XNA
Latest
XNA Community Games pricing, marketing structure detailed
Microsoft has revealed the marketing and pricing plans for its Xbox Live Community Games program, which is expected to launch in some public form this holiday season in North America and select European markets.Microsoft has set three tiers of pricing for XNA developed titles, games may cost 200MS points ($2.50) for titles 50MB or less and 400 ($5) or 800MS points ($10) for titles that weigh in at a maximum of 150MB.Microsoft is set to share up to 70% of profits from any XNA developed title. Microsoft has also revealed plans to help promote the more successful titles on the service. "If we help you sell an absolute ton of these, it's going to be up towards 30% [more of your total revenue]," Microsoft chief technology officer Chris Satchell told MTV Multiplayer. "If it's not doing so well, down towards 10%."As Shacknews described, developers who choose to distribute titles via the Xbox Live Marketplace will not be able to opt out of royalty-cutting promotions. Creators must first agree to a common set of terms when adding a game to the service and, According to Microsoft, "the majority of sales and revenue a creator earns will be generated by our promotions." Unfortunately, XNA Community Games will not include achievements and the service is structured so no game may be released for free, but we assume we'll see demos for each title.
User-created Xbox Live games to cost as low as $2.50, devs get up to 70% revenue
Microsoft confirmed today that the final phase of its XNA initiative would commence later this year when the "Community Games" channel is added to the Xbox Live Marketplace in the US, Canada and select European markets (other regions will be included in 2009 and "beyond"). User-created games will be sold at three price levels: 200 Microsoft Points ($2.50), 400 Microsoft Points ($5) and 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Microsoft has committed to share up to 70% of revenue of an indie game with its developer. (In addition, we're presuming that some games will be offered for free. Actually, no games will be free -- read our full Q&A with XNA GM Boyd Multerer right here!) Microsoft expects that user-created contributions will double the number of downloadable games available on Xbox Live when the Community Games beta launches in the fall as part of the "New Xbox Experience." A peer-review system -- already in operation -- will theoretically keep these titles from coming under the watchful eye of the delisting committee. Though, just in case a few stinkers slip through the cracks, let's keep our fingers crossed for the availability of demo versions.[Note: Above image is not an accurate depiction of XNA development conditions.]
XBLA delisting will not affect XNA games
Talking with GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg reiterated their commitment to the Xbox Live Arcade and how their delisting program will actually benefit the XBLA by forcing developers to "take more time, make use of the new additional storage space and focus on game quality." But Greenberg made sure to note that the delisting program will NOT affect the upcoming XNA Community Games initiative saying that the "program only applies to Xbox Live Arcade" seeing that "Community Games created with XNA do not go through the same submission and certification process." So, no matter how craptucular some community games will end up being (because we all know there will be utter crap), delisting will not be enforced.
Gamestop ain't your Zunestop
GameStop will no longer stock or sell the Zune, citing weak sales and a poor fit with its "product mix". Despite recent positive sales numbers and only weeks short of Microsoft's launch of games for Zune, Microsoft's player will no longer be found at the gaming retail giant. The decision came about a month ago, and sales will continue at Gamestop.com until stock is depleted. Adam Sohn, director of Zune marketing, confirmed the announcement this afternoon by not denying it:"We have a set of great retail partnerships that give Zune a strong presence at retail including Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others. We will continue to invest in deep retail partnerships, and have seen good momentum online and at retail over the last few months including a great response to our recent Spring Update. We're looking forward to a continued strong presence at retail with our partners."We can't help but thinking better Xbox integration could've gone a long way, but perhaps it was just never meant to be.
XNA Community Games go 'Live' for indie devs
Microsoft has taken the next big step towards its goal of bringing user-created games to Xbox Live Arcade. The software behemoth today hung out an "open" sign on its Community Games for Xbox Live beta, allowing small developers enrolled in the XNA Creators Club to share, review, and download each others' games via Xbox Live Arcade. Currently, only Creators Club members with "Premium" accounts -- which cost $99 a year -- can access the service, but MS plans to make top-voted Community games available for download by John Q. Public in the fall.The Creators Club and Community games are the next stage of Microsoft's XNA initiative, which saw the introduction of XNA Game Studio 2.0 -- a suite of tools for creating Xbox 360 and Windows games -- earlier this year. The free software package is intended to simplify the development process and encourage upstarts to make Xbox 360 their platform of choice. It includes a variety of tutorials and samples, which MS added to today with the introduction of a free Role-Playing Game Starter Kit.News of today's beta launch comes in the wake of our earlier post on MS's intention to "leapfrog" PSN and WiiWare with the help of indie developers.
Xbox Live Community Games launches beta test
After being announced at GDC 08 the only questioned that lingered about Microsoft's new Community Games initiative was when the program would officially begin. Today Microsoft inched the program closer to launch by announcing the Beta test for Community Games is available to premium XNA membership owners and the new XNA Creators Club Online community site.The beta allows creators to submit games for review to the newly formed creators site and once reviewed and approved the game is made available on Xbox Live.According to Microsoft during GDC, Community Games will land on all Xbox Live connected consoles this holiday season and hopefully the early beta means we can have a healthy catalog of titles to choose from.Make sure to check out the XNA Community Games tutorial video after the jump.
Microsoft talks XBLA future, loosening download size limit
No pressure or anything, but you're the future of Xbox Live Arcade, 'kay? In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft's worldwide Xbox Live Arcade games portfolio manager, David Edery, states that user-created games are "going to help [Microsoft] leapfrog the competition" -- said competition being PlayStation Network and WiiWare. Edery also questions whether Sony or Nintendo will ever attempt to emulate Microsoft's initiative.Revealed at GDC 2008, Microsoft's Community Games Initiative is set to launch later this year and will allow indie devs to submit games created using XNA Game Studio 2.0 for other Community members to review. The top-rated submissions will be made available via XBLA for all users to download.Some other interesting tidbits from the Edry interview: MS is planning to increase the maximum file size for future XBLA releases from 150 megabytes to 350MB, although he wouldn't divulge when. (MS had already made an exception for Capcom's upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, affording it 250MB for all its high-res 2D goodness.) Edery also confirms that MS has a "large" number of upcoming XBLA releases in its queue, and may consider more multi-release XBLA Wednesdays as a result.
XNA Game Studio preview with Zune games now out
Well, that was fast, the XNA community technology preview with Zune games we were just talking about is already out. Unless you're a developer ready to get your hands a little dirty it won't be of much use though, especially since games can only be distributed and installed from source code right now.Read - Official announcementRead - How-to install Zune games
Zune XNA games preview release aimed for May
Microsoft's still isn't solid on a final consumer release date for XNA games for the Zune, but they are aiming for the first CTP (community technology preview) to be released in May. We also learned that Zune games can support ad-hoc wireless play with up to eight players, the devices won't support any hardware 3D acceleration, the "16MB for storing games" we heard before actually refers to how much Zune RAM games can take over, and Microsoft's got at least four games running on the platform (which may or may not ever be released to the public): Zauri (which we've already seen -- video after the break), as well as Hexic, Potato Chase, and Alien Takeover.
XNA concepts already being tested on Zune
Talking with Eurogamer, XNA main man Chris Satchell informed them that XNA development on the Zune is moving along rather nicely and that they have concept games up and working.Satchell confirmed word that, internally, Microsoft has already created a few concept XNA games for the Zune, including a Wolfenstein software rendered that outputs at a solid 30 frames per second. Worried about the Zune as a controller? According to Satchell, the Zune's squircle "touchpad is great". And what about those who want Zune to Zune multiplayer gaming? You're covered as well, with Satchell's confirmation that "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". Delicious!So, now that they've dangled this XNA / Zune integration carrot in front of our faces for an eternity, when can we get a confirmed launch? Hmm?
Is the PS3 inviting trouble by supporting mods?
A key selling point to some people for the PS3 is the console's ability to support mods, like with Unreal Tournament 3. However, XNA group manager at Microsoft Chris Satchell thinks Sony is inviting trouble for allowing this. Specifically, if there aren't any XNA-style security measures to protect people from malicious content. You know, phallic drawings.Well, not entirely. His argument revolves around letting people have access to writing in a game's native mode and not a controlled layer like XNA (using analogies like "writing into the metal" and "sandbox" respectively). This brings about an interesting topic, though -- will peer-reviewed downloadable content really get monitored closely enough? Legal action will be brought against major offenders, to be sure, but is there really a complete and accurate way to keep the trash in the trashcan, so to speak? Leave your thoughts!
Dress your desktop with Dead Samurai
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai creator James Silva recently posted this sweet 1440x900 wallpaper image on his Ska Studios blog for fans to dress-up their desktop in anticipation of the XNA title's release. Fans of the game, and of the wallpaper, could see the design make its way to a t-shirt in the future. While Silva hasn't decided on that yet, we'd recommend you drop into his blog and let him know you'd like to get this print on your threads ASAP. We know we do![Thanks, JAKEJAX]
Sierra Online XBLA News
Appearing on the "Three Red Lights" podcast, Ross Erickson from Sierra Online gave the IGN Podcast a host of details regarding the company's upcoming games. The biggest of the news is that Assault Heroes 2 is actually completed, and is on the road to an April release. The second-most significant news would also be XBLA related, and regards the near-completion of Lost Cities. Concerning Lost Cities, there is still no word about he price, but the rumblings are that it could hit at 400 points. Among the smaller tidbits of information from the interview, Sierra is looking at giving adventure games a return, they're going to be publishing an award-winning XNA game, and as far as their number show, expansions tend to sell less than 50% of the originals. [Via xblah] [Read, Three Red Lights Podcast]
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!
Shhh ... Dishwasher: Dead Samurai demo not dead
Keep this one on the down-low, we mean don't go putting this on the internets or anything but it looks like someone at Microsoft forgot to hit the "off" switch on the XNA demo for The Dishwasher - Dead Samurai.Set to expire at midnight on March 9, we found that the demo still booted up and worked correctly today -- March 10. Still having the demo on our hard drive, we attempting to boot the game when a screen told us that the demo had expired, but oddly continued to the main menu of the the game.The Dishwasher - Dead Samurai, created solely by James Silva, was heralded by Microsoft as their main attraction for the upcoming XNA Community Games feature, set to release this holiday. While we expect Microsoft has already noticed, they can see what you're playing you know, we at least can give the fantastic demo for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release a final farewell. Video of the demo going through after the jump.At this time we haven't been able to confirm if all XNA demos are still functioning, but it seems likely that they will.%Gallery-15513%
Counting Rupees: Royalty Screwed
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks alternate in contributing Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming: Gamers were outraged in recent weeks by a rumor that Xbox Live Arcade royalties were being cut in half for developers; in fact, some developers were reportedly considering moving development from XBLA to the PlayStation Network because of the cuts. It was less clear why Microsoft would do something like this: At first glance, it appears to stifle independent game development and reduce the overall quality of XBLA as a platform. Clearly, Microsoft is just being greedy, right?Perhaps, but it's certainly not as clearcut as it seems at first glance. Although any changes to the royalty structure will mean changes -- and potentially significant ones -- for XBLA, they may still be beneficial in the long run for some people, possibly even increasing indie development.As is often the case with rumors, there's more to the story than a simple royalty cut. Let's think first about what the costs and benefits of the changes are to both developers and Microsoft, after which we can decide why the action might have been taken in the first place and what it all means to us as gamers. From a developer's perspective, the cost is pretty clear: Up to 35% of the total revenues of a game. Does the developer receive any benefits? Yes, some: As reported, developers will no longer have to pay for features like worldwide ratings or localization, which both reduces costs and potentially provides access to a larger international market. And from Microsoft's standpoint, the costs and benefits are essentially reversed: It no longer has to pay the royalties, but it does need to provide some additional services.
GDC08: Dishwasher - Dead Samurai impressions
Rounding out our extensive GDC08 coverage we end up where we began, talking about James Silva's Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Eager to promote their upcoming Community Games feature slated to hit this holiday season, Microsoft released a number of demos made from their XNA development platform for free via Xbox Live Marketplace. One of the demos, Dishwasher, is one of four top prizes awarded by Microsoft for an XBLA release contract made by one extremely creative and passionate guy. After spending the better part of a week "chopping dudes up," we've finally been able to put the controller down and tell you exactly how Dishwasher stacks up as a future, full-fledged, XBLA title. %Gallery-15513%
X3F interviews James Silva, creator of Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
The annual Game Developer's Conference played host to something of a Cinderella story this year, plunging a once unknown game developer into the limelight. We're talking, of course, about James Silva, creator of Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and Microsoft's new poster child for XNA Community Games. We managed to catch up with James during the conference and ask him how things have changed since the last time we spoke. We also discussed just how James feels about Peter Molyneux and whether or not he's still considering the "Pulling a Peter Moore" achievement for Dishwasher's guitar segments (see 360 Fancast 044 at around 1:05:00). Find the interview after the break. The audio version of the interview is also available in our latest Fancast.
GDC08: Download deadline extended for XNA trials
If you still haven't found the time to download all seven free XNA Community Game trials then we ask, why the heck not? These game trials are only available on a very limited basis. Originally, they were only available for download until this Sunday and playable through March 9th when they'll turn into non-playable lumps of megabytes. But we've just been informed that the download period has been extended to Tuesday, February 26th at midnight pacific due to a few GDC attendees complaining that they wouldn't be home before the download deadline. So, that's good news for fanboys who are die-hard procrastinators or those who are away from home (possibly on vacation) until Monday. Now you have absolutely no reason not to download and try these XNA Community Games. If anything, you'll have to at least try The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Little Gamers and JellyCar just for us. Go. Download. NOW!
GDC08: Blogger's breakfast feeds XNA minds
As is tradition, earlier this morning Microsoft held a blogger's breakfast and in between strips of bacon and piles of scrambled eggs, the Joystiq crew got answers to a few hot XNA questions.We learn that XNA Community Games can be downloaded by any Live subscriber (be it gold or silver) through the XBLM, but only XNA Creators Club members will be able to upload games. Creators Club members will also be the only ones who monitor the service and be able to review their peers' games. We also learn that achievement addicts will not get their "fix"with any XNA games. Make the jump to get a few more of your XNA Community Games questions answered. Now pass the orange juice.
