XBOX Development

Unity Engine
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1

Hello,
I want to start building games for consoles, so there are a few questions:

  1. Can I use a XBOX One oder XBOX One S for development/testing?

  2. I’m on a high-end Mac Pro, do I really need a Windows-PC to develop games for XBOX if I’m using Unity? If the answer is “yes” then would it be enough to run Windows on VMWare Fusion?

  3. Does I need Windows to build the game? I think Unity Cloud can’t build for XBOX right now, or maybe as Windows Universal? Is this possible?

Thank you :slight_smile:

2

If you want to develop on Xbox One, the very first step will be to get your ID @ xbox from Microsoft. That will then give you access to the Xbox forum and documentation with all the infos you need to start developing.

  1. Use a devkit that you should be able to get from Microsoft when you get your ID @ xbox.
  2. You definitely want to use Windows-PC. Using VMWare may work for certain things but you will likely run into problems that are very specific to running in a VM.
  3. Yes you will need Windows, Unity uses the tools from Microsoft (XDK) to build. Cloud build doesn’t support Xbox.
3

Ok, I applied ti ID@XBOX on the MS-Site.

Does I still need a dev-kit? I thought it’s possible to use a quit normal XBOX ONE / ONE S for development right now Starting today, anyone can turn their Xbox One into a dev kit for free - Polygon ?

2 → ok so maybe Bootcamp would a could choice or do I really need a new machine?

3 → are there any plans for Cloud build to support XBOX and so on?

In generally: Would I go better with a high-end Windows-Machine if I want to develop games for iOS, Android, Windows-Universal and MacOS or can I stay with my MacPro 2009 (patched to 2012) with 12x 3.46 GHz (2x 6-Core Intel Xeon), 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC RAM, SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB?

4

For the devkit vs non devkit, you’ll get all the informations you need when you get your ID@XBOX.
2) Bootcamp works
3) I would say unlikely

It really depends on the game you develop but it looks like your computer is pretty decent.

5

Ok, so it’s possible to build a game in Unity and test it on my quit normal XBOX One in Dev-Mode?

6

You will not get any concrete answers to your questions on this forum, as the information you’re seeking is protected by NDAs. You’ll get access to all of it once you join ID@XBOX.

7

Oh ok, didn’t know that this Unity-Question is under NDA :slight_smile:

8

There are two types of Xbox One development - ‘proper’ Xbox One games and the UWP (Windows 10) app platform.

You can easily deploy and test your Unity games on Xbox One as a UWP app (build the game using the Windows Store option, select Windows 10.

To deploy a UWP app to an Xbox One you need to put your Xbox into dev mode first which is open to anyone - you need to download an app and apply (it might take 24-48 hours until your device is processed). You then have an app that lets you switch between dev mode and standard Xbox mode.

Using Visual Studio 2015 you can deploy your built UWP game to the Xbox One.

For now, you can only test your games in dev mode, and there is no way to publish UWP apps to the Xbox Store, though this is apparently going to change soo.

For ‘proper’ Xbox games, you will need to join ID@Xbox and get information from there. None of the above is under any NDA, but stuff via ID@Xbox will be.

9

Yes all console questions must be directed to relevant portals, and we’re to lock threads like this.