, chief executive officer of Criterion Software, said, “We
are pleased to see that Microsoft shares our vision of helping
developers make better games, faster, through use of their favorite
middleware. We look forward to leveraging XNA in the RenderWare tool
chain to implement Windows- and Xbox-specific features.”
“Because
it’s software, we can add new and improved XNA tools consistently,
spurring continuous innovation in games. Developers won’t have to
wait for new silicon to enjoy the latest advances,” said Dean
Lester, general manager of Windows Graphics and Gaming Technologies
at Microsoft. “The benefit to gamers will be dramatic leaps in
production quality and gameplay for the next-generation Xbox and the
next generation of Windows. And it starts today.”
Founded
in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses
realize their full potential.
