Microsoft Opens the XBox360 to the Masses

For years, the strength of the PC as a game development platform was that it was so accessible.  Anyone with a computer and a book or two had all the resources they needed to start making games.  Most of the major PC (Doom, Ultima etc.) game properties out there started off as garage projects, or with small teams working in a cramped apartment.  The PC made the entry requirements to the game industry insanely low, just the cost of some cheap hardware and you were off and running.  That trend continues today despite the skyrocketing costs associated with the high production values gamers expect today.  Tools such as the Torque Game/Shader Engine (3D), and the Torque Game Builder (2D)* are bringing very powerful game development tools to the hobby developer, for very reasonable prices.

On the other side of the industry are the game consoles, special purpose-built pieces of hardware designed to primarily play games (though the game function is less emphasized with each passing generation). This is a segment of the industry that has always been locked away from the curious and independent developer.  Going back in time, originally the games were coded on physical chips that were built into the console hardware itself, then we moved on to the cartridge with the Atari, and stuck with that form until we hit the CD-ROM with the SegaCD and then the original Playstation, now we're on to DVDs, though cartridges still lurk in the portable market.  Basically, until the shift to CDs and DVDs, the average developer who didn't work at a game studio didn't even have the ability to write data to any media that could be read by a console.  Oh, and console manufacturers made sure to tightly control who could and couldn't write to their cartridges through heavy licensing fees.  Now, just to seal the deal, development kits, the hardware modified to allow you to WRITE code for the console was typically astronomically expensive.  So a proprietary hardware setup, plus an extremely expensive development kit, plus expensive game media resulted in a market where only the big boys could play.  If you wanted to write a Nintendo64 game and didn't have some serious cash and resources behind you, chances are you didn't have a prayer.

And that's how things went for a long time.  The hobby developer built on the PC, the big houses moved their resources and efforts towards the console.  For the big developers and publishers, the console is a much more attractive platform to write to since you know for sure all the potential hardware configurations you might see, and the possible number is usually very low.  This makes it a lot easier to test a game, thus lowering development and support costs significantly.  Because of this divide between big corporate and small independent, console games have moved more and more towards being derivative, with little in the way of revolutionary gameplay.  As these companies got larger, the focus moved more towards the bottom line, the degree of risk they're willing to take on a new idea is reduced.  So we see Madden <Insert Number Here>, and a string of sequels to once popular titles because they're the safe bet.  And while the same is true for PC games developed by large developers, the opportunity to buck the trend actually exists because anyone with the ability can step in and make a game. 

Look at Introversion, an English game developer that has made games that completely defy what you would expect in a professionally published and developed title.  Uplink, a game where you play a hacker trying to break into computers all over the world.  The interface is basic, no-frills icons and text.  It's a game that presumes fairly detailed knowledge of how computers and the Internet work.  It's a game that doesn't rely on visuals and Hollywood voice-overs  to sell, it sells on pure gameplay.  Then there's their second title, Darwinia, a quirky RTS sort of game that uses retro graphics, and again the extension of computer and technology analogies to make an odd sort of game that's oddly compelling and completely different from everything else we've seen on the market.  To top it all off, their latest game is due out just next month.  Defcon, the classic game of Mutually Assured Destruction.  Think the movie Wargames, use nothing but 80s style vector images and a little bit of text to emulate the greatest fear of the Cold War.  All three of these games defy everything we take for granted in modern video games; originality, a de-emphasis on top-notch graphics, and assumed intelligence on the part of the consumer.  Of course, you'll only find these games on a PC, since no console publisher out there would have taken a risk on these titles.  They're just not "mass market" enough.

So really, the console market for years has slowly reduced the creative gene-pool until all that's left are a small handful of companies with the money and resources to put out next-gen titles that use all the visual bells and whistles of the latest greatest hardware, and can afford the dev kits from the console makers.  This results in a stagnation of ideas, and the constant stream of "Me too!" titles trying to capitalize on proves successes.  The question becomes, how do you bring fresh blood in?  How do you get new ideas flowing into your console ecology when developers are faced with the catch-22 of having to already work for a large game company to get started.  It's the whole you need experience to get experience problem.

Microsoft, of all people, are the ones who "got it" first.  Coming up later this year, Microsoft plans to release a reduced feature set version of it's 360 development software, called XNA Tools.  This reduced feature version is aimed at hobbyists and is the game development equivalent of their existing Visual Studio XYZ Express line of products.  These tools will place the development power of the 360 in the hands of the average developer since it will run on any standard Windows PC.  Initially, you'll only be able to swap your game creation with other developers who paid a $99. fee to be a part of Microsoft's "Creator's Club" but starting next Spring, there are plans to begin allowing developers to release their works to XBox Live Arcade, with the eventual goal of letting anyone develop and publish titles for comparatively cheap when looking at the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. 

This could open the floodgates for armchair game developers who want to try their hand at coding but don't want to deal with all the headaches of hitting the ever-changing target that is the PC platform. It also makes it possible for those with an innovative idea to get it on a console and get exposure to a massive, captive, audience through XBox Live, which could give developers the "big break" so many seem to be seeking, and don't seem to get often in the indie PC development world since there's no one place everyone goes to showcase their games.

Will this help to revitalize the console game scene?  Will this give us more interesting and fresh titles to play?  Will this be the beginning of the end of the PC as the indie developer platform of choice?  It's hard to say right now since the tools aren't out there yet and we haven't started seeing many indie titles on XBL (Though there are a few games like MarbleBlast, Wik Fable of Souls etc), so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  It can only be a good thing to make the tools for game creation more accessible.