While this has taken an age to rise to the surface it seems that the option to turn your Xbox One into a Dev kit is finally happening! The news broke at this year’s Microsoft 2016 Build Developer Conference when Ashley Speicher, Software Engineering Lead, Xbox, joined Phil Spencer on-stage and spoke of how the Xbox Dev Mode will help developers create apps or games for Xbox One.
On top of this Speicher revealed that, by unlocking Xbox Dev Mode on a retail Xbox One, it will give developers the ability to build and experiment with Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to test their apps and games in a living room scenario.
On a side note Phil Spencer clarified that UWP is a fully open platform (answering Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney's fears on Windows 10 openness), available to developers of all sizes, with multiple paths provided to develop and deliver Win32 games and UWP titles. Games can be distributed in many ways beyond the Windows Store, too; that means open distribution in any store and via any deployment mechanism.
Phil Spencer also noted they have listened to feedback from gamers about the hi-end titles released so far on the Windows 10 Store i.e. Gears of war Ultimate Edition and Rise of the Tomb Raider (which were missing some key PC features such as the lack of SLI support).
To that end, he revealed that Microsoft will be enabling the ability to disable v-sync and will be adding support for G-Sync and Freesync monitors in the coming months. Multiple GPUs are supported today by DirectX 12 on both Win32 and UWP, and they plan to make it easier for developers to add multi-GPU support to their games, in addition to boosting performance of full screen games and adding support for overlays, modding, and more.
Dev Kit Preview
In terms of the “retail-to-dev-kit” solution Xbox Dev Mode is available now in preview form. In laymen terms this means that because of its preview status, it’s recommended that only experienced developers engage with Dev Mode at this time...
For a start you need a Dev Center account ($19 or equivalent for individuals or approx $99 for business for company accounts) to activate your Xbox One and some popular games/apps will not work as expected. You may also experience occasional crashes and data loss. Plus if you leave the developer preview, your console will factory reset and you will have to reinstall all of your games, apps, and content.
Additionally you cannot activate Developer Mode on Xbox One if you are part of an existing preview program such as the Xbox One Preview program. Of course you can leave the latter preview program by using the Xbox Preview Dashboard app, but without doing this you won’t be able to turn the dev kit feature on.
For more info check out this page which offers step-by-step instructions.
However for those who don’t want the Preview hassle the full release will coincide with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (July 29).
Heads up: Speaking of preview and the above anniversary update, at the conference Microsoft's Windows and Devices head Terry Myerson also revealed there are plans to combine the two preview programs together (which makes sense). Thus if you are in the Windows 10 Insider Preview program you will get joined by Xbox One Preview members and vice versa.
One Store for Xbox One & Windows 10
Beginning with the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer, the Xbox Store comes together with the Windows 10 Store. Thus you will have a single, unified store across both the Xbox and Windows 10 devices. The aim is to give developers new features and consumers a consistent experience, like adding bundles, season passes, and pre-orders to the Windows Store.
The Anniversary Update will also bring Cortana to Xbox One, and will set the foundation for some of the most-requested fan features, like Background Music on Xbox One.
When Cortana arrives on Xbox One with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, gamers can expect the familiar Cortana experience found on other Windows 10 devices. Cortana is also said to get smarter over time, thus the more you use it i.e. to search for games/browser requests, the smarter it will become. Microsoft will be announcing more Anniversary Update features for Xbox One and gaming on Windows 10 at E3 2016 in June.
Source: Xbox Wire