No doubt you have heard that from the 30th of this month microsoft will be releasing their games development software completely free of charge.

This may no doubt cause 3d game studio plently of heartache in the future. In order to retain your customer base, compatibitly can be the only option.

Then once we get to see whats XNA is actually like you could then compete on the terms of features & benefits, but price will be the main thing.

Is it time for a free version of 3d game studio?

I´m for an other edition-system, but totaly against a free version. About the MS XNA has been discused here: MS XNA and A6

In fact we're expecting many benefits from XNA in several regards - especially by opening an alternative way to the XBOX. Thus I'm sorry to tell you that we'll neither get headaches, nor release a free version of Gamestudio.

Dont you see this as a rival, read their site and they seem to be offering all the same as 3d game studio?

I think you should take a closer look at the imapct this will have on your market, and I hope you do well, I have a lot of love for you guys, all the best...

XNA will just offer a dev framework, but no content creation tools,
and so I dont see a way that XNA will just with its appearence
"kill" 3dgs, as you'll allways need tools for content creation
and putting the final game together.

old_bill

i dont even understand what the big deal about xna is, except for maybe the ability to make open development for the xbox a little closer to realisation. Its not like there isnt the same type of system in several other places... ogre, crystal space, all of them do the same thing and more for free, there actual full fledged engines, not just framework api's that aid making a 3d engine, if there is anything, it will just make it easier to make a 3d engine.

Ogre is only a rendering engine. You have to add everything else from other sources, although there are WIP engines that use Ogre available via their links page.

well yeah, but im just saying thats just one part that is free anyways, i just dont understand really aside from the xbox thing, what everyone is making such a big deal about?