Microsoft's Xbox Live to Sell User-Designed Games

Posted 23 July 2008 @ 08:44 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

At the Gamefest 2008 Conference keynote Tuesday, Microsoft chief technology officer Chris Satchell revealed updated plans for the company's XNA player-created games initiative.

Now officially titled "Xbox LIVE Community Games," anyone who creates their own games via XNA will be able to not only release them to the public but also to charge money for them. Satchell called the move "a win for both developers and consumers, because this will no doubt act as an incentive for game creators to continue to develop the best, most innovative games for Xbox 360."

XNA creators will be able to choose from three possible price points for their games: 200 ($2.50), 400 ($5.00), or 800 ($10.00) Microsoft Points, only the lowest of which is less than the price of a regular Xbox Live Arcade download. 200 point games will face a size restriction of 50MB, while 400 and 800 point games can bulk up to as big as 150MB.

Microsoft says developers will receive "up to 70 percent of the revenue generated" for their creations, but they have offered no specifics on how they will determine how much money an XNA user will actually make. As with Live Arcade titles, trailers and demos will be available for Community Games.

Along with this news, Microsoft gave more information on the process games will go through before they are listed on Xbox Live. Premium members of the XNA Creators Club -- memberships run $49 for four months or $99 for a year -- will be able to review and help classify games before they go live for console users. In other words, Microsoft is basically letting people pay for the right to do work for them by playing and rating all of the user-created submissions. If a premium member tags a game as something that contains inappropriate content, it will not be eligible for listing until the game's creator submits a new, cleaner version.