Microsoft GM on XNA and the floodgate of games

It has been four months since XNA Game Studio Express was discussed to the public. In case you’ve been living under a God-knows-what, this software allows end users to develop, test, and share their prototype games. In other words, Microsoft opened its next-gen console to the homebrew community.

While this action alone speaks of how Microsoft feels towards the community, it is always good to hear what they actually have to say. Especially now that the XNA Creators Club just opened, a few words from the officials are expected. As if thinking the same thing, gaming site Kotaku sat down with Microsoft’s Game Developer’s Group GM, Chris Satchell, for a short interview.

Generally, Microsoft is happy with the way things are going. Satchell mentioned that to further encourage fans to create games, they will be hosting a competition next month. He explained:

Maybe their first game won’t be groundbreaking, but it will get them into game design. Every time we see a road block we try to remove it. What we will do, we will take the best entry and work with them to get their game on Xbox Live. We want to make budding developers successful. We aren’t talking yet about details on the financial side, how we can get some revenue and flow it back to the creator.

It’s a good thing they are already thinking about the welfare of the community even in this early stages. After all, they are the very strong foundation that companies are built upon. Satchell perfectly understand this as he used YouTube as an explanation:

What we are working on next year is creating the YouTube of games. We need to figure out how people who aren’t in the development community, aren’t in the Creator’s Club, can get to these games. We need to create the community arcade. Give people tools so they can communicate on it.

As Utopian as the plan sounds, the Microsoft officer is not naive about certain issues and he knows that a lot of problems are still needed to be fixed. He highlighted security and the market being flooded by needless material:

Those are a lot of the problems we need to solve to allow effective sharing. Not only are we learning on the technical sides, but we are also learning how do you let people search a lot of content.

Finally, Satchell is expecting that competitors Sony and Nintendo will soon follow suit. But this, he explained, shouldn’t be a cause of alarm for them. He concluded that Microsoft is about fans and not competition.

It has been four months since XNA Game Studio Express was discussed to the public. In case you’ve been living under a God-knows-what, this software allows end users to develop, test, and share their prototype games. In other words, Microsoft opened its next-gen console to the homebrew community.

While this action alone speaks of how Microsoft feels towards the community, it is always good to hear what they actually have to say. Especially now that the XNA Creators Club just opened, a few words from the officials are expected. As if thinking the same thing, gaming site Kotaku sat down with Microsoft’s Game Developer’s Group GM, Chris Satchell, for a short interview.

Generally, Microsoft is happy with the way things are going. Satchell mentioned that to further encourage fans to create games, they will be hosting a competition next month. He explained:

Maybe their first game won’t be groundbreaking, but it will get them into game design. Every time we see a road block we try to remove it. What we will do, we will take the best entry and work with them to get their game on Xbox Live. We want to make budding developers successful. We aren’t talking yet about details on the financial side, how we can get some revenue and flow it back to the creator.

It’s a good thing they are already thinking about the welfare of the community even in this early stages. After all, they are the very strong foundation that companies are built upon. Satchell perfectly understand this as he used YouTube as an explanation:

What we are working on next year is creating the YouTube of games. We need to figure out how people who aren’t in the development community, aren’t in the Creator’s Club, can get to these games. We need to create the community arcade. Give people tools so they can communicate on it.

As Utopian as the plan sounds, the Microsoft officer is not naive about certain issues and he knows that a lot of problems are still needed to be fixed. He highlighted security and the market being flooded by needless material:

Those are a lot of the problems we need to solve to allow effective sharing. Not only are we learning on the technical sides, but we are also learning how do you let people search a lot of content.

Finally, Satchell is expecting that competitors Sony and Nintendo will soon follow suit. But this, he explained, shouldn’t be a cause of alarm for them. He concluded that Microsoft is about fans and not competition.