Tech Shout!

Microsoft has announced that it will be making Xbox 360 player-created video games available for download via the console’s online Xbox LIVE service. This service is expected to be launched in the holiday season of 2008.

Microsoft already has a lot of games available for the Xbox 360 on its online service. Now, this new service will double the size of the Xbox 360 game library to around 1,000 games within a years time.

John Schappert, a vice president of gaming at Microsoft addressed around 6,000 game developers at a San Francisco conference saying, “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.”

In order to have a self-created game distributed on the Xbox LIVE service, game creators will be required to use Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software, which comes at a subscription of $99 per year. Alternatively, game developers could also be an XNA Creators Club member to be eligible to distribute his/her games on the service.

In fact, XNA Creators Club members will be able to test a beta version of this service in Spring 2008.

Each game submitted will be cross-checked for quality and appropriateness by the online community itself.

Microsoft has also said that game developers will not be restricted to creating games just for the Xbox 360 console; they will also be able to create games for Microsoft’s Zune digital media player.

Further, Microsoft said that it will give students free access to its XNA Game Studio 2.0, the company’s newest version of its video game development program.

Microsoft is perhaps encouraging Xbox 360 game development in a move to counter the fierce competition from rival Nintendo and Sony in the game console market.