Quote: "it is primarily aimed at hobbyists who don't like programming but want to create games for fun."
BARHP! Wrong. Rich and Rick have both said quite a few times that they are not trying to aim this product at the same market as DBP, but casual gamers who know NOTHING about programming to make games they want to.
Hense the oversimplified nature. What they're trying to go for is basically Quake3-Style Modifiable Engine; without the need to ever touch a programming language.
I've touched on the issue a few times so far, that currently the quality of the product is Hobbiest level; and maybe that will change, because actually that fact comes down to level complexity, shader effects, and model quality more than anything else.
While of-course there is no way it could stand up to Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Painkeeper, etc.. The market they are aiming for will be expecting that.
Unfortunately once again, the idea is good; but the execution is obviously that from a group of programmers. Clear signs that creativity is being replaced with practicality; which is all well an good but isn't going to get them the audience they are looking for.
With the latch onto DarkBASIC Professional, this will never be releasable for the GameCube or Playstation2. Don't think I didn't notice you missing out the GameCube above; sorry to break it to you but it actually has the biggest potencial for FPS games given a) the lack of said titles and b) the controls design is perfect for control system. Despite what you would like to believe the GC has a bigger market than the X-Box currently, and that market is not full of 8yo kids wanting to play Mario.
This said, with the correct license it would be possible to have the games converted to the X-Box. While having this work in theory is a good idea, and not one that Microsoft would dismiss (after all this would give them an advantage over other machines for a while and really truely instate the 'FPS Console' name) the problem is the practicality of the situation.
In order to not open the doors to piracy alot of money and effort would have to be spent to make sure that this product could not be used as the same backdoor that PSO has offered for the GC.
We also have to consider that while Microsoft are capable of financing such a task, The Game Creators are not a multi-national corporation with a NASDAQ index
Not that they'd be against that, but they're not quite there yet.
As said above, the fact of the matter is the practical and realistic look at the suggestion; not the feasibility.
It is possible, but financially it would be a risk, that honestly does not show it's worth.
Particularly that this generation of consoles is in thier final year.
Quote: "You can either wait until I get an e-mail back from Microsoft or Raven can answer the question."
Depends on the development context.
There is a Lease title (1-4years), Product title, and Fully Fledge Development Partnership.
iirc the prices are, $50-200,000; $180,000; and $300,000 respectively. on-top of that you still have to find your own developer, as Microsoft only develops companies that they sign up.
Which although that costs nothing to you (infact they fund you), it's known as the Soul Contract because anything you create becomes thier property.
