Gaming console, home theatre, paperweight – Xbox One’s gotten many definitions/features over the years, and now… it’s also a dev kit. Finally, I might add, as this is bound to make life easier for aspiring developers looking to port or make a game for the system. At least as far as accessing testing hardware goes. Won’t make the coding, animating, etc. simpler though!
Revealed at Microsoft’s Build conference last week, this ‘Dev Mode’ addition can be accessed through the Xbox Store, allowing anyone with an Xbox One unit to, well, turn it into a dev kit, essentially. That said, the current iteration is a preview build, meaning certain limitations and restrictions apply, like a 448MB RAM usage limit (which will be increased this summer, when the complete version is to be released).
Another thing to keep in mind is that – should you desire to make a game rather than an app – joining the ID@Xbox program is still required. Dev Mode is an addition, not a replacement, after all. But hey, worth it to potentially reach a wider audience and/or target your preferred platform. So turn that console into a game-making machine instead of one that simply plays them.
Thanks to Develop for the heads up.