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[Xbox-Scene]

Microsoft Talks Games for Change Posted by XanTium | June 6 22:33 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From 1up.com: Microsoft is putting a lot of its eggs in the indie development basket, announcing during its February keynote at the Game Developers Conference that it will allow games created using its XNA Game Studio development program to be shared with (and sold to) other gamers via Xbox Live. We've already seen part of that program in action, via the seven trial games temporarily released following the keynote (while a recently-launched private beta test of the XNA Creators Club is in progress), but Microsoft is also encouraging use of XNA Game Studio with student developers via the newly established Game Development track in its annual Imagine Cup technology competition. Though otherwise allowed to go in any direction with their games, the student development teams were bound by one highly specific guideline: the games must promote the message of creating a sustainable environment. Following several months of competition (the contest began last September), the list of participants was whittled down to just six finalists: Team BAAM! from Germany, Team Drunk Puppy from Belgium, Team ECOThink from France, Team Gomz from Korea, Team Mother Gaia Studio from Brazil, and Team SiSS from Germany. The winner will be announced at the Imagine Cup finals, which is being held in Paris, France from July 2-9. * 1UP: Tell us a bit about the partnership with Games for Change and what you hope to accomplish with this initiative. * Satchell (chief XNA architect and general manager of the XNA group): Well, you know about the Imagine Cup ?we have 100,000 students a year in 100 countries take part in these programming challenges. This year, Xbox and Games for Change teamed up to have a game-focused track that would not only be about creating games using XNA Game Studio, but also socially responsible games about the environment, and really gaming that teaches about a sustainable environment. So that was the partnership; we've partnered with them before, but this time we kind of wrapped it into this competition format and supplied the technology infrastructure to say, "Hey, go make your game but make it about this social issue." And today, we've been looking at the results of that partnership, and I'm blown away by what these students have created. Full Story: 1up.com

[hyfall381]

[bucko]

this thing will only kick of if they lower that stupid club member price, or at least give us full access to hardware, neither which I can see happening. Shame really.

[tc154]

Personally, I'd like to see a sim game where you try to see how fast you can cause massive global warming by releasing CO2. Oh wait... I forgot CO2 causing global warming is a big hoax. Well, it would be great anyway, I bet enviromental wackos would get any game like that pulled off the shelves. That would be interesting considering the other random murder games that people fight so hard to keep on the shelves.

[trentdadi]

I was thinking a sim concentration camp myself.  I really doubt that would fly well with anything though.