Xbox One Development Kit

[Eunice Beady]

Thisarticle only applies to Xbox One and Xbox Series XS consoles acquired through retail channels. For development kit HW acquired via a managed development program, see the note at the end of the article.

Xbox retail consoles can have two modes, Retail Mode (1) and Developer Mode (2). In Retail Mode, the console is in its normal state: you can play games and run apps acquired through the Microsoft Store. In Developer Mode, you can develop and test software for the console, but you cannot play retail games or run retail apps.

Developer Mode can be enabled on any retail Xbox console, via the Xbox Dev Mode app found in the Microsoft Store. After Developer Mode is enabled on your retail console, you can switch back and forth between Retail (2a) and Developer Modes (2b).

Do not run the Xbox Dev Mode app on any Xbox development hardware acquired through an Xbox managed program (for example, ID@Xbox) or you may introduce errors and delays while developing your game. If you're a managed partner, you can get more information on activating development hardware. Go to -role.

Sign in to Partner Center with your valid, current Partner Center app developer account. If you don't see multiple options in the left hand navigation pane, or don't see the Create a new app option in the Overview section, the following steps and activation links will not work; make sure you fully registered your app developer account from the previous step.

Enter the activation code displayed in the Xbox Dev Mode app. You have a limited number of activations associated with your account. After Developer Mode has been activated, Partner Center will indicate you have used one of the activations associated with your account.

Click Agree and activate. This will cause the page to reload, and you will see your device populate in the table. Terms for the Xbox Developer Mode Activation Program agreement can be found at Xbox Developer Mode Activation Program.

After Developer Mode has been enabled on your console, use Dev Home to switch between Retail Mode and Developer Mode. To learn more about starting and using Dev Home, see Introduction to Xbox tools.

Also, ID launched the Developer Accreditation program for creators, which aims to assist the next generation of indies back in March, details here

The New ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program Will Empower Underrepresented Creators - Xbox Wire

One final point is that even if your positive message had been correct, why has none of it been mentioned anywhere on the internet or communicated in any way to registered developers whom it would impact?

What are our managed programs?

Similar to other platforms, we have programs like ID@Xbox that manage license agreements directly with individual studios up to large publishers. There are strict privacy, player safety, quality, and network security requirements that come with accessing our Xbox Services that go above and beyond even the Windows App Store requirements that are managed via this level of license agreement.

If you do not need these features:

We removed the requirement to use a min level of Xbox Services for UWP games because of overwhelming feedback from creators in this space that it was too much of a burden. You will see some other important additions (GitHub - microsoft/GDK: Microsoft Public GDK) coming soon in this same theme of lowering overhead for developers to reach larger audiences via our store.

If you do need these features:

Apply to ID@Xbox or look at popular gaming services suites (we have Azure Playfab) that provide equivalent options starting at free tiers and go up from there based on the number of users. Achievements and other Xbox Social graph features will be the types of things that motivate people to apply to ID@Xbox up front.

RE: Grandfathered Titles

If you reach out to me on LinkedIn or Discord, we can have a private conversation where I ask you for things like your SellerID to determine what level of services you should still be able to access. Best case scenario, ID@Xbox support still considers you active and has your account flagged for access.

The Xbox Live Creators Program is a good starting point for Xbox Live if you are looking to familiarize yourself with Xbox Live development. No approval process from Microsoft is required to join this program, and there are minimal certification and publishing requirements.

So while I appreciate all the nice words about the Xbox Creators Program still being active, how Xbox Live Services are not required for UWP Games and how there is no known outage with the pipeline, the actual evidence in the Partner Center Dashboard seems to the contrary.

Moving forward, we have a protocol for changes and deprecations that we can do a much better job of enforcing across our documentation. My presence here should be an indication we are actively researching which partners are blocked and helping them 1:1 in parallel to fixing the pipeline.

Same offer is that if you are blocked, please reach out to me on Discord so we can inspect your account status and get you moving forward. A few folks have pinged me directly and each case so far has been unique, but fixable.

The Xbox Development Kit (XDK) is a software development kit created by Microsoft used to write software for the 2001 Xbox gaming system. The XDK includes libraries, a compiler, and various tools used to create software for the Xbox. The XDK has the option to integrate itself into Microsoft Visual Studio 2002 or 2003. This is needed if one wants to develop applications or games for the Xbox. The XDK also includes a tool to record in-game footage, which has been widely used to create high-quality screenshots and trailers.

The XDK allows software creators to create, run and distribute applications on the Xbox platform. Xbox 360 XDKs were based on all three generations of the Xbox 360 Design ("Phat", "Slim" and "E"). XNA Kits (Were used at some expos and given to game studios), Stress Kits (Used to test the power of the Xbox 360 and various conditions such as undervolting and overvolting and issued to Microsoft developers only), and Demo kits (Used to demo games). Some, but not all, XDKs include a sidecar which was used to emulate the DVD drive and act as a hard drive and on older XDKs with older recoveries, used for PIX Debugging. Bundled with XDKs is the Xbox 360 SDK used to connect to the console, enable memory editing, file management, and integrate to Visual Studio 2010 for Xbox 360 game development.

The Xbox BIOS is based on the NT 5.0 kernel, but does not have all of the resources or capabilities of the Windows 2000 operating system, (for example: neither DirectShow, registry, or DLL are natively supported on the Xbox). Because of the constraints on the hardware and environment of the Xbox, all software development for the Xbox (and all video game consoles systems in general) are focused on reserving the limited resources that exist, the main limitation of which is the amount of available RAM.[1]

I have done a lot of reading and setting up of Microsoft account and linking to XBOX Live and such (Configuring an Xbox development console - Xbox Live Microsoft Docs). But I have only found very old (like from 2016) webpages that talks about XBOX development using UE4. Because of their age, I do not know how accurate these are anymore.

I have seen the ID@XBOX thing, but there is also the Creators Program, which I have joined. According to Microsoft themselves, it is possible to develop XBOX software after joining the Creators Program (Choosing an Xbox Live developer program - Xbox Live Microsoft Docs), but that selling games or using some features requires joining ID@XBOX.

I do not necessarily disbelieve you, I just then wonder why Microsoft mentions that developing for XBOX is possible via the Creators Program. Or is this limitation one unique to Unreal Engine, and not Microsoft perhaps?

But certainly games built with Unreal Engine must be able to target the Xbox One. I do not see that option anywhere in UE4, and I have not been able to find a recent reference for how I would even build my game, targeting Xbox one. Certainly there is some support for Xbox one in terms of tools used to target that platform? I am OK with having to join a program, but I want to understand the process. Do you mean that joining ID@XBOX will give me access to some plugin or toolchain that UE4 can use, with which I can target my game for Xbox? Will joining ID@Xbox give me access to such tools? If so, does me having joined the Creators program, not give me access to this same tools? Is there any reference for such tools anywhere? Or do you mean something completely different? Ultimately, my question is simple; how do I build games targeting Xbox One. Perhaps you answered it indirectly by suggestion I need to join a program - but can you tell me what will joining a program give me? Is it third-party software that UE4 integrates with, or something else? And is this documented anywhere?

Is it not possible to export to Xbox without having to upgrade to a Pro subscription? We also tried sending in a support ticket to inquire about this but i guess the support team is 2+ months out from answering. I read another forum post that said if we were approved with Xbox there was some special area i am suppose to post or ask this in but i have no idea where to go for any of that.

Unfortunately, you need a Pro license to use the Xbox build target in Unity. The only way to target Xbox with a Unity Personal license is through Xbox Creators program but I assume that is not something that you are looking for.

This only applied to projects already approved for Xbox development by Microsoft on or before June 30th, 2021 and be on Unity 2021.1 or older. We basically grandfathered in developers who were about to release their games. Pro license requirement applies to anyone using Unity 2021.2 or newer.

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