Very little can be said here since we will never get our hands on this hot new 360 dev build but hay it never hurts to press your face against the store window and drool like a crazed pervert, at least not till the cops show up any way.


Looks like this new Dev 360 might help with the third annual Dream-Build-Play game design competition and its new developer tools as seen in this XBOX 360 Press release: Kicking off the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft today announced the third annual Dream-Build-Play global game development competition that encourages aspiring and hobbyist developers to create new and innovative games for Xbox 360.

Beginning Monday, April 6 developers from all over the world will have an opportunity to submit their unique game creations to the Dream-Build-Play 2009 competition for a chance to win a cash prize and an opportunity to sign an Xbox LIVE Arcade publishing contract. Winners will be announced this fall. Last year, more than 10,000 members of the community enrolled in Dream-Build-Play, yielding more than 350 completed games from all over the world developed using Microsoft’s free XNA Game Studio tools.

Several of last year’s winners, including Team GAMBIT for “CarneyVale: Showtime” and Mommy’s Best Games for “Weapon of Choice,” collectively took home more than $70,000 in prizes and have since become top sellers on the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel. Winners from 2007, “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” “Blazing Birds” and “YoHo Kablammo!” from the United States, Canada and UK respectively, are all slated for release on Xbox LIVE Arcade in the coming months.

Microsoft also announced new updates to its free XNA Game Studio development tools, available to professional and hobbyist developers this spring, which will allow developers at any level to take advantage of new partner additions and Xbox LIVE features. Both Xbox LIVE Arcade and Community Games developers will be able to include customized Avatars, which have quickly become one of the most popular features on Xbox LIVE, and LIVE Party functionality, which makes playing games a social experience by letting gamers seamlessly play and chat with their friends online. Professional Xbox LIVE Arcade developers will be able to release game add-ons like episodic content.

“The level of innovation and the number of submissions we receive each year to Dream-Build-Play has increased exponentially because the development community is becoming increasingly familiar with the XNA Game Studio,” XNA General Manager Boyd Multerer said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what developers are able to create with the latest LIVE features and updated tools at their disposal.”

The XNA Game Studio update, which will also include improvements like video playback and new audio APIs, means that more games featuring Avatars and LIVE Party could start appearing on Xbox LIVE as early as this fall.

Additionally, Microsoft reinforced its commitment to professional developers with the preview of new Xbox 360 Development and Test Kit hardware. This hardware includes additional debugging memory that allows developers to more efficiently produce games, push the console to its maximum capabilities, and ensure the best titles continue to be created for Xbox 360.

More detailed information about XNA can be found by visiting http://creators.xna.com. For additional information about Dream-Build-Play, visit www.dreambuildplay.com. For additional information about previous Dream-Build-Play winners, visit www.Xbox.com.

Should you have any questions or comments please contact:

Jessica Lange, Jessica.Lange@edelman.com – (323) 202-1419
Jeremy Bartram, Jeremy.Bartram@edelman.com – (206) 268-2234

News-Source: gamerscoreblog.com

IGN learned this week that Microsoft has finally sent Xbox 360 beta kits to its core development partners, which are currently analyzing the new hardware.

Three independent sources confirmed their arrival, and one source said that their team is in the process of "wrapping their heads around the new machines."

Prior to their arrival, Xbox 360 developers used G5 Macs or PCs with approximate specs. The lack of beta kits at E3 had a profound affect on Microsoft's and its partners' showings. None of the teams demonstrated games using the beta kits, which contain the Xbox 360 chipsets, including the powerful custom graphics ship. All of those games were running at 25% to 30% of the chips actual potential, and well, it showed.

But if the visuals shown on Bizarre Creations are to be believed, then the new beta kits will indeed materialize the graphic punch that Microsoft has had planned all along.

None of the development teams would comment on the beta kits, however, as they are under strict guidelines not to speak to the press. We will have more on this development as soon as possible.

News-Source: http://xbox.ign.com

' A new version of OpenXDK - the Open Source, Free, Legal (also binaries!) Xbox Development Kit - has been released '

OpenXDK 0.07 has just been released! There are a number of key improvements in this release:
- The xecuter issue has been resolved. OpenXDK should now execute using this and any other BIOS/dashboards.
- The USB input layer has been completely reimplemented and now should support 1.0 - 1.6 XBOXs.
- New library support: freetype (ttf fonts), jpeg, libpng, zlib
- SDL support: SDL_ttf, SDL_image, SDL_mixer (in progress)
- Keyboard, mouse, usb, and controller support
- debugPrint now contains scrolling