RSSOne thousand Xbox Live games expected by year-end
By Ed Oswald | Published February 20, 2008, 4:59 PM
In its annual demonstration of programming prowess at GDC on Wednesday, representatives of the Redmond company announced seven new community-created games for free via Xbox Live, and promised more...for the Zune.
Microsoft expects explosive growth through community-created games, stated its corporate vice president in charge of Xbox Live, John Schappert today. That growth would put some 1,000 plus games on Xbox Live by the end of this year, far exceeding its competitors' catalogs.
However, as has been incorrectly reported through some media outlets, these games will not be playable on the Zune, at least not for some time. Currently, games that run on the current Xbox Live incarnation are created in XNA Game Studio 2.0. Zune compatibility will come with version 3.0.
And according to Microsoft, availability of that suite is not expected until Spring of 2008.
"Keeping with Zune media experience, XNA Game Studio 3.0 integration includes discoverability and access to user's music, allowing the user to customize background soundtracks or create real-time visualizations," reads an FAQ post this afternoon to the XNA Game Creators Club forum. "In addition, the XNA Community Games Platform team has announced the ability to have multiple Zunes wirelessly engage in an ad-hoc gaming experience."
Today's announcement heralds a new push by Microsoft to bring the community closer to the development process. Neither Nintendo nor Sony has announced a similar program for their respective next generation consoles.
"Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we've seen in digital music and video sharing," Schappert said in a statement.
Seven new, free games are being made available today:
- "JellyCar," a game where the player drives a jelly-like car through a similarly jelly-like world
- "Little Gamers," a 2-D high definition action side-scroller based on the famous Web comic of the same name
- "The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai," a 2-D action platform game
- "TriLinea," a strategy-based puzzle game
- "RocketBall," a dodgeball-based action game
- "ProximityHD," a simple army strategy game
- "Culture," a set of games and puzzles based on flowers
Microsoft says in the future, all a developer would need to produce a game for Xbox Live and submit it will be the Game Studio software and a membership in the XNA Creators club. All submissions would go through a testing process before being approved for Xbox Live listing.
A beta test will begin this spring, with expected availability of more community-created games later in the year.
Out of interest, I hired one Xbox360 for a week, tried out some games for it, got bored, and returned it after 4 hours.
BTW, "Overacting" games like COD4 Modern Warfare are killing the gaming industry.
People don't want this clumsyness anymore.
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|1000 xbox games but 998 are crappy ones.
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|I don't care how many games Microsoft has on Live by year's end if I keep getting locked out of playing them thanks to their craptacular DRM system. For those of you who've had your 360 replaced (either at retail or through Microsoft) and have yet to experience the joy of DRM, fire up an XBLA game that you purchased on a previous 360, then pull the network connection. Better yet, login with a gamertag other than the one which purchased the game (such as your spouse's or kid's). Welcome to DRM hell!
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|*laughing*
Replace XBOX...
Pull Network Connection..
Log on as someone other than the account the game was purchased under.
These all seem to me anyway, to be pretty clear-cut instances where one should actually *expect* issues.
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|Sounds like a load of crap to me. I had my 360 replaced and everything works just fine.
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|"fire up an XBLA game that you purchased on a previous 360, then pull the network connection"
Wow that sounds like a GREAT idea! I think everybody should start up a game and pull the network cable in the middle just because it makes the game more enjoyable...I don't know why I didn't think about this before, thanks buddy!!
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|So you think you should be able to login with whatever ID and expect the system to know you purchased the game? Really? Never used Itunes I take it? Try purchasing a song from them and login with another id, and try to play it. How well does that work? A company trying to protect its property OMG! Stop the presses!
Why you would pull the network connection and complain is beyond me, sounds like the drm system does what its supposed to...
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|I must admit to showing some interest in the 360. I want to basically use it as a media center, having seen it in use at a friends. It seams to work quite well and I might actually shove some games though it.
Not sure how easy a nice big HD is to fit, anyone done it ?
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|Better look at the PS3 instead. You can replace the HD in it with any notebook SATA drive up to 320G. I have both systems and I'll say that for me the PS3's media functions are much better than the 360's. Also the fan noise on the 360 is very annoying compared to the PS3. All that being said, I've learned the best thing to do is hook a Media Center PC up to the TV and skip all the format and DRM hell associated with extender boxes.
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|Only problem with the ps3 method is the lack of decent games.
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|Depending on the HDD size that you need, you may want to just consider picking up the Elite model, w/ the 120gb HDD.
If you're main concern is a media center, and you've got a bit of tech knowledge, you can set up the original Xbox as a media extender for a lot cheaper. With a little bit of work, you can soft-mod the box, add in a MUCH larger HDD (be careful with this...if you don't pay close attention, you can brick the drive easily), and install XBMC. It's a homebrew project that offers up a much more robust interface and has a lot more capability than either of the next-gen consoles (as a media center).
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|"hook a Media Center PC up to the TV and skip all the format and DRM hell associated with extender boxes"
exactly, that is by far the best solution.
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|POS3 huh fthat. No one wants that crap console for antything you have to offer regarding games. Expecially with the news that GOW2 comes out in NOV. As for noise you do know there is a volume button on your remote to turn your TV up btw.
But atlease you'll have it for 10 years after MS comes out with the next gen console providing better graphics and processor power you can stroke your epeen over your POS3 outselling the obsolete Xbox360 finally.
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|Apparently you did not read my entire comment. I concluded that neither the 360 nor the PS3 handle media very well. And yes, I can turn up the TV but it's a well known fact that the 360 is noisy. For what it's worth to you before you attack me, don't assume I don't like the 360. Fact is of all the consoles I have, and I have them all, I play it the most. I've found that game consoles do not make good media centers or extenders. A PC with Media Center, Vista, or Myth TV does a whole lot better. Sorry to get your hate going...
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|I am not pushing any hate on you. With forums its very difficult to express yourself like you would as in a debate where tone of voice and emotions have alot to do with how you feel.
In comparison yes the 360 is louder, but no louder than a fan on a computer. Yet people complain about this all the time.
You also have to admit there are alot of POS3 fanboi tolls on this forum.
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|XBOX Live is great for discovering new games. I bought the Simpsons Game and a bunch of others based on playable demos.
I wish I could say the same for PSN.
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|Why would this bother anyone? If you dont like the game.. DONT buy it...
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|The only people this bothers is the people that don't benefit from it...aka Sony Fanboys.
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|Exactly Nero. They always have to post a negative about a system they don't even own. When you own all three, you can make up your own mind.
Poor PS3 f**boys.
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|That sums it up very well.
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|"Nero" Burning Rom?
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|Great it will be like Facebook on Xbox Live now with every Joe Shmoe creating games and trying to charge 800 points for them. Way to increase the quantity, but not improve the quality Microsoft. I guess we can just hope that for every 1,000 that at least one is worth playing through the demo and maybe every one out of 10,000 of those are worth buying.
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|Other reports say that the 1000 games does NOT include user created games.
Xbox-Scene.com
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|Will any of them be any good? Of course not, there is no quality critera on XBL..
Just more junk to sift through to find anything good.
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|There were some quality games on there back when I used to own a 360 and the live library was far far smaller. I think it’s Highly unlikely it lacks the quality now like you say so.
But hey lets jump on the bash Microsoft wagon again shall me!
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|I never said there wasn\'t good content on there, but there is more crap appearing all the time, and trying to find the good stuff gets harder all the time.
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|Theres a little over a hundred arcade games. Thats not that hard to sift through.
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|Well you did say
'Will any of them be any good? Of course not'
Which is what led me to believe you dont think there is any decent content on there.
They still offer demo's of those titles I take it? If not then I agree that would really suck sifting through a bunch of crap you cant try.
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|All xbox live titles have demos available.
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|That's untrue.
Most do, as does PSN.
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|i'm sorry.. what does psn have to do with this?
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|There needs to be a small bit of clarification on one of the above comments:
All Xbox Live ARCADE games have a playable demo. It's one of the criteria that must be met to have a game offered via download.
PSN is incredibly limited in comparison.
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|Right, thanks for that clarification.
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|Funny I have seen some reviews of games made for the PSN and they have sucked. Both systems can have stinkers so stop trolling.
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|"i'm sorry.. what does psn have to do with this? "
A comparison of the two as the POSN is a rip off of the xblive from Sony because genuine good ideas on the Sony side are far and never between.
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