XNA Gamefest 2008, Seattle

Microsoft is constantly have a stream of conferences and events, sometimes every week. E3 ran by, sure, but Microsoft wasn’t prepared to unveil everything there. And of course, a few days ago was MGX; but that was less gaming focused, and further, a intra-company event. But now, we have the XNA Gamefest. And its for gamers. And Microsoft has lots of stuff to announce. Lots of stuff they didn’t yet announce until now. Lots of stuff they held off announcing.

Microsoft has already strewed a stream of announcements already. Announcements include details of Direct X 11. Users of the XNA Creators Club will now be able to sell games and make a profit. Games for Windows LIVE is now free, and is receiving a Marketplace of its own.

Direct X 11

• Full support on Windows Vista and onwards
• Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
• New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
• Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
• Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

XNA Creators Club

From the official website:

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.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

Creators can code with Visual Studio (Express) and write up some games. If they decide they have made a good game, they can sign up for the Creators Club for $99 a year (think of it as a quality barrier) and start to test and submit games. They get reviewed, you set the price, and then you get a check for up to 70% of the revenue (really high for Xbox LIVE Marketplace) from your game. From time to time, Microsoft may decide to help promote your game, and may deduct an additional 10-30% of revenue during these time frames (meaning the absolute least you can make on sales is 40%).

In a direct jab at Apple, the FAQ that I quoted earlier has a questions about Apple doing something like this for the iPhone first. It then goes on to reply with this:

We’re revolutionizing the way games are created and distributed because we’re not the arbiters of content. The games on Xbox LIVE Community Games will be built by the community, for the community and managed by the community.

That’s right. If you irrationally fear Microsoft, you can rest at peace knowing that they won’t censor you. Unfortunately developers cannot release free games at this time, meaning you have to sell for around 200-800 Microsoft Points. These service will launch later this year. However, one potential deal breaker for some:

Can I give out Achievements and Gamerscore in my community-created title?

No. Achievements are reserved for commercial games.

Its understandable why, but this is a major feature of the Xbox stripped away from the community.

Games for Windows LIVE

Games for Windows LIVE is now free. To Developers, and to Gamers. This raises some very interesting questions (when is Valve gonna start using it?!) and scenarios which we will see unravel over the next couple months. Games for Windows LIVE will also be getting its own Marketplace, and further, its own UI revamp.

The Games for Windows website updated to reflect these changes, and yes, its free. Apparently Microsoft actually wants this platform to succeed.

There are rumors that Microsoft is attempting to compete with Steam, especially with the addition of a Marketplace. Its possible, but I also think that now, without the horrible limitations that Microsoft so foolishly pushed on people.