Comment by pjmlp
13 years ago
It was loved by Indies for XBox 360 development, got so popular, Microsoft decided to make it the way to develop games on the Windows Phone 7.
When Windows Phone 8 came out, the native renaissance was full speed inside Microsoft, C++ with DirectX became the official way and XNA was canned while Microsoft left MonoGame and Unity pick up the C# developers still willing to invest into the platform.
The sad thing is that this is not a native vs managed issue, because even C# gets compiled to native code when targeting Windows Phone 8. Just plain product management decision to kill the product, which was being sold as the way to develop Windows Phone games.
"XNA was canned while Microsoft left MonoGame and Unity pick up the C# developers still willing to invest into the platform"
I have no insider information to suggest otherwise, but don't you think that a replacement will be released with the new console?
My gut feeling is that even if they do, indie developers aren't going to fall for that one again.
What choice will they have?
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No because microsoft isn't going to support a toolkit it has no intention of using on mobile or the desktop and will never be used by commercial game developers.
Are you aware there was a Premium version of XNA for AAA studios?
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"a toolkit it has no intention of using on mobile or the desktop"
Right, I find it likely that XNA was killed to work on a better toolkit for all three.