A few years ago I interviewed Scott Henson one of the big wigs for Microsoft’s X-Box Live service and we talked extensively about the future of the platform and the idea of user generated games for the service.  Today that dream has become a reality as Microsoft announces the immediate availability of XNA created games are available on X-Box Live. “The time has come for the games industry to open its doors to all game creators, enabling anyone to share their creations with the world,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we’ve seen in digital music and video sharing.” 

Demonstrating a look into the future potential of community-created games on Xbox 360, Chris Satchell, general manager and chief XNA architect at Microsoft, announced that seven games created using XNA Game Studio 2.0 would be available immediately for Xbox 360 owners to download from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. This move makes all of us who dream of one day creating that surprise "hit" game one step closer to reality.  The one thing I would like to find out is if creators will also be able to eventually sell their games on XBL.

An Xbox 360 community game created using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software and XNA Creators Club membership will be able to be submitted for distribution on Xbox LIVE. Each community-created game must then undergo a thorough peer-review process and be evaluated for accuracy in representation and appropriateness. Community game developers will be able to beta test the process this spring and will be able to distribute their games on Xbox LIVE by the end of this year.

Microsoft also announced their 2008 slate of games, looks a bit skimpy at the moment. But it’s still early. We can look forward to Gears of War 2 in November, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden II, and Too Human.

I saw this tech demo for the new Alone In The Dark game on Joystiq and thought it was really cool.  Check out the end where we see the many joys of Sticky tape.  The game is coming along very nicely and the it’s use of real time lighting effects is definitely intriguing.  My only issue with the game is that I’m not much of a fan of the Horror genre, but this could make me a believer.

Yesterday morning I woke up bright and early. The first thing I did was fire up my X-Box 360 to get the new Fall Update and I have to say I am impressed. It took less than a minute to download and install. The update includes a couple of new features including support for Divx, so now I can watch my Sci-Fi screener DVDs on my 360 and another major addition is the ability for people to browse your friend’s list. I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. My gut is, it’s an invasion of privacy, and the Dashboard update turns this feature on by default. Other new features include the new X-Box Originals store where you can download original X-Box titles like Fables and Halo; and everything is just organized a lot better most of the clutter has been cleaned up. One major redesign is all of your downloaded games - Demos and Arcade, are now in one area. It’s going to take a little getting used to, but I understand the logic of this grouping. Check out the full press release for more details. (more…)