Former XNA Community Manager Airs Quality Concerns

Microsoft's recent announcement that it would let community developers earn money for games they make with the company's XNA toolset came as good news to some, but former XNA community manager David Weller is concerned about the lack of quality standards. On his blog, Weller wrote:

Being an ex-XNA member, I can still say, without a shadow of doubt, that Microsoft is offering a groundbreaking game channel, and that some people stand a chance to make great money from the system. It's an exciting opportunity, but the danger for consumers lies in Microsoft's deliberate steps to avoid discussions regarding game quality, even during peer review.

It's similar, actually, to quality concerns about Xbox Live Arcade that ultimately led to Microsoft's announcement that underperforming titles would be delisted from the service.

Is it as big an issue on the separate community games channel? Said Weller:

Gamefest 2008: Microsoft's Satchell Talks Xbox 360 Homebrew Scene

Now, just about anyone can be a game developer — and get paid for it, too. At its Gamefest 2008 event today, Microsoft announced that community games made using its XNA tools will be downloadable via either PC or Xbox 360, and that the creators will get 70 percent of the revenues, as we reported earlier today.

We spoke to game developers' group general manager Chris Satchell about the new community initiative. "We realized there was so much creativity out there in the community," he said. "So many people had great ideas, so we needed to give them a toolset to express themselves… and then we had to give them that worldwide stage where they could show it. And then the final step is, why not let them benefit from it?"

Microsoft saw, Satchell said, that incredible innovation came from viral communities of indie game designers across the web, and hoped to capture some of that community for its users. Satchell hopes that community games will become viral in the same way:

XNA Creators Club Games Priced, Detailed

Back in February Xbox 360 gamers got a chance to try out some of the exciting homebrew games coming out of the XNA Code Creators Club, and this holiday season they'll be able to buy them. Microsoft has dropped details about how pricing and payments will work for folks who have their games published via the new program, now called Xbox LIVE Community Games. Paying members of the Creators Club will be able to submit their games to the community for peer review, and if they deem it worthy they'll be able to set a price and put it up for sale.

Brazilian Team Wins Microsoft's Imagine Cup With City Rain

Brazil's Mother Gaia Studios is the winner of Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a competition that challenged students from around the world to use XNA community tools to build games around the theme of environmental sustainability.

Microsoft recently showcased the finalists at the 2008 Games For Change event in New York, and Mother Gaia took home the Game Development prize with City Rain, the company announced today. Australia's Team SOAK won the Worldwide Software Design invitational, and Singapore’s Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational.

Said Microsoft:

A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions competed in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, “Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to digital media or technology depending on the invitational.

Full announcement and details on the winners after the jump!

XNA Games "Most Likely Less Expensive" Than XBLA Ones

Microsoft's Satchell Talks Games For Change

"Imagine a world where we have no ability to influence the people that are going to lead and shape thought for tomorrow," said Microsoft's Chris Satchell, general manager of XNA.

"We have social causes we care about, but we don't have the means to connect with people who can do something about them. We're not there, but its a world that's possible to see unless actvities like we're doing here today really gain some momentum."

Satchell was at the 2008 annual Games For Change festival, discussing the ways Microsoft hopes its XNA development platform will help provide creative activists and educators the tools and opportunities to connect with the young, energetic audience passionate about new media and world issues.

"People will base their lives around gaming experiences; gaming experiences will permeate their lives," he said, stressing just how important it was for the culture to recognize games as agents of genuine social impact.

So what is Microsoft doing?

No Zune for You at Gamestop

You're One Step Closer To Playing Home-Made Games On Your 360

The XNA team announced earlier today that a beta program's just begun for the "Community Games on LIVE" program. The bedroom coders amongst you will remember this service was announced back at GDC, and is aimed at getting user-generated games into the hands of 360 owners worldwide. If you're interested in trying out the service now (the full program's expected later in the year), they're still taking beta testers, so head on over and sign up.

Announcing: Community Games on Xbox LIVE Beta [XNA Team Blog]

Microsoft Confirms XNA Zune CTP For May

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

At GDC, we had the opportunity to demo a Zune running an XNA game. And it looked pretty good. So what has been Microsoft's Zune team been thinking about in the several months since then? XNA commander and chief Chris Satchell fills us in:

One of the things we talked about was the network play, and we've had people doing prototypes internally of multiplayer shoot-'em-ups both in versus and co-op.

Microsoft: Others "Inviting Trouble" By Supporting Mods

I think there's a potential risk on any platform where you're allowing...where you're running in what we call native mode, where you're writing straight to the metal, not a sandbox layer like XNA, and then that runs a script engine and you let people do that in that script engine.

Xbox Japan Boss Is Wasted On Japan

Japan's XNA Games Looking Surprisingly Nice

For those of you wanting to download and check out some of the XNA community games, be aware that they are only available until tomorrow Sunday, Feb. 23 at midnight. After that you will have until March 9 at midnight to play the games before they expire. So get while the gettings good and download your XNA games now before it's too late!

[Thanks, Epsicode]

Microsoft Handing Out XNA (And Lots of Other Stuff) To Students

As I logged into my school email account this past week, only to be greeted with the news that some libraries are way too protective over their microfilm (damn you, Yale!), a little item on the news section of our login page caught my eye. Microsoft is giving away several full-fledged programs to college students, hoping to lure them away from Adobe-powered and open source software; in addition to Visual Studio Professional Edition and Expression Studio, they're also handing out XNA Game Studio 2.0, including a 12 month trial subscription to XNA Creators Club (plus some other stuff). Under the initiative titled 'DreamSpark,' they're hoping to rope in people early on, with the hopes of reaping the financial benefits later.

DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

Who can get this right now?

We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year.

There's more information over at the DreamSpark website, plus you can find out if you're eligible and all that good stuff.

XNA Game Studio Games Come To Zune

Can't say we didn't see it coming, but Microsoft officially announced today that XNA Game Studio games would soon be supported by the Zune. The portable media player is expected to get simpler fare like the vertical space shooter Zauri and puzzle staple Hexic, the former of which was shown to feature MP3 support.

The Zune's touchpad will hopefully make for a decent controller, but we haven't gone hands on with it yet. Graphically, Zauri, the only game demoed via video, was simple in nature, but the addition of music library support could make for interesting shooter gameplay.

Xbox Live To Add Community Created Games