New, Cheaper Xbox Development Kit Launched

Microsoft has rolled out a smaller model of the Xbox 360 development kit certain to delight the developers of the world. The new tech has more RAM, a bigger hard-drive, built-in flash memory, and a newer, smarter design. Best of all, it will come at a “significantly reduced price from its predecessor.”

Upon purchase of the kit, developers will have the option to license a Sidecar attachment that offers all kinds of technically awesome capabilities, such as debugging and disc emulation. They’ll be able to share it across multiple XDK consoles, reducing the need to license multiple units. The changes will reduce costs in creating, testing, debugging, and releasing Xbox 360 or Xbox Live Arcade games.

“Microsoft is known in the industry for providing easy-to-use tools that allow developers to create high quality games without a huge time investment,” said Pete Isensee, principal program manager for Xbox Advanced Technology Group. “Now we’re offering those tools at a lower cost to reduce their monetary investment as well.”

The new XDK and Sidecar will be available to all developers who currently hold licensing contracts with Microsoft. Upon full release, it will become the standard kit when placing new orders.