Lots of chatter lately over Microsoft's release of its game developer program.

Essentially, the Borg is allowing anyone willing to pay $100 a year to code and submit new games for the XBox. Assuming that the game doesn't suck, the company will then distribute the code through XBox Live and give the developer a 70% cut of any revenues.

Sound familiar to you? Well, you're not alone. More than a couple of vnunet.com readers pointed out that the marketplace sounds a lot like Apple's recently launched iTunes App Store, minus the subscription fee.

At first glance, you can chalk this up as yet another case of Apple innovating and Microsoft playing catch-up. You'll say that once again, Microsoft has to steal ideas that Apple came up with.

Of course, you'd be wrong.

Not on Microsoft copying the idea from someone else, that's extremely likely. But the App Store was far from being an innovation that sprang from Cupertino.

Salesforce.com, a web-based software firm whose current goal is to put every single piece of business software you own in a browser window, has been doing this for nearly 3 years, allowing developers to create new applications for its platform and sell or give them away to other users through an online marketplace.

Elements of the system go back even further. Services like Sourceforge allow independent developers to collaborate and distribute their projects online, and shareware companies like Ambrosia have a long history of picking up and distributing games from indie developers.

Hell, since the days of Doom there has been a huge unofficial market for first-person shooter mods and add-ons. Countless FPS platforms have relied on the ability to support third-party developers in order to sell. Second to online play, mods have been the driving force behind most of the big titles in the last 10 years.

So yeah, Microsoft copied someone, it just wasn't Apple. This time.

23 Jul 2008