Microsoft Makes Creating Game Easyer

All around the blog today, Microsoft is making creating games easyer.

SeattlePI:

"The company is coming out with a new software development program meant to let technology hobbyists, students and others with relatively basic skills create their own games for Windows and Xbox 360. The company is due to announce the program, XNA Game Studio Express, today at a Microsoft game conference in Seattle.

It's a set of software development tools that will be free for Windows and cost $99 a year for the Xbox 360 console. The tools will be released in stages in the coming months.

"Ultimately, long term, ... I think that there's the ability here to create the YouTube of games," said Peter Moore, Microsoft's corporate vice president of interactive entertainment, referring to the popular Web site where users upload videos for anyone to see."

NY Times:

"For Microsoft, the goal is to inspire amateurs to share or sell relatively simple games on the company’s Xbox Live network. (Microsoft will not own any rights to products created with these tools.) Programs created with XNA Game Studio Express will not look as good as most packaged titles. But at a time when gamers seem tired of sequels and genre standards, the company says it believes that some kind of independent games business could provide a breath of fresh air."

CNET:

"With the hobbyist release, the software giant is hoping to lay the groundwork for what one day will be a thriving network of enthusiasts developing for one another, something akin to a YouTube for games. The company, however, is pretty far from that goal."

Rick Segal:

"I generally view this as good news for people wanting to get into this biz. It is especially good news to see Scott Henson driving this process at Microsoft. Scott was one of the original Developer Relations Evangelists from the good old days and knows the value of an ecosystem as good as anybody in Microsoft today."