Microsoft Game Dev

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The Future in Your Hands

Visit the Xbox Handheld Gaming Developer Resource Hub and learn how to empower players to bring their games with them, anywhere they go.

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Best Practices for Handheld Gaming Development

Take a closer look at some key recommendations to help you craft exceptional gaming experiences for handheld devices.

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PlayFab Digest: May Feature Updates

Take a closer look at the enhancements to PlayFab services, SDKs, and documentation for the month of May.

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For information on the EU's "Know Your Business Customer” requirement for company accounts, click here.

Find your solution

Develop

Create bold, immersive game experiences that attract and engage players.

AI for Gaming Azure for Game Development Develop for Xbox Consoles and PC Game Development with .NET

Distribute

Build, deploy, and scale cross-platform online services to better run your game.

Distribution ID@Xbox Publishing Microsoft Store Publishing Xbox Play Anywhere

Grow

Reach millions by distributing and monetizing your games with Microsoft.

LiveOps Monetization Player Engagement Product Inclusion & Accessibility

Development tools for every platform

Explore the many best-in-class Microsoft game development tools available to help you build games more easily, and efficiently.

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Latest from the Microsoft Game Dev Blog

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Introducing Player Custom Properties (Public Preview)

Unlock deeper commerce and engagement insights with Advanced Segmentation using Player Custom Properties based on your own custom data.

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Xbox Cloud Gaming: Expanding Your Reach, Enhancing Your Game

Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) expands your audience, making it possible to deliver your games to millions of new users on the devices they already own.

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GDC 2025 Xbox Cloud Gaming Hero

GDC 2025: Opening a Billion Doors with Xbox

We're dedicated to expanding gaming accessibility across devices and delivering seamless experiences across all screens.

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Developer resources

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Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK)

Learn how to use the Game Development Kit (GDK) to develop games on Xbox and Windows.

Azure PlayFab

Develop a LiveOps strategy and learn how to build engaging games using Microsoft Azure PlayFab services.

Xbox Services

Add and enable Xbox services, a premier gaming network that connects millions of gamers across the world.

Accessibility Guidelines

Learn to employ best practices developed by industry experts and members of the Gaming & Disability Community.

Solutions to reach players everywhere

Learn about ID@Xbox self-publishing, Game Pass subscriptions, and Xbox Cloud Gaming to discover the distribution solution that’s right for you.

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Distribution success stories

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Putting Your Game at the Center with Xbox Touch Controls

Xbox touch controls unlock new ways for gamers to interact with their games, providing fans with even more choice.

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Game developers everywhere: welcome to Windows 11!

Windows 11 was made for gaming, with new features designed to help creators take their creativity to new heights.

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Hi-Rez launches latest Rogue Company game with Azure

Hi-Rez launches latest Rogue Company game with Azure, confident in scalability, performance

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Distribution resources

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Partner Center Overview

Learn how Microsoft partners manage their relationship with Microsoft and their customers.

Xbox Creator’s Program

Fast publish your game to Xbox.

Publishing Windows Apps

What you need to create a submission and get your app certified.

Game Streaming Introduction

Get started setting up your title for Xbox Game Streaming and Xbox Remote Play.

Solutions to grow player engagement

Discover tools, systems, and strategies to grow player engagement, develop active communities, and host vibrant in-game marketplaces. Find the right tech stack to help you expand into new markets and reach new audiences at scale.

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Growth success stories

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Customer Story

Why should a single player game have a backend?

How to use PlayFab Telemetry, Analytics, and LiveOps to extend the lifespan of your game and re-engage your players.

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Customer Story

Record-breaking Fall Guys scales faster with Azure

Fall Guys exceeded all expectations at launch...Azure provided all the reassurance we needed to scale elastically

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Customer Story

How to Implement Real-time Analytics in Online Games

Welcome back to the LiveOps Academy part 4 where we dive into some analytics best practices.

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Growth resources

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PlayFab Engagement

Quickstart guides and tutorials on tools that you can use to engage your player community and keeping them coming back.

PlayFab Data

A set of tools for data analytics, storage, processing, and exports.

PlayFab Analytics

How to set-up experiments, metrics, reports, and segmentation.

PlayFab User Generated Content

Empower your players to create, upload, and search for moderated content.

Powering your games, empowering you to do more

Discover how Microsoft can help you develop, distribute, and grow your game.

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Azure PlayFab

Havok

Simplygon

Visual Studio

ID@Xbox

Join the Microsoft Game Dev community

Discord

Get into the more technical side of game development with our discipline and problem-specific chat rooms manned by experts.

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Bluesky

Join the conversation on Bluesky and stay connected to Microsoft game dev insights, trends, and community discussions.

YouTube

Learn from game dev experts with technical talks and get inspired by studio stories from around the world.

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Connect with the larger game dev community and stay close to all the Microsoft game dev news and updates.