Releases: microsoft/GDK
June 2021 GDK Update 1 Public Release
June 2021 Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK) Update 1
2021.07.24 Release Notes
Special Note: We are still optimizing our GDK and GDK documentation releases for public use. There are still many references that link into our secure program resources or references processes that are commonly known to developers inside the program, but will be unfamiliar or potentially inaccessible to those just starting with the GDK.
Thank you for feedback, patience, and collaboration to help us enable any developer, anywhere on the planet, make games for Windows PCs, Xbox consoles, and Cloud Gaming.
- This is the first Update to the June 2021 GDK. This standalone installer package replaces the June 2021 GDK major release from 2021.06.24.
- There are three major GDK release branches every year.
- Each of these major releases (labeled by the Month and Year) are treated as a separate branch. Update release for each branch may be issued as-needed.
- The GDK is intended for developers learning about and onboarding into the Xbox ecosystem to build Win32 games for the Xbox App on Windows and Xbox Game Pass for PC.
- A separate license through a confidential Xbox program (e.g. ID@Xbox) is required to PUBLISH games into the catalog or access the Microsoft Game Development Kit with Xbox Extensions (GDKX) which contains the Xbox developer environment APIs and tools necessary to target games for Xbox consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S).
- The GDK is not for use to self-publish through the Xbox Creators Program which is currently based on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
- Please see the ReadMe.MD in the official GitHub repo (https://aka.ms/gdk) or the corresponding GDK public documentation (https://aka.ms/gamedevdocs) for more details; more detailed, technical release notes will be migrated from the GDKX to the GDK in future releases as we add to the resources available in the public vs. the confidential versions of the GDK.
June 2021 GDK Public Release
June 2021 Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK)
2021.06.29 Release Notes
Gaming Services may be removed or fail to install during GDK installation
-
The GDK and GDKX installers will normally install the latest version of the Microsoft Gaming Services, but in some cases this may fail, > resulting in the Gaming Services not being present on your device. This will result in an “Ensure GamingServices is up to date” error when trying to launch or debug a Game Core PC game or dependent app, or other errors related to this being missing. This is a known bug in recent versions of Windows that has a fix and workaround described in the following article:
-
This can be confirmed by looking for the above errors in GamingServicesAppx .log file under %TEMP%\gdk or %TEMP%\pgdk after GDK installation.
-
When applying the workaround, please ensure that the sandbox for the device is set to RETAIL (xblpcsandbox.exe RETAIL) and that a retail Microsoft Account is signed in on both the Xbox app and the Microsoft Store app, otherwise the Gaming Services install may not be queued.
2021.06.24 Release Notes
- This is the first official, public Major release of the Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK)
- Three Major releases are published each year between March to October, with Update releases focused on fixes published in-between as needed.
- The GDK is intended for developers learning about and onboarding into the Xbox ecosystem to build Win32 games for the Xbox App on Windows and Xbox Game Pass for PC.
- A separate license through a confidential Xbox program (e.g. ID@Xbox) is required to PUBLISH games into the catalog or access the Microsoft Game Development Kit with Xbox Extensions (GDKX) which contains the Xbox developer environment APIs and tools necessary to target games for Xbox consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S).
- The GDK is not for use to self-publish through the Xbox Creators Program which is currently based on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
- Please see the ReadMe.MD in the official GitHub repo (https://aka.ms/gdk) or the corresponding GDK public documentation (https://aka.ms/gamedevdocs) for more details; more detailed, technical release notes will be migrated from the GDKX to the GDK in future releases as we add to the resources available in the public vs. the confidential versions of the GDK.