Microsoft launches XNA Creator's Club

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 11th 2006 at 1:45PM }

Though you might envision a "creator's club" to be some sort of blunt object used to beat beautiful games out of misshapen code, it's actually the next step in Microsoft's ongoing XNA initiative. The "community-powered arcade" is now within reach of any gamer and would-be developer willing to download XNA Game Studio Express (for Windows XP) and spend some time coming to grips with the Visual C# and .NET frameworks its based on.

Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft's Game Developer group, recounts Microsoft's cunning strategy of having one creative idea at a time. "When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless. What users will see today is just the beginning of the plans we have to revolutionize game development one creative game idea at a time."

Of course, you'll also want to make your masterpiece playable on an Xbox 360 ("playable" being the keyword so often forgotten by some developers). In order to migrate your game to the 360 and to gain access to samples, game assets and other goodies, you'll need to join the XNA Creator's Club. It's been added as a purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace, priced at $49 for four months or $99 for an annual subscription. Early adopters will have an opportunity to get their games published on Xbox Live Arcade in a contest launching next month.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get cracking on your non-derivative 3rd-person shooter, Cogs of Conflict!

Download -- XNA Game Studio Express

[Full, slightly boring, press release after the break.]

Microsoft Releases XNA Game Studio Express and Launches XNA Creators Club, Enabling the World to Play Their Creations on Xbox 360

Global game development competition, "Dream-Build-Play," offers an opportunity for winner's game to be published on Xbox Live Arcade.

REDMOND, Wash. - Dec. 11, 2006 - Your World. Your Game. With today's release of Microsoft® XNA™ Game Studio Express and the launch of the XNA Creators Club, this phrase has never been more true. Based on the easy-to-use Visual C#® 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework, XNA Game Studio Express opens up the world of game development to the masses and is now available for free to anyone with a Windows® XP-based PC at http://www.msdn.com/XNA. With the release of XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft Corp. unveiled the XNA Creators Club, opening up video game development to untapped creative minds, enabling anyone to affordably build and play amazing game ideas on Xbox 360™ systems for the first time ever.

The XNA Creators Club is available on Xbox Live® Marketplace for $49 (U.S.) for a four-month subscription, or $99 (U.S.) for an annual subscription. Both subscriptions provide aspiring game developers with access to thousands of game assets from Microsoft and key supporters such as Turbo Squid Inc., as well as white papers, specialized starter kits, samples and technical product support to help turn Your World, Your Game into a reality.

"The XNA Creators Club is really the first of its kind - an opportunity to join a community of other developers who are empowered to bring their game ideas to life on a next-generation console system," said Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. "When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless. What users will see today is just the beginning of the plans we have to revolutionize game development one creative game idea at a time."

In addition, to celebrate the worldwide launch of XNA Game Studio Express, the "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be open to XNA Game Studio Express customers on Windows as well as those on Xbox 360 through the XNA Creators Club membership. The contest offers the opportunity for the community to showcase its innovation and talent to the world, culminating in the incredible chance for the winner's game to be published on Xbox Live Arcade, the premier source for downloadable independent, retro and original games. The "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be launched in January. Additional contest details will be available at http://www.dreambuildplay.com.

"Xbox Live Arcade has opened up a wealth of new publishing opportunities for established and independent developers alike, so it made perfect sense to also extend this privilege to hobbyists and amateur programmers," said Greg Canessa, group manager of Xbox Live Arcade at Microsoft. "We have a tremendous opportunity to shine the spotlight on up-and-coming talent through the 'Dream-Build-Play' contest, and we can't wait to share their creativity with our gaming community around the world."

To coincide with the release of XNA Game Studio Express, XNA supporter GarageGames has launched an open beta for its Torque X platform, including Torque Game Builder. Based on the XNA Framework, the easy-to-use Torque X tools bring drag-and-drop game development to Windows and Xbox 360. Final availability of the Torque X platform is scheduled for early 2007.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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Microsoft, XNA, Visual C#, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox Live and Xbox are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Tags: developer tools, DeveloperTools, XBLA, XBLM, Xbox Live Marketplace, XboxLiveMarketplace, XLA, XNA

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rrenna @ Dec 11th 2006 2:25PM

Unbelievably cool, I fully expect people to slam the "creator's club" idea and say Microsoft is just milking you.

I just want to clarify before any of this nonsense is spoken: Not only do you get access to the tools/documentation/dev. community but it turns your 360 into a DEV KIT.

It's not just a fancy subscription

John @ Dec 11th 2006 2:44PM

this is pretty cool!

theyr basically taking what turned into a disaster for sony with the psp and using it to their advantage!

the user generated content for the psp has been more impressive than the official games and i cant wait to see what people do with the 360!

goo wii60 lol! :)

Jonathan Harford @ Dec 11th 2006 2:59PM

"When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless."

Endless limits? Sign me up!

GloryFish @ Dec 11th 2006 3:05PM

This is very exciting. My job is programming business applications all day. When I get home I like to do less "serious" programming for fun and to get creative.

I've done some DS homebrew stuff which was really cool but also very challenging. It took a lot of work to get it all up and running. In just a few days, with the beta release of XNA, I've been able to reproduce what took me a few weeks to do on the DS.

XNA lowers the barrier of entry for people to make games. Now, I probably won't be the one revolutionizing things with anything I produce. But think of all of the good game ideas that will see the light of day because of XNA.

What should be stated again is that all of the tools to do this are entirely free. You don't even need to own a 360.

Derek @ Dec 11th 2006 3:21PM

I'd also like to add that I have a site, http://www.threesixbox.com, devoted to user-submitted XNA projects. There's already a pretty good collection, many of which have source code that you can study and learn from.

elnico @ Dec 11th 2006 3:25PM

when did microsoft go from being the Evil Empire of OS to being this awesome company for gamers? i think it's best not to view corporations as one large monolithic entity but rather a collection of groups.

or it could be the competition. here's hoping that the PS3 does well so as to keep the creative initiative in ms and nintendo alive.

Hoffer @ Dec 11th 2006 3:50PM

I'm a lowly, old school COBOL programmer and have no idea how to even begin making a videogame. I'm still interested in the Creator's Club because I'd like to try games that others create. I look forward to some central website where people post maybe torrents of their game assests for people to download and play. If that happens, I'll pay the $99/year in a second.

otakucode @ Dec 11th 2006 4:04PM

The Creator's Club does *NOT* bring the "community-powered arcade" into anyones reach. The Community Arcade does not exist, and is only a planned feature down the road. Anyone developing for the 360 right now will not be able to share their games with anyone unless they share the complete source code and all assets on the web, and others have to download that and compile it and deploy it to their own 360. Hopefully the contest is not Microsoft backing off of their idea of having an open place where people can submit things. I know they are concerned and want to control what is offered through the Marketplace as much as possible, making sure they don't end up with some multi-billion-dollar thing like YouTube (I have no idea why they're scared of this, but they are).

Now, time for me to get this Creators Club thing going on. It's a great thing, but there is a lot of misinformation going around about it. You might want to remove that lie about the community-driven arcade, Joystiq.

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Dec 11th 2006 5:56PM

You subscribe to the service -- hence, you join the "club" and become part of a community. Derek posted a great link for club members to exchange code and ideas.

Next, you (a member of the community) make use of the tools to develop an arcade game. Microsoft calls it a "community-powered arcade" and that's hardly a lie. You can call them out on semantics, perhaps, but a lie? Sounds like drama to me.

rrenna @ Dec 11th 2006 9:49PM

@8
--

I don't think they're afraid of becoming YouTube because the service was billed "The YOUTUBE OF GAMING!" by MS THEMSELVES!

otakucode @ Dec 12th 2006 3:57PM

Ludwig Kietzmann: There is a specific thing called the Xbox Community Arcade that is in Microsofts future plans for this type of stuff. Claiming that this is it is completely untrue.

rrenna: Actions matter, words do not. Peter Moore did say that he wanted to create a "YouTube of gaming", however everything that Microsoft has announced they are going to do is specifically aimed at avoiding this. Joystiq posted an interview at the same time the first press release about the XNA Game Studio Express stuff came out, it was an interview with their portfolio management commitee and it explicitly laid out that they do not intend to open the arcade, even the community arcade, to anyone who wants to submit content. They put a $1000 barrier to entry right at the front gate, on top of the $100/yr subscription, and beyond that they also have this commitee which will make sure that you don't get anything as zany and stupid as the most successful things on YouTube are. They can claim they are opening up a YouTube of gaming until they are blue in the face, but their actions tell the truth.

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Dec 12th 2006 4:09PM

Otakucode, where do you see me claiming that this is the Xbox Community Arcade?

cybereality @ Dec 14th 2006 4:19PM

What MS is doing with XNA is revolutionary for console game development. It is going to allow small groups of developers (were talking 3-10 people teams) to actually produce a game in a reasonabl amount of time. This is a huge boon for the industry. I have been using XNA since the beta and it is a very good platform. While you still have to know how to code, it does simplify a lot. And it just came out, give the developers some time to build up some libraries.

To #11 and others who have balked at the cost, do you even know how much traditional devkits go for? Were talking in the $50,000 range depending on the console. With XNA you are talking about a $99 yearly fee for access to the tools to make a console game. Come on. A one year WoW subscription will cost you more. Think about it. This is ridiculously cheap.