The Xbox One is about to become a far more interesting (and accessible) platform for indie game developers — and regular users will soon be able to use their console to chat with Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant, too.
“This morning, we will demonstrate how Windows 10 provides the most productive platform for game developers of all sizes,” head of Xbox Phil Spencer said.
Ever since Microsoft launched its Xbox One console, the company promised it would allow any developer to develop apps for it — but until now, you needed access to the Xbox One dev kit before you could. With the Xbox One moving to Windows 10 and Microsoft pushing a single platform that includes the Xbox One, PCs, laptops, tablets and even phones, that didn’t make all that much sense anymore and, as the company announced today, developers can now turn any retail Xbox One into a dev kit. A preview update is available today.
While Microsoft has long supported indie developers through its
[email protected] program — which includes two dev kits after the company accepts you into it — that program was only open to “qualified game developers.”
It’s worth noting that you can already find plenty of tutorials for turning the retail Xbox One into a dev kit, but Microsoft always warned against this, and noted that while you could use this method to bring up the development kit menu on the console, this “does not turn the console into a development kit.”
Ashley Speicher demoed how the “dev mode” works. After installing the Xbox dev mode on the Xbox One, you can register your console as a development kit. Then, you can just launch the “dev mode” app to turn your Xbox into a dev kit. It’s a good way to preview Universal Windows Platform apps, as well.
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http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/30/mic...velopment-kit/
Microsoft now lets you turn any Xbox One into a development kit
