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Microsoft to Sell Home-brewed Xbox Games, Share Revenue

blog.wired.com — Calling all garage-game developers: How'd you like a piece of the Xbox 360 market? Small-time gamemakers who create games using Microsoft's XNA development framework and port them to the Xbox 360's community games service will soon be able to sell their creations to other Xbox owners.

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  • paulot, on 07/22/2008, -3/+32This is going to be huge. It wouldn't surprise me to see a bunch of developers re-make classic NES / SNES / Genesis type of games and have them be huge successes that work out well for both the developer and Microsoft.
    • estvir, on 07/23/2008, -2/+17Hopefully they don't run into legal problems with the people who own the licenses for those games.

      To be honest, I really don't think near-exact copies of classics will be allowed.
      • kataztrophy, on 07/23/2008, -1/+33Yeah, clones would be a good way to go.

        Its not Mario World, its "Jake Nash: Pipe /Cleaner for Hire"
  • DavidGX, on 07/23/2008, -5/+11More great games for Xbox 360, who can say no to that?
  • Diem1983, on 07/23/2008, -6/+32Finally, some chances for creativity! Hate to say it, but way to go Microsoft.
    • etx313, on 07/23/2008, -30/+2Hate to say it but, you said it ***** knuckle.

      Don't be a jackass.
      • Andrwmorph, on 07/23/2008, -3/+5Hate to say it, but your a jackass.
      • Diem1983, on 07/23/2008, -2/+1I thought ***** knuckle was funny.
    • Fallout911, on 07/23/2008, -2/+10Why "hate to say it?"
      MS has been good to me for years.
      • etx313, on 07/23/2008, -0/+2Exactly.
      • Diem1983, on 07/23/2008, -3/+1Not a comment on the company or anything Micro$oft-y, just normally they either buy their way in or respond to existing tech more slowly. At the end, I don't care who does it as long as indie developers get a chance.
    • santasing, on 07/23/2008, -5/+1Isn't this something that was announced with XNA a couple of years ago? I don't see any XNA apps that are popular out there. Is this a repackaged compensation scheme or is there really something new.

      I remember back when XNA launched, nearly everyone on Digg suddenly became a game designer, but 2 years later, nothing has happened. I just don't get what the deal is, except for some PR speak for staying in the news.
      • Shaflugi, on 07/23/2008, -1/+6There was an XNA demo on the 360 about a year ago that showed off some of the more popular XNA games. They said back then that it was only a demo and would be available later in 2008
      • xino, on 07/24/2008, -1/+1They launched it back in August of 2006 so that's not new, but what is new is they are finally allowing these games to go on the Xbox Live marketplace and people can buy them and play them without subscribing to the creators club. I am really suprised it took this long. I was guessing this would have been started by the middle of 2007.
  • Tddupre, on 07/23/2008, -0/+22linerider?
  • ZephyrNinety, on 07/23/2008, -10/+3Bring on the lawsuits!
  • ObamaAppleFan, on 07/23/2008, -33/+0This is Micro$oft attempt to make more $$$ off the backs of hard working people
    • etx313, on 07/23/2008, -0/+16Yeah, Like the iphone app store has a different model. Apple takes money off the top there too.

      Obama Apple Fan, double fail.
    • timsline, on 07/23/2008, -0/+16By giving hard working people a chance to sell their games easily and to over 10 million customers?
    • dudefather, on 07/23/2008, -0/+8on noe$
    • RetepNamenots, on 07/23/2008, -0/+11What, rather than not allow people to have anything at all?
  • Jenadae, on 07/23/2008, -12/+5Wasn't this the original plan? Or at least what everyone thought the XNA would be used for? This should've been done awhile ago .

    PS - ***** you firefox "should've" is a word and no i wont capitalize your name
    • grexeo, on 07/23/2008, -1/+7Aww. You had a good comment but you had to go ruin it with that stupid Firefox comment...
  • etx313, on 07/23/2008, -3/+16Kickass! XNA is the reason i removed tiger from my hackentosh and put windows back on it.
    • zigzag801, on 07/23/2008, -2/+3could've just use bootcamp....
      • etx313, on 07/23/2008, -0/+4ugh. Hackentosh dude... No efi. I'm sure you meant to say bootloader.
  • freezerburn666, on 07/23/2008, -17/+2HAHA homebrew games suck
  • o0joshua0o, on 07/23/2008, -2/+6Make money selling video games? That'll be the day!
  • 360news, on 07/23/2008, -13/+2congratulations you have reached digg saturation! When the majority of front page stories (whoops there are 2 more) are yours (and nothing personal.. they are ok articles) then the term SOCIAL MEDIA has lost it's 'socialness'.

    It's a bit like the idea of communism controlled by a dictator.

    Digg was a blast for a few weeks but this is just silly.
    • xtmno3, on 07/23/2008, -0/+3"Digg was a blast for a few weeks but this is just silly."
      You have been a member since 4/1/08. Digg has been doing fine for three years functioning as is. Perhaps you should change your view of the definition instead of claiming the one used is wrong.
  • InorganicMatter, on 07/23/2008, -17/+3Quick, Apple's doing something innovative...US TOO!!!!
  • FeloniusMonkey, on 07/23/2008, -1/+5Lawsuits? How could this possibly be a bad thing? It's win/win-- no downside for anyone, not even for Xbox homebrewers who prefer to stay underground.
  • byronm, on 07/23/2008, -1/+10Its one of the best revenue shares out there as well. Awesome news for developers and gamers!
    • ChildeRoland420, on 07/23/2008, -6/+2The contracts haven't even been released yet, how can you say that? It says "upto 70%" but I'm extremely skeptical towards the number of people who will actually receive that much for their games.
  • deweyhewson, on 07/23/2008, -1/+6That image looks like Ness' bedroom in Earthbound.
  • TwiceHephaestus, on 07/23/2008, -2/+5This is perfect for Computer Science students like myself. Want to make a bit of cash on the side, while practicing what you're studying? Here it is!

    Seriously, this is my new side job.
    • sat0shi, on 07/23/2008, -4/+4Good luck making something viable that will sell.
  • Aden, on 07/23/2008, -7/+2I like that the game pictured has an iMac on the desk.

    Now Apple will have product placement in xbox games as well.
  • darkphenox, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5Valve did something like this last year http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/ and you can put it on steam for free I believe.
    • pathy, on 07/23/2008, -0/+6Steamworks was released in January, and only use the of it is for free. To have your game hosted and sold on Steam Valve will take a share of all sales.
      • LMN8R, on 07/23/2008, -6/+1And Microsoft will take a share of all sales on XBox Live, what's your point?

        The only important thing is that games like Audiosurf, DEFCON, Darwinia, and other indie games on Steam have probably outsold most everything on XBox Live put together.
      • ociris, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5LMN8R... you sound like an angry child? The games aren't even out yet on the 360 and you've already made a decision that they've been outsold already....
  • Fallout911, on 07/23/2008, -3/+1Looks like M$ is giving some $ back!
    Great news for everyone.
    • Schmich, on 07/23/2008, -3/+1Depends if one sees the glass as being half full or half empty. I see it as M$ taking half of the revenue but I guess it's better than nothing and as a whole, for the community, it doesn't matter.
      • DragonForce4, on 07/23/2008, -0/+3since when is 30% half
      • n00854180t, on 07/23/2008, -0/+2Ever since Schmich can't subtract. 70% of profit is better than 99% of other places indies can sell their games, so people bitching about this either 1) are talking out of their ass, and don't know ***** about what usual profit margins developers get, or 2) see 1. The terms given by MS actually seem *quite* generous, given the fee for getting in the door is practically nothing to anyone that is serious about actually building and selling a game. Not to mention that the dev tools MS provides *for free* are the best in the industry and an industry wide standard for PC games. Hell, you don't even have to pay the fee to start building your game, only when you want to submit it, and they even have a 4-month term subscription for $50.
  • zigzag801, on 07/23/2008, -3/+1gotta admit this is the one thing that Microsoft actually does right, is there gaming department. Only thing I'll buy from them =P props to MS
  • santasing, on 07/23/2008, -2/+4Isn't this pretty much what MS said when they launched XNA? Or am I missing anything? Did they release a new compensation plan?
    • SpittinWheelie, on 07/23/2008, -7/+2Once again, Microsoft copies Nintendo. What's next, a Wii-type controller for the 360? Oh wait.......
      • n00854180t, on 07/23/2008, -0/+4Copies Nintendo? Oh, you mean the ridiculously expensive development kit you have to buy to get in the door for the Wii? Oh right. Moron. MS' effort here is infinitely better than the ***** situation with Wii's ***** flash games. Can you do multiplayer games on Wii with Flash? No? Does it have matchmaking/unified network service integration? No. Does Nintendo provide industry standard dev tools? Oh, what's that you say? No? Oh right, I've forgotten, Nintendo's offering is ***** *****.

        It's obvious you've never built a game, don't know ***** about doing so, and are just a douchy Nintendo fanboy *****.
  • SreyaNotfilc, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1I'd love to see " I Wanna Be The Guy" as a full-on XBLA title!
  • Spoomeister, on 07/23/2008, -1/+2From the XNA site:

    How it Works
    The setup? Simple. The payments? Cash.

    As a Premium member in the XNA Creators Club, you’ll be able to submit any complete Xbox 360 game you’ve created in XNA Game Studio to the Creators Club community at http://creators.xna.com,/ for peer review. Other Premium Creators will check to make sure your game is safe to play. If it is, you’ll set a price point – between 200 and 800 Points – that people will pay to download your game.

    Once the game is reviewed and the price point set, you’re done. The game is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and you’ll get a check every quarter, for up to 70% of the game’s total revenue in your own currency. Depending on your game’s success, you may even have your game advertised on Xbox 360 and other Microsoft online properties.


    ---


    Hm.

    XNA creators' club 1-year membership = $100; 600 point title = $7.50; Keep 70% = $5.25. So you'd only have to sell 143 copies to break even. Much less if you get a 3-month membership, or think you can have people pay $10 for your title.

    What about from the cheapskates who only want to pay for 250 point titles, and if MSFT takes 60%? Well, each title would net you a dollar. So you'd have to sell 100.

    Not bad at all. The biggest hurdle is getting the community approval for the game, sounds like.
    • fatdog789, on 07/23/2008, -0/+2100/5.25 = 20 copies (since you can't sell part of a copy) to break even, assuming a sale price of $7.50.

      Did you flunk basic math or something?
      • Spoomeister, on 07/23/2008, -0/+4I... um... I was... I...
        ...
        Yes. Yes, I did.
        I have no idea where the 143 came from. I must have been doing something in another window?

        ...

        There goes all hope of selling my exciting XNA title, "Math Avengers".
  • santasing, on 07/23/2008, -7/+2Methinks its just a repackaged PR statement to counter Little big Planet. XNA was supposed to revolutinize community gaming like 2 years ago.
    • n00854180t, on 07/23/2008, -1/+3Wow, another retarded Sony fanboy. Offering an industry standard suite of dev tools (Visual Studio) for free, and a very simple and cheap way to get your game on a service with millions of subscribers != making some garbage in a stupid kiddy game.

      Building a game is NOT the same as building a ***** icon for LittleBigPlanet, genius.
    • masterthiefster, on 07/24/2008, -1/+2What are you talking about? LittleBigPlanet is to Creators Club what paint by numbers is to Michelangelo. It's is a dumbed-down Second Life of sorts for the PS3, whereas XNA is a cross-platform development suite that can build anything from a simple Pac-Man clone to an innovative game that defies genre classification. Good games take years to create; you can't expect impressive XNA titles to pop up in the platform's infancy.
  • crashingechelon, on 07/23/2008, -0/+2Finally, I've been waiting for the full version of Dishwasher to become available on the Marketplace. After they released that demo I wanted more and it looks like we'll finally get it.
  • dupajuda, on 07/24/2008, -0/+0That is really cool, its giving home game developers to get known
  • TastyLamp, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1I can understand having to pay for XNA premium membership to be able to publish any games you make, but I think it's a little harsh having to be a premium member to test your games on your own xbox.
    • godzillaWax, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1At some point, Microsoft is entitled to begin recouping its costs on the development environment, the online tutorials and help, the infrastructure, et al. If you want to make a game for your PC, it's all free. If you want to get it on the 360, you need to fork up $50.

      And when all is said and done, you get 70% of sales, which is much higher than they could have made it (it goes down to 40% if they market you and it starts to sell like hot cakes)
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