Community Games launch on XBLA this fall @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 24, 2008

News: Microsoft's XNA-fueled indie development software will bear fruit this fall.

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Live Community Games project will launch this Fall. "Community Games" is the name Microsoft has given to a special class of Xbox Live Arcade titles created by independent developers with Microsoft's XNA Game Studio software.

For $99 a year, developers will have access to the XNA development tools and the XNA Creator's Club. After working on a game, the developer uploads to the Creator's Club network where it is critiqued by other XNA community members. When the Creator's Club deems it ready for primetime, the developer can make it available to the Xbox 360 userbase at large at a price of 200 ($1.50), 400 ($5) or 800 ($10) Microsoft Points.

Xbox 360 owners got their first taste of Community Games when Microsoft released demos of a few onto Xbox Live during this year's Game Development Conference. Those games will likely make up the first wave of Community Games. Wired's Game|Life blog has also confirmed that this time demo setup is how Microsoft plans to distribute demos of Community Games on Xbox Live.

And if all of these games are as polished as The Dishwasher (the best Community Game to come out of GDC), they'll all be worth it.

We'll have more soon.