Comment on Xbox is more expensive for developers too, as Microsoft bumps up dev kit cost [Eurogamer]
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 months ago
It probably only affects indie developers.
Comment on Xbox is more expensive for developers too, as Microsoft bumps up dev kit cost [Eurogamer]
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 months ago
It probably only affects indie developers.
Sina@beehaw.org 2 months ago
An indie developer doesn’t really need these & it may not even be that easy to get one. It’s tied to NDAs & you can use regular xbox consoles to test your own games.
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 months ago
I guess you are right. I was under the assumption every developer needs it. But it makes sense they don’t as they can develop on the PC and just “export” it to Xbox. But why would a AAA developer need this then? They can develop (and I assume for the most part they do) on a PC as well and test the games on the regular console. Just curious.
theangriestbird@beehaw.org 2 months ago
I would assume that the devkit has more features to make developing easier, and testing on the Xbox console is probably a little janky without a devkit. Maybe it’s the kind of solution that makes sense for a small studio, but doesn’t scale up for a larger one?
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 months ago
I always thought the dev mode on each regular Xbox is used for development, that makes this thing easier to test. I know the specialized dev kits have more RAM capacity in example. I don’t know how much involved and features they provide. Probably some sort of debuggers and the like… now that you mention features, it makes sense. Especially larger games do not have spare RAM and other stuff left to add the development tools on top of it.
Looks like my initial assumption is the entire opposite, this only affects AAA developers. lol.
Sina@beehaw.org 2 months ago
The dev kit probably has many debugging & logging features. It probably allows quick switching between the big Xbox & weak Xbox to test both without needing the deploy your game build twice.
soulsource@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Afaik you can only develop UWP apps on retail Xbox. Aka Windows Phone apps. Aka “those shitty programs with horrible UI that made Windows 8 everyone’s favourite Windows version”.