Hi Yohandy, Not in this life time. You have to understand how these companies work. Game consoles like the XBox, Play station, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, etc are exclusive and propriatary platforms. As a result they are not just going to hand out the tools, software development kits, and system specs to just anyone who asks for them. They pretty much charge you for everything. They charge you for the development kits, charge you for the development tools, and charge you royalties for using their platform. The net costs for all of this is usually between $25,000 and $50,000 per title. Plus everything you write has to be approved by a board that makes sure the title meets all their standards and specifications. All of this adds up to really big money for the console manufacturers, and pretty much rules out any and all casual development on the platform.
How do I know this. I did check it out. Back about 5 years ago my wife and I purchased a Playstation II. Once I got it I thought I'd call Sony and find out what it would cost to get a development kit and port my games to the Play Station. Nothing doing. Starting cost just to create the game was going to cost $25,000 for the tools/development kits, and the games I wrote would have to be approved by a board at Sony Entertainment. When I explained that these were accessible blind friendly games, no graphics, etc they said they wouldn't be interested in that type of game and that was that. No money to do it, and because it didn't meet there polacies and requirements they didn't even want to sell me a development kit, license, and so on because my game was for a specialized market. So I said forget it. The only console that might be affordable for us is the XBox 360, and its not without its problems either. When Microsoft launched the XBox 360 in 2007 they included the .NET Framework and the XNA Framework. In other words they created an open standard for the platform for quick and easy cross-platform development between Windows and XBox. While pricing is still steep its nothing like the Play Station. The problem is, though, that the XNA Framework has some massive accessibility issues. For example, XAct the tool used to compile soundbanks, wavbanks, mix 3d audio, and all that is totally and absolutely not screen reader friendly. So targeting an XBox, even if you can afford it, would be difficult because someone like myself could not do it independantly. I'd litterally have to higher a sighted developer to do the audio work for the game, create the various soundbanks and wavbanks, setup audio properties, etc costing me even more money in the long run. I've been complaining to Microsoft about this problem for going on three years, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Again a no go. HTH On 2/14/11, Yohandy <[email protected]> wrote: > I just had a thought. Couldn't a blind developer program a game for the > PS3 or Xbox 360? I would think that Microsoft or Sony would license their > tools to any dev wishing to program on their platform. Has anyone looked > into this at all? > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
