Xbox Invites Users to Create Original Games
Okay, amateur game developers, put on that second pot of coffee – okay, third. You’ve got a game to create! During the keynote address at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) held last week in San Francisco, Microsoft announced they were opening their doors to amateur game development. Using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio 2.0 development tool kit, members of Xbox Live, an Internet multiplayer game service by Microsoft, will soon be able to create and submit their own games, which will then be distributed to other members for peer review and testing. “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,” said John Schappert, a VP in Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment unit.
To start the ball rolling, seven community-created games will be available for immediate download to Xbox 360 owners from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. All were created using XNA Game Studio 2.0, and include “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” an intense 2D action platform game following a katana-wielding dishwasher, “JellyCar,” about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds, and RocketBall,” which takes dodge-ball to the streets. And while they are not discussing a business model right now, Chris Satchell, general manager and chief XNA architect at Microsoft (pictured above), did emphasize that the creators will keep all the rights to the games they upload.
For a look into how the rise of the independent game developer will impact the future of the video game industry, be sure to join Corey Bridges, Executive Producer for multiverse.net, for his 2008 ScreenBurn panel The Future of Virtual World & Game Development: Rise of the Indies on Saturday, March 8th at 11:30 AM.