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23 Jul 2008
Microsoft has unveiled its pricing model for Xbox Live Community Games in a bid to encourage amateur game developers to create, share and make money from Xbox games.
The company has pledged to split earnings from the games by offering amateur coders up to 70 per cent of the overall revenue generated through online sales on the Xbox Live Marketplace after going through a process of peer review.
Microsoft revealed the financial details on 22 July at its Gamefest conference in Seattle, having outlined plans for the initiative earlier this year.
Would-be games developers are required to join the XNA Creators Club, which has a $99 annual subscription fee, and to use the XNA Game Studio toolset to develop the game.
Developers submit their code to Microsoft, which subjects the game to a rigorous "peer-review" to ensure that it cuts the mustard.
Successful games are then added to the Xbox Live Marketplace catalogue priced at between $2.50 and $10. Games also will be available for free trial.
Microsoft said that it will take an extra 10 to 30 per cent in marketing charges from games paraded at the front of the Community Games store.
The initiative will launch this autumn in the US, Canada and selected European locations, with others set to follow in 2009.
"Nobody has ever done this before," said Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA, Microsoft's game-development system.
"We have high hopes that it will be a good business. We have no proof. This is what happens when you do something that's never been seen before."
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Do you agree?
This sounds alot like Apple's App Store...
Hmmm, sounds like someone is playing catch-up...
Posted by: Mat 23 Jul 2008
Nobody has done this before?
Why not do just the tiniest bit of research on the Apple App Store for the iPhone. They have already done this. Chalk it up to another bad Microsoft copy of Apple.
Posted by: Dennis 23 Jul 2008
No one has ever done this before?
I quote: "Nobody has ever done this before," said Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA, Microsoft's game-development system. Has Boyd Multerer been living in a cave? But I suppose it is true that no one has ever made an exact copy of Apple's AppStore before. Oh, there is a difference. Customers are required to buy points, effectively loaning Microsoft money until they make a purchase.
Posted by: Harvey 23 Jul 2008
No one has done this before?
No, someone has done this before. It is an exact copy of the iPhone App Store.
Posted by: Harold 23 Jul 2008
No one has done this before
In an interview, Bill Gates discussed parental controls in Vista and represented it as an innovation that no one had ever done this before. OS X Tiger had had parental controls for at least a year before Vista. Are these people deceptive, or do they just have an estranged relationship with reality? How can I trust such dippy people to write an operating system?
Posted by: Ken 23 Jul 2008
Nobody has ever done this before?
Um, can you say Apple App Store? Shameless derivative effort. Not that it's not a good idea to do, and might well be a boon to Xboxers. But "never done before"? Please.
Posted by: Greg 23 Jul 2008
What nonsense!
""Nobody has ever done this before," said Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA, Microsoft's game-development system." Does he really believe this? Or does he think anyone interested in their "store" doesn't know where the idea comes from? Or is he going on the principle of, "Tell a big enough lie often enough and people will assume it must be true?"
Posted by: Michael Linehan 23 Jul 2008