Microsoft GDK Plug-ins for Unreal Engine are Now Available

Released as part of Unreal Engine 5.7, the Microsoft GDK Plug-ins for Unreal Engine enable you to build your game for the Xbox PC App using the Win64 platform in Unreal Engine. These plug-ins allow for a unified platform for your Windows builds - which reduces cook times, enables single executable scenarios, and improves compatibility with Unreal Engine plug-ins that work with Win64 today.

There are two key plug-ins that enable GDK functionality in the Win64 platform.

• The Microsoft GDK Runtime Plug-in for Unreal Engine provides access to the GDK runtime functionality, such as Xbox-compatible game saves and Xbox user selection. This plugin is present in the GDK Platform folder as MSGamingRuntime.
• The Microsoft GDK Store Plug-in for Unreal Engine provides automatic generation of .msixvc packages for submission to the Xbox PC App. This plugin is present in the GDK Platform folder as MSGameStore.

The WinGDK platform, in Unreal Engine, will no longer receive feature updates and is considered a legacy platform. For more information on these new plug-ins and the process to migrate from WinGDK to Win64 platform, please see the Microsoft GDK Plug-ins for Unreal Engine documentation on Epic Game’s site.

These plug-ins require you to be part of the Xbox Developer program to get access to the GDK Platform Extensions, which includes these plug-ins, and their associated documentation. For more information on getting started with Unreal Engine & the Microsoft GDK, please see the Getting started with Unreal Engine documentation on the Microsoft GDK site.