Xbox One Developer Kit Plans In Question

Remember the time when Microsoft said they had plans to allow the Xbox One retail console double as a developer kit? Yeah that's not a thing anymore. During Develop 2014 this week, Xbox Advanced Technology Group's Martin Fuller answered some questions which made the truth plain.

"As far as I'm aware there are no plans," Fuller said in answer to a direct question about the Xbox One dev kit switch, "I am not aware of the reason why we didn't manage to do that." Fuller spoke with attendees of the Develop conference in in Brighton in a Q&A session about various Xbox developer initiatives.

Fuller went on: "we were in the early stages of Xbox One looking at the idea of a retail kit that could be turned into a development kit, and vice versa." He suggested that "although that was a very admirable goal, it hasn't happened unfortunately, [and I] can't tell you the specifics of exactly why not."

Some Developer Settings do remain available on the console, however. You've just got to know where to look. Debug & Profiling, Crash dump, and more are available in the current version of the Xbox One – though Microsoft advises you don't work with these settings at all.

NOTE: Microsoft still has Xbox One developer kit consoles, they're just different hardware than is currently sent out to retail outlets. The abandonment lies in the ability to turn a retail console into a dev console without additional hardware.

According to a statement from Microsoft sent to Kotaku, the idea that dev-kit functionality will come to the retail version of the Xbox One is still active.

"The comments today were inaccurate. We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solution for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date." – Microsoft

While this statement doesn't explicitly say that the Xbox One retail console will be able to turn into a dev kit, it does seem to dismiss potentially damaging comments made by Fuller this week.

VIA: Digital Spy