And I should have clarified, I meant that MS isnt supporting XNA, which I think was one of the main reasons C# gained traction. It might very well continue to be used in Win8 applications, but since this is a game development forum I'm thinking mostly of... game development. As far as game development, c++ will continue to be the standard.

C++ isn't really used on its own, I like the language and use it but it isn't as super powerful as people claim it to be nor is C# another stupid slow managed language.

Majority aren't always right, I don't know about the game industry but I know of other major industries and typically following the bandwagon is rarely to do with productivity, it is more to do with shareholders / business managers lacking balls, and lets be honest here considering every other game released in the last few years is an ''upgrade' of some other game, I doubt the game industry are any different from other industries.

Besides you already said

"Just because something is widely used now doesnt mean it'll be widely used in the future."

Surely this must also apply to your C++ comment too then ;)

I say all of this as someone who uses both C# and C++ heavily and daily. Personally I always thought C# gained popularity because of how easy and efficient .NET was to make applications, work with databases and make websites.

Not to mention, companies with a large codebase may be reluctant to tear everything up to move to the latest trend in programming languages, that's sometimes too little gain for too much work (and work that potentially will be a nightmare to test). Hell, at work we still have numerical engines written in Fortran, even though our primary application development is in C# (and bits of C++/CLI here and there).

C++ isn't really used on its own,

Not sure what you mean by this. Most professional gave developers use C++ on its own.

There are rumors already that MS has a new version of a managed Direct X language that will coincide with the release of the new XBOX version

I must have missed that. Any link ?

There were already Managed DirectX tutorial threads and managed vs non-managed flame wars here on Gamedev and other forums a few years before Microsoft even announced XNA. There were also several .NET games programming blogs around that simply updated their content to be XNA specific. Also the C++ DirectX SDK also had a couple of examples using C# as a scripting language from within a native C++ game. So I think it already had traction in the game dev comunity before XNA.

Mind you you only have to remmember what happened to managed DirectX and then it isn't really a suprise that microsoft dropped XNA.

And despite that you can still create a new Windows Forms app in Visual Studio today, go to References, Add Reference, pick ".NET" and all of the "Microsoft.DirectX" stuff is still available for use.

That's a cautionary lesson in the whole "WAAAHH!!! MICROSOFT KILLED XNA AND NOW I CAN DO NOTHING!!!!" drama. Despite the fact that Managed DirectX was killed years ago, it is still available for use. What is it that is causing people to think that the situation would be otherwise with XNA?