Not content to let initiatives like Nintendo’s WiiWare and Sony’s PlayStation Network hog all the user-created glory, Microsoft has recently unveiled its “Community Games” project for Xbox Live, currently in closed beta, according to GamesIndustry.biz.
Microsoft’s David Edery says that this project will “leapfrog” WiiWare and PSN, although it sounds similar to those two projects, except that the Microsoft one is in beta and you have to already be in the XNA Creators Club and pay $49 for four months or $99 for a year to be able to access it.
It also appears, however, that any game can make it into the system and then the good ones get voted up onto Xbox Live, so it’s a bit more democratic.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Edery said,
“The example I always like to give is will someone finally make that scuba diving game, where there’s really only 15,000 people interested in a hardcore scuba diving simulation, but they really, really want one? And maybe through XNA someone can profitably get one out there,” he said.
“Today, there’s not really a venue for that. I’m not going to green light a hardcore scuba diving game for Xbox Live Arcade today because there are not enough people who are interested in that. But with XNA it’s perfectly possible.
“So I’m much more interested in it from a perspective of can it be used to satisfy more people, with more diverse content, than anything else.”