- Clarified references to "Xbox" vs. "Xbox Consoles" to indicate on what hardware platform the features are used.
- Clarified references to "Windows" include both "Windows 10" and "Windows 11" (updated comparison table graphics to reflect this as well).
- Clarified references to "Xbox Cloud Streaming" are part of our "cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate" offering.
** August 25,, 2021 **
- This is the second update to the June 2021 GDK
- There are three major GDK release branches every year between January and September.
- Each of these releases (labeled by the Month and Year) is treated as a separate branch for which Update releases are provided as-needed.
** July 27, 2021 **
- This is the first update to the June 2021 GDK
- There are three major GDK release branches every year between January and September.
- Each of these releases (labeled by the Month and Year) is treated as a separate branch for which Update releases are provided as-needed.
This section is under development as we take feedback from the community what information is most useful to present up-front vs. in the documentation (https://aka.ms/gamedevdocs).
There are two distinct audiences for the GDK (developers already in or onboarding into the Xbox ecosystem and developers not yet / interested in the Xbox ecosystem). As the distinct needs of these audiences are more clearly identified, the Readme.MD will serve to help provide clarity and direction on where to get started depending on where a developer is at in their journey to build games for the Xbox App on Windows, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox consoles (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One), or Xbox Cloud Gaming (game streaming).
This is the official General Availability (GA) and first public release of the Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK).
Build version nomenclature will show up on binaries like this: 210600
21 = Year (2021)
06 = Month (June)
There are 3 major GDK releases a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall) which can contain both features and fixes.
There are GDK updates in between which are focused on stability and fixes.