Microsoft Opens Xbox LIVE to the Crowd
Microsoft announced today at the Game Developers Conference that they would allow Xbox LIVE members to play, rate and share community-created games. This new open distribution service will give the Xbox LIVE community the opportunity to share their work with 10 million members.
Microsoft is the first in the industry to open up their service to the community. “The time has come for the games industry to open its doors to all game creators, enabling anyone to share their creations with the world,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Xbox LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
This allows Microsoft the opportunity to become the “YouTube” of gaming. “Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we’ve seen in digital music and video sharing.” says Mr Schappert. YouTube gave people to create their own content and share it with the world, allowing YouTube (now Google) the opportunity to make money off of the content.
An Xbox 360 community game created using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software and XNA Creators Club membership will be able to be submitted for distribution on Xbox LIVE. Each community-created game must then undergo a thorough peer-review process and be evaluated for accuracy in representation and appropriateness. Community game developers will be able to beta test the process this spring and will be able to distribute their games on Xbox LIVE by the end of this year.
Six gamesthat we created using XNA Game Studio will be available for download:
- “JellyCar.” Created by Walaber from the United States, this game is about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds, trying to reach the exit.
- “Little Gamers.” This is a 2-D high definition action side-scroller based on the famous Web comic “Little Gamers” created by Loic Dansart, a 24-year-old software developer from Belgium.
- “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.” An intense 2-D action platform game created by James Silva from the United States, “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai” has a unique, highly stylized look and fast and fluid action.
- “TriLinea.” This puzzle game created by Edison S. Prata Jr., Renato Pelizzari da Silva and Davi da Silva Prata from Brazil mixes fast-paced action with strategy.
- “RocketBall.” Created by Tyler Wanlass, Patrick Murty and Todd Barrons of the United States, this neighborhood game of dodgeball explodes onto the street with fast-paced multiplayer action.
- “ProximityHD.” This game, created by Brian Cable from the United States, takes the essence of strategy games battles for control of territory and armies — and distills it down to a simple, easy-to-understand set of rules for casual players.
- “Culture.” Created by independent game development company Hidden Path Entertainment from the United States, “Culture” contains challenging games and puzzles based on beautiful flowers.
More to come as it comes available.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I gotta say, even though I don’t have any time to devote to console development, XNA and access to XNA titles is one of the most appealing aspects of the 360.
My old X-Box was chipped, I set up a pirated copy of the development environment on my PC, and managed to move a few polygons around before the weight of C++ broke my spirit… .NET development AND being able to show off a title on non-chipped consoles is a crazy-delicious carrot to be dangling.
Of course NOW i hope Microsoft build a model with built in BluRay. And extend their borderline acceptable media player so WMW and MPEG-4 / DivX codecs aren’t the only ones supported. PS/3 still has a better media player and more bundled wireless connectivity. Which makes it attractive for anyone looking for more than just a gaming console.