Thoughts on Microsoft Creator's Club/XNA

Just out of curiosity, what C++ interoperability is available with the XNA? Is it in any way possible to link with unmanaged dlls (yes, you would need to compile them for PC and 360 separately)? If not, is it at least possible to use pure C++ CLI assemblies?
It would be nice if you could easily reuse some existing code (or middleware, or whatever) without porting it all to C#, and for example, write only the game layer in C#?

 

There's no unmanaged code allowed on the Xbox unfortunately, but I presume on PC you can do whatever you want.

 

Yeah, no c++ on the 360 but PC you can knock yourself out. There's interfaces to different physic libraries and what not available for the PC. You're also not allowed access to leaderboards or achievements. You can use Xbox Live for multiplayer though (PC and 360).

The worst thing at the moment is there's no way to monetize your efforts but there's been hints that MS are working on a system and will announce something later this year.

As far as I know the PS3 Linux kit doesn't allow you access to the RSX so it's a bit limited.