Microsoft no longer plans for Xbox One retail units to double as dev kits


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A feature that would allow retail Xbox One units to become developer kits is no longer planned, according to Microsoft.
 
Xbox Advanced Technology Group's Martin Fuller said there are "no plans" for the feature, which would allow developers to debug and create games without additional Microsoft-supplied hardware that was introduced alongside Microsoft's ID@Xbox scheme last August.

 

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a583173/microsoft-no-longer-plans-for-xbox-one-retail-units-to-double-as-dev-kits.html#~oJxynWdD3kHY0M

 

Probably the only bad 180, I wonder what happened? (security worries?) Was a definite + over the PS4.

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My guess is they'd probably lose money on it and it'll resurface as a sub/program. The security angle would definitely make it easier for vulns to be found but it's inevitablely going to happen without the option anyway (to all 3 consoles).

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I guess the Xbox One was really the Xbox 180.

 

The idea was awesome and it would be great! Probably would even encourage me to get one. Now? Not so much :\

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They probably don't want consumers to brick their consoles trying to unlock the console, so they remove the whole thing and will instead sell indie dev kits that are just slightly modified retail units for cheap instead, or something similar.

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well that sucks, I like back when XNA was new and you could attach your 360 and debug it via network connections / remote debuggers... sure not a full blown system dev kit but it was a nice concept

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This one is a puzzling one for me. The only thing I can imagine is that there's something that needs to be changed hardware wise which can't be done via software update. 

 

I can imagine they've put a lot of work into it, so it must of been something which destroys the idea of it.

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No other way around it that sucks.  It would have been nice for people who can't afford a dev kit or just started programming to mess around with it for cheap.

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They probably don't want consumers to brick their consoles trying to unlock the console, so they remove the whole thing and will instead sell indie dev kits that are just slightly modified retail units for cheap instead, or something similar.

My guess as well. Only a fraction of a percent of owners would take advantage of this so having to support it doesn't make much sense over just having dev kits.

They're probably also reprioritizing things now that they've opened up the public feedback site. I'm guessing this wasn't mentioned by many people.

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Update: The comments by a Microsoft engineer regarding the company dropping plans to allow for Xbox One consoles to be used for game development were "inaccurate," a Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon today.

"The comments today were inaccurate. We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solutions for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date," said the Microsoft representative.

 

Gamasutra reports that during an ID@Xbox panel at Develop yesterday, program director Chris Charla was asked about the feature, and replied, "We're not there yet."

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Update: The comments by a Microsoft engineer regarding the company dropping plans to allow for Xbox One consoles to be used for game development were "inaccurate," a Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon today.

"The comments today were inaccurate. We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solutions for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date," said the Microsoft representative.

 

Gamasutra reports that during an ID@Xbox panel at Develop yesterday, program director Chris Charla was asked about the feature, and replied, "We're not there yet."

 

Good news, if it's miscommunication though it's just another case of MS PR going haywire. They really need to reign in some of their mouthpieces and work better together.

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It's got nothing to do with MS PR, someone asked some MS "engineer" and they tossed out some BS that was wrong.  It's a case of, low man on the totem poll not knowing what the heck he/she is talking about making comments to the press he/she shouldn't be making in the first place.

 

In the mad dash for tech news sites to get "scoops" first they take in any info they can from anyone and heck if most of them even bother to check to make sure they're right before they post it.  

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It's got nothing to do with MS PR, someone asked some MS "engineer" and they tossed out some BS that was wrong.  It's a case of, low man on the totem poll not knowing what the heck he/she is talking about making comments to the press he/she shouldn't be making in the first place.

 

In the mad dash for tech news sites to get "scoops" first they take in any info they can from anyone and heck if most of them even bother to check to make sure they're right before they post it.  

 

Senior Engineer with Microsoft's Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/martin-fuller/62/a17/b50

 

Also low enough of a man to get to do a whole presentation on Inside the Xbox One - http://www.slideshare.net/DevCentralAMD/inside-x-box-one-by-martin-fuller

 

So yeah, "engineer"?  :huh: Dunno why you're so bitter, it's obvious there are crossed wires but I don't know why you're going gung-ho on the guy.

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So crisis averted? :laugh:

Someone thought they had a nice juicy story, but then it turns out to not be quite so clear.

I'll just be glad when the announce dev unlocking becoming a real thing. Now there will be doubt and attacks until then.

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Senior Engineer with Microsoft's Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/martin-fuller/62/a17/b50

 

Also low enough of a man to get to do a whole presentation on Inside the Xbox One - http://www.slideshare.net/DevCentralAMD/inside-x-box-one-by-martin-fuller

 

So yeah, "engineer"?  :huh: Dunno why you're so bitter, it's obvious there are crossed wires but I don't know why you're going gung-ho on the guy.

 

 

Gung-ho?  Seriously?  Talk about over exaggerating things, which I don't know why you're doing here since this topic is pretty much closed now.    My point stands, he's still "some engineer", it doesn't matter if he's got "Senior" in his job title on linked in or whatever, we all know how big MS and other companies can get and how many VPs and so on they have.   He knows the hardware, he's worked on it, good job, but he doesn't make policy, he doesn't know what the future management will do or what plans they have, it's not his job, he's just some engineer.  It's not his place, or his job to talk about these things, plain and simple.  

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Good news, if it's miscommunication though it's just another case of MS PR going haywire. They really need to reign in some of their mouthpieces and work better together.

 

It's probably people talking about two different things. The dev kit policy may apply only to the WinRT partition and not the XboxOS. We will see.

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Gung-ho?  Seriously?  Talk about over exaggerating things, which I don't know why you're doing here since this topic is pretty much closed now.    My point stands, he's still "some engineer", it doesn't matter if he's got "Senior" in his job title on linked in or whatever, we all know how big MS and other companies can get and how many VPs and so on they have.   He knows the hardware, he's worked on it, good job, but he doesn't make policy, he doesn't know what the future management will do or what plans they have, it's not his job, he's just some engineer.  It's not his place, or his job to talk about these things, plain and simple.  

 

You ridiculed his job position, ridiculed his knowledge and then put him down for answering a question he was asked, not went out his way to talk about.

 

I mean even if the guy has made a mistake George you are tearing him a new one and it seems you've got a bit embarrassed I've pointed out he's not exactly the janitor, considering you basically told me to leave the topic :laugh:

 

It's probably people talking about two different things. The dev kit policy may apply only to the WinRT partition and not the XboxOS. We will see.

 

Very likely, it'll be crossed wires somehow. Only other possibility is MS just weren't ready to publicly discuss plans so will outright deny any answer until they want to. It's not like they went and said Adam Orth was correct about the DRM plans  :p

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Good news, if it's miscommunication though it's just another case of MS PR going haywire. They really need to reign in some of their mouthpieces and work better together.

 

Meh. Most likely shoddy writing and translations by a 'reporter' looking to get a scoop.

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This is just a case of bad journalism...  Nothing more nothing less...

 

Back when I was a kid, journalist usually did a tad bit more research.  Not taking the first thing they hear on running with it.  They seemed to try to confirm things with a person who had more authority back in those day.

 

That's why game journalist are sometimes brushed off...  Don't get me wrong, some are very good...

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You ridiculed his job position, ridiculed his knowledge and then put him down for answering a question he was asked, not went out his way to talk about.

 

I mean even if the guy has made a mistake George you are tearing him a new one and it seems you've got a bit embarrassed I've pointed out he's not exactly the janitor, considering you basically told me to leave the topic :laugh:

 

 

 

You're blowing this out of proportion like I said, ridiculed?  Because I called him "some engineer", that's what he is.  My god, he's not the guy who single handedly made the system, let's call it how it is.    Do we even know how many "senior" engineers or product managers the Xbox group even has?  I bet it's in the double digits actually.     When asked questions about policy you, as an engineer, who has zero to do with that side of the business, should just say you don't know, because it's clear he doesn't have the whole picture.   If it was a hardware question then sure, that's right up his ally.

 

The topic is closed, he was wrong, there's nothing else to talk about.  He didn't know what he was saying so my point stands.  I guess you just want to hold on to something for a topic you started instead of just moving on or something.

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Can we drop the hostility in here (and the other heated topics in GH right now), please.

 

If you guys can't discuss something with a cool head you need to remove yourself from the topic.

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This topic is now closed to further replies.