Microsoft finally delivered on its three years old promise of allowing all Xbox One consoles to freely become development kits.
Xbox Dev Mode is currently available as a preview and will be released to the general public in the summer. Converting a console to Dev Mode requires no special hardware of fees, but some features require a Microsoft Dev Center account which costs $19. After switching to Dev mode, the console can be used freely to develop and test Universal Windows Program (UWP) apps and games.
"Now the Xbox isn't just for playing, but also for creating awesome content," said Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox. "We're excited to open the Xbox One to everyone so anyone can get started developing."
Xbox Dev Mode targets indie developers and hobbyists and is not meant for AAA game development. The preview version of the program is limited to 448MB or RAM only which will be expanded to 1GB when the program launches officially. In fact, games developed for the Xbox Dev Mode have no way of knowing that they run on Xbox One. Instead, they treat it as a Windows 10 device.
"You don't have to do a lot of extra stuff to get a game to run on Xbox One," said Charla. "There is no specific Xbox API for Unity. You can do some things with screen resolution, but really you don't have to do much."
"We really see this as an amazing solution, especially for hobbyists, students, anyone who wants to get started with games."
