Microsoft has confirmed their XNA development tool is going to be a thing of the past soon.
Releasing a statement to Polygon, Microsoft confirmed the tool will be phased out effective from April 1st 2014:
“The XNA/DirectX expertise was created to recognize community leaders who focused on XNA Game Studio and/or DirectX development. Presently the XNA Game Studio is not in active development and DirectX is no longer evolving as a technology. Given the status within each technology, further value and engagement cannot be offered to the MVP community. As a result, effective April 1, 2014 XNA/DirectX will be fully retired from the MVP Award Program.”
The XNA tool kit powers titles like Bastion and FEZ, as well as apps through various Microsoft outlets like Xbox Live, Windows Phone marketplace and other Windows-based devices.
Microsoft’s emails didn’t clarify whether DirectX will share the fate of XNA or not, until a spokesman came out today and confirmed that the famous 3D graphics API is safe for now.
“Microsoft is actively investing in DirectX as the unified graphics foundation for all of our platforms, including Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone,” he asserted. “DirectX is evolving and will continue to evolve. We have absolutely no intention of stopping innovation with DirectX.”
Well I hope we’ll be seeing DX12 in the coming years….