Hmm...devil's advocate time...See my worklog for my initial XNA impressions...
1) its free
Yes, but it's not exactly 'no strings attached'.
Windows version:
While you can do whatever you want with whatever you do, to distribute you're gonna need to make sure the end user has both NET and XNA frameworks. This makes life a little awkward for shareware authors. Also, XNA has moderately high system requirements - shader blah.somthing. This may also limit your market unnecessarily.
X360 version:
Lots of restrictions on what you can do - source code sharing only and no commerical products.
XNA 'professional' is coming out next year which will change the picture, but I suspect you'll still really need to go through a 'recognized publisher' etc to achieve anything, and anything you do 'anonymously' will always run the risk of being rejected as a product.
2) it lets you use a powerful 'true' OOP language to build games
C++/Java/ObjectiveC/Deplhi?
3)The language at the heart of XNA can be applied not only to games, but to general window applications as well as webpages
C++/ Java/ObjectiveC/Delphi?
4) It compiles to windows and Xbox, both dominate the home computing and console market (see Evaks sig)
Windows machines with both NET and XNA frameworks installed don't dominate - neither do X360 owners with XNA membership.
5) The IDE is far superior to many IDE's out there.
And can also be used with non-C# languages.
6) You'll have all the 3D lovelyness you'll ever need.
Hmm...not sure what that means exactly...
7) There are plenty of reference books on the C# language, everything you'll ever need will probably only be a amazon patented 'one click' away.
Again: C++? Java?
8) They are working on Vista support, so I'd imagine DirectX10 will get a look in.
Possibly - depends on the X360's hardware caps - also assuming the point of XNA is to provide some kind of common windows/X360 platform of course.
Don't get me wrong, I think XNA is actually pretty cool and a step in the right direction.
But most of it's appeal is surely in the X360 factor - take that away and the reasons for ignoring established languages/APIs like C++/Java/Direct3D/OpenGL becoming a lot less compelling.
And while I imagine C# will be with us for a good while, I'm not sure about the XNA framework - esp. if it's tied to the 360's hardware. This will depend on the whole success of this enterprise I guess. However, the fact that MS have already deprecated managed DX is a little worrying, as in a way XNA is just another 'managed' DX!
1) its free
Yes, but it's not exactly 'no strings attached'.
Windows version:
While you can do whatever you want with whatever you do, to distribute you're gonna need to make sure the end user has both NET and XNA frameworks. This makes life a little awkward for shareware authors. Also, XNA has moderately high system requirements - shader blah.somthing. This may also limit your market unnecessarily.
X360 version:
Lots of restrictions on what you can do - source code sharing only and no commerical products.
XNA 'professional' is coming out next year which will change the picture, but I suspect you'll still really need to go through a 'recognized publisher' etc to achieve anything, and anything you do 'anonymously' will always run the risk of being rejected as a product.
2) it lets you use a powerful 'true' OOP language to build games
C++/Java/ObjectiveC/Deplhi?
3)The language at the heart of XNA can be applied not only to games, but to general window applications as well as webpages
C++/ Java/ObjectiveC/Delphi?
4) It compiles to windows and Xbox, both dominate the home computing and console market (see Evaks sig)
Windows machines with both NET and XNA frameworks installed don't dominate - neither do X360 owners with XNA membership.
5) The IDE is far superior to many IDE's out there.
And can also be used with non-C# languages.
6) You'll have all the 3D lovelyness you'll ever need.
Hmm...not sure what that means exactly...
7) There are plenty of reference books on the C# language, everything you'll ever need will probably only be a amazon patented 'one click' away.
Again: C++? Java?
8) They are working on Vista support, so I'd imagine DirectX10 will get a look in.
Possibly - depends on the X360's hardware caps - also assuming the point of XNA is to provide some kind of common windows/X360 platform of course.
Don't get me wrong, I think XNA is actually pretty cool and a step in the right direction.
But most of it's appeal is surely in the X360 factor - take that away and the reasons for ignoring established languages/APIs like C++/Java/Direct3D/OpenGL becoming a lot less compelling.
And while I imagine C# will be with us for a good while, I'm not sure about the XNA framework - esp. if it's tied to the 360's hardware. This will depend on the whole success of this enterprise I guess. However, the fact that MS have already deprecated managed DX is a little worrying, as in a way XNA is just another 'managed' DX!