360 to offer 'YouTube for games'

[360] Your chance to creওate the next Geometry Wars

Tuesday 15 August 2006
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, which was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:announced yesterday, is the company's "first step of creating a YouTube for videogames," according to Xbox chief Peter Moore. The software package will allow non-professional developers to create their own games for Xbox 360, and Microsoft hopes that these games w▨ill eventually be shꦺared around the world.

However, XNA's sharing system will differ from YouTube's user-friendly, cost-free setup in some ways. Although the software is free - you෴ simply need a Windows XP-enabled PC - doling out your hard work on Xbox 360 requires an annual $50-$99 (about £25-£50) subscription, a 360 hard drive and more software. Not to mention a grasp of compiling and creating code.

Above: The XNA Game Studio Express will be launched at the end of this year

Unfortunately, you can't just ship out your creation to anyone, 🐬either. Only the raw pieces of the program can be distributed - not the final, complied software. And you can't swap these by 360 memory card. Plus, ꩵfor someone else to play your game, they also need to have the XNA package and a valid subscription.

Even so, despite all the complexities, Miꩵcrosoft is keen to push indie development forward with XNA, perhaps even into commercial production. "I'd love to send a royalty cheque to a kid," Peter Moore has said, and future plans for the software package include tools to allow bedroom coders to enhance their games.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communic🍌ations officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they ar🌞e a window into a different era of video games.