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[Xbox-Scene]

Chris Satchell about 'YouTube For Games' Posted by XanTium | March 16 21:29 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From next-gen.biz: XNA Game Studio Express is a Do-It-Yourself game programming tool, that enables consumers to create console games from home. It has the potential to change the way games are consumed, and how they are perceived. It also has the potential, like similar initiatives in the past, to slip quietly into oblivion. The investment is significant. The core team of about 36 people have been working on this for three years. Plus, other resources internally have been pulled in. You're certainly looking at tens of millions of dollars. Why is Microsoft spending all this money on XNA Game Studio Express? Creators will, some time next year, be able to upload their games (assuming approval) to a new channel on Xbox Live dedicated to community games. Satchell says, "Anybody on Xbox Live can pick your game up. You'll have an audience of six million people that can go and play your game. You don't have to have a publisher, you can now just share with the world. It's a really good differentiation for our platform to have those tiers of content, ranging from Triple A to Arcade to Community." "I guarantee publishers are going to be looking at these games, looking for new talent, looking for new ideas, just like Epic Records trolls MySpace looking for new people." Full Story: next-gen.biz (2 pages)

[1nick9]

yeh but youtube has 1 major difference. its completely free!!!!

[mlapaglia]

^ he offers a good point, not all "talented" "up and coming" coders have money lieing around...

can't wait until they get some kick ass games on there though.

[Jagosix]

QUOTE(1nick9 @ Mar 17 2007, 02:09 AM)

yeh but youtube has 1 major difference. its completely free!!!!

Hello Fellow Gamer. Is Free all that you care about? The video game industry is a business. Sure some of the things mentioned are going to be free (if you read the entire article). Some things won't be free.  The following quotes are from Next-gen.

"XNA Game Studio Express is not without its challenges. Although the PC version is free, anyone who wants to transfer their work to Xbox 360 must join a club with a subscription of $99 a year." Like I said some things are free. Not everything.

This is the BEST part.
“You get access to a lot of materials from us. We give you models so you don’t have to build games from scratch,” says Satchell. “We give you the tools to get you into your game faster. Partners like GarageGames are giving away their tool sets free to all the people in Creators Club. We’re giving away true drag and drop game development. You don’t even have to program to build games.”

Now I don't know about you, but I don't see Sony nor Nintendo doing anything on that level. Imagine if you will. That the game you made was really a Big Hit with the community & M$. They would then move it up to the XBLA & you would make a ton of $$$$$.  Now if EA, UBIsoft, EPIc, etc.. all see the wonderful work you've done they might offer you an even bigger opportunity to make even more money & better games. I don't see youtube or SOny or Nintendo offering that to anyone.

I'm glad M$ stepped upto the plate to give everybody a chance to make a really good game.

[Hashmire420]

QUOTE(Jagosix @ Mar 17 2007, 05:44 AM)

I don't see youtube or SOny or Nintendo offering that to anyone.

So you havent ever heard of anyone becoming rich and famous on youtube?
Hah. Can you say shoes? Or even Drumstick spinning is awsome?
What about the tv shows made about them, Blastazoid and Web Junk 20?
Maybe even the huge publicity they get whenever one is aired on the news?

Nope, guess not, cause you dont see anyone landing a acting job with a huge corporation.

Edit: I cant spell. aawww.

This post has been edited by Hashmire420: Mar 17 2007, 05:54 AM

[1nick9]

QUOTE

ello Fellow Gamer. Is Free all that you care about? The video game industry is a business. Sure some of the things mentioned are going to be free (if you read the entire article). Some things won't be free. The following quotes are from Next-gen.

no free isnt all i care about.  i happily buy games for all of my consoles. but wen ya start puttin a price on howebrew, something thats ment to b free well yeh i dnt think its cool payin for it. now i now m$ has to put money and all that into this n can understand were the price comes from n probly wnt care too much bout it if it actually offered some real coding instead of the limited functions of xna. nothing that m$ try to make for homebrewers will ever come close to that of real homebrew.

just my 2cents

[unnamedplayer42]

As long as it isn't free for the casual gamer, it won't take off. It's as simple as that.

[incognegro]

QUOTE

Creators will, some time next year, be able to upload their games (assuming approval) to a new channel on Xbox Live dedicated to community games. Satchell says, "Anybody on Xbox Live can pick your game up. You'll have an audience of six million people that can go and play your game. You don't have to have a publisher, you can now just share with the world. It's a really good differentiation for our platform to have those tiers of content, ranging from Triple A to Arcade to Community."

that sounds like its gonna be free for the consumer

[Jagosix]

QUOTE(Hashmire420 @ Mar 17 2007, 04:24 AM)

So you havent ever heard of anyone becoming rich and famous on youtube?
Hah. Can you say shoes? Or even Drumstick spinning is awsome?
What about the tv shows made about them, Blastazoid and Web Junk 20?
Maybe even the huge publicity they get whenever one is aired on the news?

Nope, guess not, cause you dont see anyone landing a acting job with a huge corporation.

Edit: I cant spell. aawww.

Hellow Fellow Gamer(s). If tv shows are already made about them, then apparently they've already achieved their goal. My point is about the other people in the world that have the opportunity to make some really kool games. Not youtube videos that you can only watch.

WTF does an acting job have to do with creating games? Cliffy B. of Epic isn't an actor, but I'll bet a lot of people know his work. The same goes for all of the other infamous people in the video game industry. The creator of mario, Sonic, Zelda, Snake (MGS series), etc.. i don't see them acting. If I were in their position, I wouldn't want to act. These people are gamers, programmers, creators of video games.

The bottom line is that M$ @ least put the effort to try something new. Again I don't see SONY nor Nintendo offering you the opportunity to do the same.

[Software2]

And here I was, thinking that youtube was the video equivalent of newgrounds.

(If you didn't get that, let me explain. There's already been a well-established and free place for people to post games.)

[Kr0n1k]

Yea, think Alien Homminid (sp?). That was a Newgrounds Game now on XBLA. And this article is stating that people paying the $99 a year to develop games will have their very own blade on the marketplace called "community games" and those games will be available to download for all 6 million Live users. I'm sure once Windows Live gets a bit more up and running, there will be even more users exposed to Joe Schmos game.

What everyone is missing is the opposite directions the gaming industry is being pulled. Sony wants this huge marketing, advertising, money making machine, much like the movie industry. They want the big exclusive games, and the exclusive format, the biggest numbers, the shiniest system, and they want you to pay absolute top dollar (think of the last time you went to see a movie, its about $15 for a one time view).

Nintendo wants to revert back to the good ole days, all while offering a completely new, although a bit gimmicky, way to interact with games.

Microsoft is going the music industry way. They have the huge bands like Epic putting out GoW, but they want the indie punk rock bands to be heard also. They hand everyone the same insturment, and they sit back and see who can play it well, and what is created, if seen as profitable, is priced and distributed accordingly. If its something like GoW, its big budget and priced that way, if its a Java style game, or a puzzle game, something of that nature, its put up on XBLA to maximize profit for all parties, while not over charging for the product.

There are points that I'm missing or leaving out, but basically, M$ wants to be the nurturing company that encourages homebrew development of games, that is why it is propritary and costs money. Hacking leads to pirating. Thats what seperates someone who truly wants to make games apart from someone that wants to backup games to their huge 300GB HDD and play any movie format they want.

As a community of people who are supposedly in support of homebrew, we should be applauding M$ for this announcement, as well as XNA Game Studios Express.