What Microsoft alluded to offering at one point is now available from a third party, the ability to use a singular development kit to create games for all of Microsoft's current platforms.
YoYo Games of Scotland has rolled Xbox One support into its GameMaker: Studio cross-platform game development software. The game development software now supports Xbox One, Windows 8.1, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8.1 and future Windows platforms.
The updated version of GameMaker: Studio will be available to developers in Microsoft's ID@Xbox program sometime in the fourth quarter of 2014, said YoYo Games at Gamescom 2014 in Cologne, Germany.
"This is a great day for GameMaker: Studio developers," said Sandy Duncan, CEO at YoYo Games. "We're absolutely thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Microsoft and to give our community the ability to publish to Xbox One for the first time. We're especially excited that this agreement will bring continued and future support for all Microsoft platforms."
Ryan Lowdermilk, marketing manager at Microsoft, praised GameMaker's enhanced support for multiple platforms.
"We're thrilled that the Xbox developer community now has the ability to use GameMaker," said Lowdermilk. "With GameMaker already available for Windows Phone and Windows, it gives developers another great way to create games across multiple Microsoft platforms."
While the Xbox One has had its struggles, the console is far from doomed. However, pressure from Sony and the PC hardware industry continues to put a strain on Microsoft's latest gaming console.
Its latest ad in the most recent Xbox campaign takes an excerpt from a speech in the movie "Friday Night Lights" and the ad before it used an soundbite from the 2006 "Rocky" sequel. With the Xbox One behind the PlayStation 4 in sales, Microsoft seems to be suggesting that it's a gritty underdog.
Microsoft has been preparing to deliver a Aug. 12 presentation at Gamescom, which the company and Xbox One faithful hope will give the console the boost for which Microsoft's Xbox division has been longing. Ahead of its Gamescom press conference, Microsoft released a teaser image on its Twitter page the hinted to some of the new information it'll reveal during the presentation.
The image spelled "Xbox @ Gamescom 14" by using letters from the logos of upcoming titles Scalebound, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, the ID@Xbox program, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Fable Legends, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Evolve, Sunset Overdrive, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Ori and the Blind Forest, Quantum Break, FIFA 15, and Far Cry 4.
