Microsoft Wants to Make You a Rich and Famous Game Developer

Make your own 360 games now with XNA Game Studio Express

Posted by Staff
Microsoft Wants to Make You a Rich and Famous Game Developer
SPOnG told you all about Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express and Creator’s Club back in August, the service by which PC and Xbox 360 gamers can make their own games.

Peter Moore has gone on record stating that the ultimate aim of XNA Game Studio Express is to make Live Arcade into the "YouTube of videogames".

XNA Game Studio Express is now available as a free download for Windows XP-based PCs at www.msdn.com/XNA to allow anyone to affordably build and play all those game ideas they’ve been mulling over for years on Xbox 360.

Chris Satchell, General Manager of Microsoft's Game Developer Group said, "Delivering the tools is just the first step…the next stage is to enable sharing on a large scale. Answering the question of how do you get these games out to the masses."

Satchell expects that this large scale distribution of home/garage-made XNA games is something which we will see "sometime during the 07 calendar year."

While XNA Game Studio Express is a free download, users can pay £30.00 for a four-month subscription to the XNA Creators Club (or £65.00 for an annual subscription) which will provide wannabe developers with access to thousands of game assets as well as white papers, specialised starter kits, samples and technical product support, to help turn their catchy strapline for the service, “Your World, Your Game” into a reality.

“The XNA Creators Club is really the first of its kind — an opportunity to join a community of other developers who are empowered to bring their game ideas to life on a next-generation console system,” said Satchell. “When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless. What users will see today is just the beginning of the plans we have to revolutionize game development one creative game idea at a time.”

To mark the launch, Microsoft has announced that a 'Dream-Build-Play' contest will be open to XNA Game Studio Express customers on Windows as well as those on Xbox 360 through the XNA Creators Club membership, with the overall winner’s game being published on Xbox Live Arcade.

What are you waiting for? Go and make the next Geometry Wars. NOW!
Companies:

Comments

realvictory 12 Dec 2006 15:14
1/3
Brilliant, but I doubt the average XB360 owner (excluding developers) knows a damn thing about XNA, or programming games. Even if they do, they still would need to dedicate a lot to it.

But the overall concept is a brilliant idea.
SPInGSPOnG 12 Dec 2006 16:32
2/3
Hmmm, YouTube is free, XNA Creators Club is £65 a year.

I think I can already see the Micro$oft difference.

OptimusP 12 Dec 2006 18:31
3/3
XNA: Microsoft wants you to plug it's annual billion dollar black hole that is the Xbox-division by paying it so you can make games for their console free of charge...for them.

Booyah!
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