Microsoft’s XNA platform was originally touted as the .NET solution to DirectX – simple and straightforward libraries to unearth the jewels of 3D programming using C# or Visual Basic.NET. Developers could even build apps for deployment on Xbox and Windows Phone – it was meant to be the standard for graphics and game development on the Microsoft ecosystem. And then one fatal day in 2013, with little or no fanfare, Microsoft broke up with the platform in the most disconsolate way, through a simple email.
Although we can’t know for sure why Microsoft cancelled the framework, we can speculate. While the promise of XNA was simpler 3D development, it instead offered a middle ground that left neither beginners nor experienced developers satisfied. Although the framework did abstract and simplify certain aspects of 3D development, such as device instantiation, many of the intermediate and complex 3D effects required a thorough understanding of the underlying DirectX framework regardless. As a result, instead of allowing developers to grow with the framework, it made them work around its deficiencies for more complex tasks.
Next, with the huge development shift from PC to mobile, Microsoft realized the future of games was in its app store, instead of in the traditional venues. With all the money Google and Apple were bringing in, it was simply too big of an opportunity to pass up, and resources were wasted promoting a PC game development platform. Even despite heavy XNA development promotion for the Xbox Marketplace, the XNA games never gained more than a few minor hits.
Finally, XNA offered a weak alternative to both Unity – a game development platform for beginners, and SlimDX – a full .NET wrapper for the DirectX environment. Hobbyists could leverage the game platform and community from Unity to immerse themselves in storyline and design, which are the most entertaining components of creating a game. More advanced developers, on the other hand, could use SlimDX for full DirectX capability, more advanced shader models, and fast performance from well-optimized code.
Despite all its faults, however, XNA still brought much good to the 3D development world. Without its codebase and architecture, .NET DirectX wrappers such as SlimDX would still be missing important math operators and structures. Due to Microsoft’s promotion of XNA, DirectX popularity rose as well, increasing the community and bringing forth several great 3D open source packages. And even though Microsoft’s XNA is gone, the open-source Mono XNA lives on, bringing the framework to Mac, Linux, and Android devices. XNA – you fought the good fight, and you will be missed.
Written by Andrew Palczewski
About the Author
Andrew Palczewski is CEO of apHarmony, a Chicago software development company. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has over ten years' experience in managing development of software projects.
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