GDC: Xbox Keynote Address Report ByDavid Smith 2004-03-24
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Robbie Bach and J Allard explain what "XNA" is supposed to stand for. It's not a new gaming console, but rather a new system for software development.
After much speculation on the prospect of new hardware on display, Microsoft instead chose to focus on software when a pair of its top executives opened the Game Developers Conference today. Robbie Bach, head of the home and entertainment division that includes Microsoft's PC and console gaming efforts, and Xbox vice president J Allard introduced XNA -- not a new console or new type of hardware, but a new system for software development.
Bach began the presentation with a historical example: Cinerama, a motion picture format developed in the 1950s. Cinerama used three 35mm projection cameras to deliver a massive image on a curved screen, creating a powerfully immersive effect. Its quality was far superior to ordinary 35mm films, but it died after a relatively short life, because it was too cumbersome and too expensive for both filmmakers and theater operators.
Making and delivering a Cinerama film, he explained, is analogous to producting a hit game today -- with gamers expecting expensive production values and added features like online gaming, the technical and logistic aspects of development are taking time away from the creative end of things.
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XNA, J Allard proceeded to explain, is Microsoft's attempt to solve that dilemma. As noted in the announcement earlier today, the XNA development system rolls Xbox and PC APIs and development tools into one package. From the PC comes the DirectX API, Microsoft's High-Level Shader Language (a new C-based language for graphics programming incorporated in DirectX 9.0), and a new version of the Visual Studio programming environment; from the Xbox comes the PIX graphics analysis tool, the XACT audio tool, and the Xbox Live online gaming system. XNA also includes a common control interface design that will work with both platforms. Those tools, Allard said, help take care of "construction" so developers can focus on "creation."
Allard explained in more detail how third-party development tools will work with XNA. Microsoft is partnering with 20 companies to license packages of tools with XNA, such as Criterion's RenderWare platform or the Havok physics technology, so developers can license all those tools in one shot. The entire package is "a la carte," however, letting developers pick and choose from among the tools presented and use only what's necessary for their purposes.
Allard and Bach then showed three demonstrations of graphics developed using the XNA technology. These ran on a PC with Windows XP, not on a console. The first, by Hunter: The Reckoning developer High Voltage Software, features a white gorilla fluidly morphing into different animal forms. The second, from Microsoft's own Xbox Advanced Technology Group, featured the "film noir" theme from Microsoft's GDC advance press materials, with a very lifelike female figure rendered amid shadows. The third was the closest to an actual game, as Cel Damage developer Pseudo Interactive showed off a sharply-rendered Saleen S7 sports car smashing itself to pieces against a crash-test barrier. Several other developers also offered plaudits in Microsoft's direction, including Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki and Valve's Gabe Newell.
Allard closed by reiterating Microsoft's plan to focus on software, rather than hardware. Games today, he said, are marked by their technology -- Half-Life 2, for instance, is drawing plenty of attention because of its advanced AI and physics. In the future, however, Allard predicts that gamers will expect rather than anticipate that kind of technology. Microsoft plans to provide that technology with XNA, so a developer's creativity will be what sets its games apart.
Microsoft's announcement comes as rather unexpected news to an audience that's had the next Xbox on the brain for the past six weeks, but it may turn out to be at least as significant. Stay tuned for more on XNA and other news from the first day of GDC, and in the meantime, check out the XNA FAQ -- it includes some odds and ends that may be of interest to gamers, particularly a few sidewise shots in Sony's direction.
