Jason Dunn
03-24-2004, 08:05 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/mar04/03-24XNALaunchPR.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/mar04/03-24XNALaunchPR.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Microsoft Corp. today announced XNA (TM) , 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 (TM) -based devices -- will be unleashed by tools and technologies from the XNA development platform.<br /><br />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."<br /><br />Wow. 8O I've been hoping for a simple DirectX port to Windows Mobile (GAPI doesn't really count), but this is much deeper and broader in focus. This is potentially huge news! Unfortunately most of the focus seems to be on cross Xbox/Windows development, but my hope is we'll see some developers look at Windows Mobile and port their apps if it's easy enough for them to do so. :-)