Microsoft: We're not phasing out DirectX, but no new XNA is coming
"DirectX is evolving and will continue to evolve; saying otherwise was incorrect."
Microsoft has issued a statement which reiterated ongoing support for DirectX, but has confirmed that the company has no plans for any future development for the XNA toolset.
Doubts had arisen over the future of both sets of tech after a developer posted part of an email received from Microsoft which initially appeared to state that both would be discontinued. Microsoft has now made a public retraction of certain parts of the mail and the developer in question has also posted to say that he never expected DirectX to be phased out either.
"Microsoft is actively investing in DirectX as the unified graphics foundation for all of our platforms, including Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone," reads a statement. "DirectX is evolving and will continue to evolve; saying otherwise was incorrect. We are actively innovating and evolving DirectX and it will continue to be the world's leading low-level high performance interface for gaming and graphics across Microsoft platforms."
However, whilst DirextX's future is secure, the XNA developer platform will not be developed any further, and will presumably be replaced with a new system for the next Xbox. That said, Microsoft will continue to support the current toolset. "XNA Game Studio remains a supported toolset for developing games for Xbox 360, Windows and Windows Phone. Many developers have found financial success creating Xbox LIVE Indie Games using XNA. However, there are no plans for future versions of the XNA product. Game developers have a wide set of options on Microsoft platforms, ranging from XNA and managed code to DirectX and native code. Microsoft provides developers the options they need to be successful."