microsoft / GDK
The Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK) contains the common tools, libraries, and documentation needed to build games for the Xbox App on Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox consoles (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One), and Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming.
Windows game development has a history going back 40+ years which means that there have been and still are many options to build games that reach gamers on PC. The GDK is an evolution to the Win32 legacy, to unify the app model between Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, and now Cloud Gaming to enable game developers to reach even more gamers on more devices, with less effort. Microsoft Gaming Services are agnostic across many ecosystems and the GDK is sharing the app model across MILLIONS of devices.
In the “When to use the GDK” section above, we cover the scenarios for which the GDK was designed to provide a modern app model that flows across Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, and Cloud Gaming.
In this section, we cover some of the more practical, basic questions that are also answered in the documentation, but come up frequently from developers getting started with this app model.
