Introduction #

The Xbox 360 marked a pivotal era in console development, bridging Standard Definition and High-Definition gaming, and pioneering digital distribution and online multiplayer infrastructure. despite its significance, the official development workflow for Xbox 360 titles (games) remains largely undocumented publicly due to licensing restrictions and the proprietary nature of its tools.

Development Tools #

Xbox 360 title development relied on the Xbox 360 SDK (Software Development Kit), which was exclusively available to licensed developers through Microsoft’s Xbox Development Kit (XDK) program. Developers using the official SDK had access to several internal tools and sample projects, intended to streamline development on retail and debug units.

The SDK was never released publicly and was only provided under strict NDA to registered developers.

Current State of Documentation #

As of today, Microsoft has discontinued support for Xbox 360 development and no longer provides access to the Xbox 360 SDK, XDK hardware nor related developer resources. No official method exists for legally acquiring these tools through Microsoft.

In the absence of official documentation, unofficial efforts have emerged within academic, enthusiast, and preservationist communities to archive knowledge and tools related to Xbox 360 title development. These efforts are often driven by the desire to preserve the technological and cultural significance of the platform, especially as hardware becomes harder to source and original developers move on.

This handbook does not distribute or endorse any copyrighted software. Its purpose is to document historical knowledge for educational and archival reasons.

Targeted Audience #

Ideally, everyone! This handbook has been intentionally written in a digestible format, with intuitive explanations to help conceptualise technical details. We strongly recommend to the reader to be familiar with C++ and to have a basic understanding of Graphics Programming concepts.