XNA is Dead? Maybe, maybe not. Here's a post shining a light on the future of XNA (and it's looks pretty bright)

DZone - XNA – The Future Is Bright, The Future Is Managed

So there has been a lot of kerfuffle of late about XNA’s future, some wins, some losses and such.

But time to set the record straight.

(again ;P )

I’ve been involved with several XNA related efforts and in talks with some other teams and I can now come forward with details on them, some are still rumour (but very strong reliable unconfirmed rumours, take what you will from that) others are known facts.

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This recently hit the press with the announcement that “Armed” (a Windows Phone XNA game) HAS been ported to Windows 8 and in fact is already available on the preview marketplace.

The team “Sickhead Games” (gotta love indie studio names :) were recently featured as guests on the Metro Developer Show last week and talk in depth about their experience in taking MonoGame to Windows 8, yet another flag in the XNA camp.

By all accounts once the XNA/MonoGame framework was made Windows 8 ready, the porting of the actual game was quoted as being “trivial”

The future’s so bright I’ve gotta wear shades

Life in managed code is still the future, especially for individuals / small indie companies and in some larger game houses it’s still used as a rapid prototyping tool before making it in C++.

I’m not going to get in to the whole C++ vs Managed argument, there’s stats out there showing the figures and it always comes down to the right tool for the right job, yes if you need ultra high performance from a “COMPONENT” then C++ is usually the best answer (I’m not going to debate that). Bringing C++/DirectX to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is essential for the platform to woo and reassure the BIG AAA game companies that it is a valid platform and they should consider these platforms for their IP.

BUT ALL of Windows Phone 3D games (and a lot of 2D as well) plus a great portion of XBOX titles and quite a few titles on Desura, Steam and IndieCity are XNA games, so I have no problem building XNA projects for a long time to come, sure I’m expanding my horizons for the sake of the blog and my own sanity, but managed is my life at the moment and likely to stay that way for a times to come.

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Nice take on the future of XNA from someone who's been watching and living with XNA for about, well, forever... I'd really love to see a future for XNA or a Managed Game/DirectX development path for WinRT. Yeah I know it will run on the Desktop, but if Metro  is the future and all that...