This document discusses Microsoft's involvement in the gaming industry across multiple platforms. It provides statistics on the Australian gaming market and covers Microsoft games for Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox 360, mobile devices, and their XNA developer platform. The XNA Creators Club is highlighted as a way to enable independent game development and publishing through Microsoft technologies.

3. Microsoft, Gaming & Stuff
Nick Hodge
Professional Geek
Microsoft
nhodge@microsoft.com
http://nickhodge.com

4. Agenda
Industry Facts
Games for Windows [Vista]
Microsoft Casual Games
Web-Based Games for MSN Games
Games for Mobile Devices
Games for Xbox Live Arcade
Console Games

5. Gaming, Austria

6. Top 10 Australian Industry Facts
I. Worth: AU$1B in 2006
I. Note: Film/Box Office in 2007 AU$900m in 2007
II. Growing: >12% per year
III. 12.5m games sold in 2006
IV. Gamer average age: 28 years old
V. 60% male, 40% female
VI. In 2007, 67% Australians have broadband
VII. 35% parents, 8% will tell you to get off their lawn
VIII. Spend AU$2million per day on interactive games
IX. In 2006 8,500 employed in the games industry
X. Estimated in 2010 18,000 employed in the industry
(sources: http://www.gdaa.com.au/docs/%20Submission%20to%20Government-June07-Coonan.pdf
http://www.mpdaa.org.au/customers/mpdaa/mpdaa.nsf/(PressReleasesByDate)/11-1-
2008/$FILE/MEDIA%20RELEASE%20Year%20End%202007.pdf
http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310631/0607commreport_complete.pdf

7. Online Market Is Huge and Growing
Sources: NPD Data, DFC Intelligence and Themis Group
74.9%
2009
25.1%
Worldwide Retail Revenue
Worldwide Online Revenue
45.9%
2005
54.1%

8. Games for Windows [Vista]
Great new Windows Vista features and experiences for gamers
New branding and packaging for platform and titles
Cross-platform gaming hardware
Increased Microsoft promotion of games that drive the platform
Re-launch of gamesforwindows.com
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
Games for Windows 1UP.com Website

9. What is XNA
XNA: Genealogy
GPU Programming  Assembly
Direct3D <7.X  C
Direct3D 8.0, 9.0  C++
Managed D3D  Visual Basic
XNA  WinForms w/ C# & VB.Net

10. XBOX Development Today, in the Past…
You have to belong to the “country” club
XDK: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/dev/developingforxbox360.htm
$10,000 for Dev Kit
AAA Titles only
Goals of XNA:
• Enable a full spectrum (very much like the Movies)
• Embrace creator community on Microsoft platforms
• Make writing games significantly easier
• Establish a vibrant creator community
• Provide educational solutions using the Xbox 360

11. Windows Vista: Essentials & Showcase
Supports Windows Media Center & “living room gaming
experience”
Supports the Xbox 360 Controller
Support the Windows Vista Game Explorer
Exploit Direct3D 10.x
Meets security, compatibility and usability specifications
Easy Installation & Play
Windows x64 Support & Compatibility
Optimize for multi-core CPUs
Parental Controls

12. DirectX 9.0 example

13. DirectX 10.0 example

14. D3D9

16. Future Trends in Displays
Innovation in display technologies is much
faster than in CRT era
Plasma, LCD, DLP, OLED, LED, Laser, etc.
Enabling new features:
High DPI, HD resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate,
10-bit color, >NTSC Gamut, HDR Brightness
Games will want to exploit these
Microsoft is working with vendors on display
protocols and APIs for these features

17. Core Count Growth Rate
Doubling area every 2 years
Double core count every 2 years

19. Games for Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade – 1st Generation
Launched November 2004 in North America; Europe/Asia in April 2005
Disc-based solution
One pack in title included free of charge
Additional titles available to download, try, and buy over Xbox Live
Conversion rates strong @ 8.5%
Xbox Live Arcade – Xbox 360
Goal: Build a frictionless distribution model for broad appeal content
on Xbox 360
Single destination to discover, download, and try/buy
broad-appeal games built into every console
High-visibility placement (Games Blade)
Deep Marketplace integration (download, purchase, licensing)
Available to both Silver & Gold Xbox Live Subscribers
Arcade-specific banner placements drive awareness of new titles
Rich around-the-game feature set drives retention & repeat play

20. Xbox Live Arcade –Dashboard

21. Xbox Live Arcade
Over 120 games now available
Phenomenal launch window results for Xbox Live Arcade
Across the board conversion rate average of 22%
Highest title converting at over 50%
Over 65% of connected Xbox 360 consoles are downloading and
playing Arcade games

22. XNA Creators Club
http://creators.xna.com

23. What is Microsoft XNA?
* Xbox 360 or Xbox LIVE Arcade publishing agreement required to professionally develop on Xbox 360
XNA
Software
Services
Resources
Communities
Professionals*
XDK*
XDS*
XNA Game Studio
(XBLA*)
DirectX SDK
Hobbyists and Students
DirectX SDK
XNA Game Studio
Creators Club

24. XNA Creators Club Online
Website launched in March 2007
Forums, Articles, Tutorials, Videos
Monthly content releases
26 Samples, 4 Mini-games, 2 Starter kits, …
Premium Content
TorqueX Game Engine
2 Starter Kits
DVD: Beginner’s Guide

25. Goal: Democratize Game Development
Enable anyone to make games
Make writing games significantly easier
Embrace the vibrant game developer community
on Microsoft platforms
Create a “low friction” publishing channel for
community games
Provide educational solutions using the Xbox 360

26. Dream.Build.Play. Again.
Warm-Up Challenge 2008: A.I.

27. Democratizing Game Development
Enabled development on a retail Xbox 360
Over 1,000,000 downloads of XNA Game
Studio
XNA-based curricula taught in over 400
institutions worldwide
Four XBLA contracts awarded in
Dream.Build.Play 2007 from over 200
submissions

28. Democratizing Game Development

29. Bringing games to multiple platforms

30. Targeting Zune 4/8/30/80
Game Studio 3.0 CTP Released
on May 7th includes Zune
support
All Zunes Have Similar
Hardware
Performance
Resolution – 240x320
16MB RAM for games
Networking
Up to eight Zunes at Once
Ad hoc wi-fi network
Does not use LIVE service

31. Development Experience

32. XNA Game Studio 3.0
Framework
XNA Game Studio
Extends Visual Studio 2008
to create games using C#
XNA Framework
Cross-Platform game
development framework and
runtime
.NET for Xbox 360 and Zune
Custom version of the
.NET Compact Framework

33. Core Framework
Networking Gamer Services
XNA Framework 3.0
Graphics Audio Input Math Storage
Extended Framework
Application Model Content Pipeline
Games
Starter KitsYour Code Your Content Components
Platform
.NET Framework .NET CF
Media

34. XNA Creators Club
Mini-Games, Samples, and Tutorials

35. XNA Community: CodePlex

36. XNA Community Games
Submission Pipeline
Repository for Community Games
http://creators.xna.com
Your central place to distribute games to other
creators
You own your intellectual property, not Microsoft
Safe experience for game players
Classification system: Creators classify their own
games
Peer Review: Your peers must agree with
classification

37. Creator/Author Reviewer Player
Requires Paid
Subscription
Requires Paid
Subscription
All Xbox users
upon release.
Requires Paid
Subscription
during beta

38. Roadmap
Beta
US only
Only Creators can download and play
community games
Must resubmit games for RTM
Game Studio 3.0 CTP (Zune)
RTM
US with other regions TBA
All Xbox Live members can play
Community Games
Game Studio 3.0 RTW

39. XNA Community: Books

40. Additional Information
XNA Creators Club Online
http://creators.xna.com
XNA Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/xna
MSDN XNA Developer Center
http://msdn.com/xna

41. Australian Resources
http://www.sumea.com.au/
http://www.gdaa.com.au/