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XNA community games downloaded 750,000 times
Today, as we churned through February's NPD numbers, we came across an interesting number that was included as part of Microsoft's NPD press release. The magic number is 750,000 and it's the number of times the seven free XNA games were downloaded the week after GDC. Microsoft's internal estimates peg the seven XNA games (including gems like Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, JellyCar and Little Gamers) were downloaded around 750,000 times over Xbox Live and, by our internal calculations, that sounds like a lot! Hopefully the exposure these downloads received not only got gamers excited for their release, but excited for the big XNA community games rollout later this Fall. Bring on the free XNA goodness already, bring it!
GDC08: How to download free XNA game previews
The mysterious XNA curtain has been pulled back revealing not only a new community friendly XNA / Xbox Live service, but also seven XNA game demos for everyone to enjoy. But you don't have to be on the GDC show floor to try out these little XNA gems, no sir. All you need to do is hop onto Xbox Live and get your download on. Though, the process for downloading XNA games is a bit different, so let us break it down for you.First, you'll have to download the XNA Game Launcher off the XBLM. You can find the this little doodad by going to New Releases > Game Content > XNA Creators Club. Once that 7MB file downloads, make your way to your XNA Game Launcher by heading to your Games blade > Games Library > My Games > XNA Creators Club. Here you'll be able to press "Y" and download all seven XNA trial games for free. Once you find a game and download it, you'll then be able to launch your demo from the same location. That's it, all done. And to get you started, we've posted a description of all seven downloadable XNA game demos after the break. Find something that appeals to you and give 'er a download. Oh, and have some fun too.
GDC08: Microsoft brings XNA together with Live
Microsoft just announced plans to bridge the gap between the XNA development community with the Xbox Live community by allowing XNA games to be tested, tried and shared over Xbox Live. This new service will be rolled out "soon" and will allow Live members to access, rate, review and play new community created XNA Arcade games which will greatly increase the XBLA's current library. And, as a sampling of what's to come when the service debuts, Microsoft has just placed seven beta versions of XNA created games onto the XBLA so that the developers can get important feedback about their projects. Games including JellyCar, Little Gamers, TriLinea, RocketBall, ProximityHD, Culture and our personal love, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Now THIS is what we call user created content. Bravo!
Readers pick best webcomic (April 30 - May 6, 2006)
Even though we are all dead tired at E3 and this is the last (or second-to-last) thought on every Joystiq reader's mind, we still are required by law* to announce the winner of the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup ... and Penny Arcade's Inferno-esque Levels of Developmental Hell took the top spot with almost half of the popular vote. We are sure the guys over at Bungie are feeling an eerily similar fate to Level 14 this week (the fruits of their labor we will likely see at Microsoft's press conference today).Second place went to GU Comics' stab on the ESRB, and third place was claimed by Little Gamers' geek test. Thanks to everyone who voted; we may be busy at E3, but be sure to let us know of any great game-related (especially E3-related) webcomics you come across this week.* Not really, but that's kind of obvious.[Thanks again to Scott Johnson for all the comical E3 banners]
