XNA Studio to Integrate Teams and Speed Game Production
SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at the Game
Developers Conference, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced new XNA(TM)
software that will enable enhanced collaboration between content creators,
programmers, management and quality-assurance staff members to speed the game
production process. Based on the Microsoft(R) Visual Studio(R) 2005 Team
System, the latest innovation of the company's flagship development platform,
XNA Studio is an integrated, team-based development environment tailored for
game production.
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Demand for high-definition content and richer, more involved game worlds
will bring increased complexity to the process of creating next-generation
games. Game teams are already wrestling with the challenges of growing content
requirements, larger and more specialized teams, and globally distributed
resources. XNA Studio will address these workflow challenges by delivering an
advanced build framework driven by a unified file format. The build framework
is partnered with an integrated tool suite to optimize the game production
process for all team members.
"The productivity gain from Microsoft's collaboration and build tools has
already been proved for programmers, so the opportunity to bring the same
process and technology to content creation is huge," said Marc Petit, vice
president of product development for Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc.
"XNA Studio can have a clear impact on the business of making games and will
likely emerge as a differentiating force in game development."
Integration of Content and Code
Today the content build and integration process is largely ad hoc, fragile
and inefficient. The result is that teams spend a considerable amount of time
fighting with their build processes, rather than adding new content to their
games. XNA Studio puts content at the core of the game development process by
delivering reliable, controllable and reusable methods for managing and
building content in synchronization with the game code.
"Skyrocketing consumer expectations are putting tremendous pressure on
game development teams," said Chris Satchell, general manager of XNA at
Microsoft. "New hardware will be required to deliver the experiences consumers
crave, but the real challenge is integrating the whole development process to
allow fast iteration of game content and code with minimal rework. This allows
developers to realize their visions and deliver higher-quality games more
quickly."
Collaboration Drives Creativity
The next generation of game development will require collaboration across
diverse and distributed teams with an environment that is tightly integrated,
highly scalable and optimized for content production.
XNA Studio will provide robust versions of key production tools such as
asset management, defect tracking, project automation and work lists. These
tools will work together seamlessly to automate common development tasks and
present interfaces tailored to the different functions within the team. XNA
Studio will allow team members to collaborate quickly and effectively using
familiar techniques and tools, even when elements of the team are distributed
geographically. This all adds up to more developer time generating unique
content and less time running the content process.
Industry Support
Key gaming middleware partners continue to support the XNA software
development platform and have joined Microsoft in recognizing the need to
bring stability and consistency to the game development process. Companies
such as AGEIA Technologies Inc; Alias Systems Corp.; Discreet; Havok; and
Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology Inc., see the value in the XNA
Studio development environment.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services
and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
NOTE: Microsoft, XNA and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Avid, SOFTIMAGE and XSI are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Avid Technology Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
Industry Partners Support XNA Studio
"XNA Studio brings a unifying workflow foundation to help games artists
and programmers drive advanced physics content more effectively into their
games though standardization of tools interfaces."
- Manju Hegde
CEO
AGEIA Technologies
"The increased complexity in game development pipelines takes many forms,
so developers need a wide range of weapons to contain risk. We are dedicated
to bringing solutions that will contribute to solving this challenge and are
making sure that the Alias product line will integrate seamlessly with XNA
Studio."
- Geoff Foulds
Global Industry Manager, Games
Alias
"The game industry is incredibly creative and competitive, and 3-D artists
are continually driven to deliver richer visual content in less time. Industry
collaboration is key to empowering studios to focus on creative concerns
rather than on infrastructure and efficiently deliver compelling
next-generation titles. At Softimage, working closely with our partners to
ensure that developers can easily integrate SOFTIMAGE|XSI software into game
development pipelines is a key area of investment."
- Gareth Morgan
Senior Product Manager
Avid/Softimage
"With 3ds max software established as the content development tool of
choice for game developers, and as the demand for high-resolution,
next-generation game content increases, we are excited to be working with
Microsoft to help integrate the great technology of 3ds max software with
Microsoft's XNA Studio. The advances of both Discreet 3ds max software and
Microsoft XNA Studio will help game developers collaborate and stay efficient
as their team sizes increase -- and help them deliver thrilling entertainment
titles for the future of gaming."
- Marc Petit
Vice President, Product Development
Discreet
"Clear separation between content tools and game engine components and the
management of asset lifecycles and team workflow are critical aspects of
next-generation game production. Microsoft's strategy of leveraging the Visual
Studio infrastructure for content and code is a clear next step in the
evolution of the game development process, and in the support of modular,
cross-platform middleware solutions like Havok Complete. We are excited to see
these important steps being taken and have been preparing to take full
advantage of this infrastructure in our products."
- Dr. Steve Collins
CTO
Havok
"We are pleased to be a strategic audio tools and middleware partner of
choice for Microsoft's XNA platform, working with it to bring developers and
publishers the very best in cross-platform game audio support."
- George Thorn
Director of Developer Relations
Creative Labs Inc.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
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