Microsoft woos amateur games developers

Game designers to net up to 70 per cent of revenue

Guy Dixon, vnunet.com 23 Jul 2008

Microsoft has unveiled its pricing model for Xbox Live Community Games in a bid to encourage amateur game developers to create, share and make money from Xbox games.

The company has pledged to split earnings from the games by offering amateur coders up to 70 per cent of the overall revenue generated through online sales on the Xbox Live Marketplace after going through a process of peer review.

Microsoft revealed the financial details on 22 July at its Gamefest conference in Seattle, having outlined plans for the initiative earlier this year.

Would-be games developers are required to join the XNA Creators Club, which has a $99 annual subscription fee, and to use the XNA Game Studio toolset to develop the game.

Developers submit their code to Microsoft, which subjects the game to a rigorous "peer-review" to ensure that it cuts the mustard.

Successful games are then added to the Xbox Live Marketplace catalogue priced at between $2.50 and $10. Games also will be available for free trial.

Microsoft said that it will take an extra 10 to 30 per cent in marketing charges from games paraded at the front of the Community Games store.

The initiative will launch this autumn in the US, Canada and selected European locations, with others set to follow in 2009.

"Nobody has ever done this before," said Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA, Microsoft's game-development system.

"We have high hopes that it will be a good business. We have no proof. This is what happens when you do something that's never been seen before."

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