During the Gamefest 2008, Microsoft Game Technology Conference, the company announced the launch of Xbox LIVE Community Games, the new space especially created in order to give users the chance to create and share original Xbox 360 content.
Anyone can now develop an Xbox 360 game; authors must then send their work to Microsoft's peer-review website. Once the game is approved, it is passed on to the Community Game storefront; as Microsoft keeps about 30% for itself, game creators can get up to 70% of the revenues their games make.
As Microsoft general manager Boyd Multerer explained, the company wants to prove there really is a market for the new idea and that the project can support itself. Therefore, there will be no free games, at least not right away.
According to Boyd Multerer, this will be a good deal for everyone. Those who develop good games will make lots of money, Microsoft will get new games and consumers will have a wider range of options to choose from.
Microsoft will let gamers use its XNA Game Studio software for materializing their very own ideas. The XNA Creators Club will be accessible through two types of memberships: $49 for four months and $99 for twelve months.
Boyd Multerer then mentioned three community-developed games he particularly feels strongly about: Colosseum (a four-person fighting game developed in Sweden), Funny Dancing (coming from Japan, this dancing game is expected to be a big hit among young girls), World Soup (developed in the UK, as gamepro people describe it, it is basically "a version of Boggle meets Bubble Breaker").
The service is scheduled to be released this fall and once this happens, Microsoft is expecting the Xbox 360 video game library to double its size.
Halfway through May, Microsoft Corp proudly announced that its Xbox 360 gaming console managed to go past the 10 million unit mark in the U.S. before Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii and Sony Corp's PS3.
Although company officials were obviously very happy with their product’s achievement, they have recently received some concerning news. According to The NPD Group's June sales figures released two days ago, the Wii console recorded sales of roughly 666,000 last month, thus bringing the total number of commercialized units to no less than 10.9 million. The Xbox has been on the market about one year more than the Wii and still, only managed to sell 10.5 million units.
Perhaps the upcoming service will give Microsoft that much needed sales boost.
During the recently ended Electronic Entertainment Expo Business Summit in Los Angeles, all three companies (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) unveiled new services, titles and peripherals. According to Yankee Group analyst Mike Goodman, Microsoft has had the best presentation by far.
He said Microsoft announced its intention to use innovation within the Xbox Live service, for providing its current users with original experiences and also for encouraging new users to try out its products and services.
Earlier this month, Microsoft brought a new addition to the Xbox 360 line: a new model packing a 60GB storage unit; the console is being made available for $349.
