On software development

A reader of this blog asks "how you go about deciding the priorities of features for XBox Live? Is it just like any other software development life cycle? Or is there something unique to the 'gaming' industry?"

Yes and yes. At the core, there is a software development process, and that may help you to understand why some features that we all want are not available yet. Like in any other software project, there are many constrains that impedes us from implementing every feature what we would like to. Consequently, there is no need to create conspiracy theories on why we haven’t implemented feature X or feature Y. Sometimes, the reason may be as easy to understand as “there just wasn’t enough time!” When we need to make the tough choices about what goes in next, your feedback of course is one of the most important factors in the decision process. Some users know how to provide good feedback.

Software development for Xbox is different than, say Windows or Office development. Besides The Fun Factor™, we are fortunate to work with a predetermined set of hardware components that allows us a better control of the final experience. But there is also the challenge that we need to implement some components and tools almost from scratch. We have very smart people in our group, and I feel fortunate for working with them.

If you want to learn more about the Software Development in the Gaming Industry, I encourage you to check the articles available at Gamasutra.com, like the PGR3 or COD2 postmortems.