Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360
Following the official unveiling of the Xbox Live Community Games channel, we had the opportunity to speak with Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA at Microsoft, about the initiative. We’ve assembled our questions and his answers into the eminently readable Q&A format, below, where we cover everything from cost to availability of trials to file size limitations to release scheduling to delisting to achievements and more. Read on!
How many games will be available on the service at launch?
It’s “a different type of game in a different channel,” Multerer told us. Since “nobody has ever done this before … there’s very little data to go on.” In the first few weeks of the beta, over 100 games were submitted and over 60 games were passed through the peer certification, if that’s any indication. In other words: You’ll just have to wait for any kind of specific number, but you can probably assume several dozen games would be in the service on day one.
Will games still be able to graduate from Xbox Live Community Game to full-blown Xbox Live Arcade title?
“Yes,” Multerer told us. “In fact, I hope to see more of it. Community Games is like the minor leaugues in baseball” where young talents can show off what they’ve got before making the jump to the majors. This wasn’t the last time Multerer used the baseball metaphor.
How much will Xbox Live Community Games cost? How large will the files be?
Either 200, 400, or 800 Microsoft Points (that breaks down to roughly $2.50 to $10). The 200 point games will be limited to 50MB downloads, while the 400 or 800 point games will be limited to 150MB.
Will there be any free Xbox Live Community Games?
Nope. Multerer said that if a creator wanted to share his game for free with friends and family, he can send it to their Windows machine for free, “no problem.” However, in “opening up that platform to a new market, [Microsoft] needs to prove that [they] can sell things on it.” He did want to point out, though, that because they’re not offering free games now, that “doesn’t mean [they] won’t ever look at making that happen.”
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