Microsoft Aims At 'YouTube' For Video Games

Rich Inman plays video games and occasionally thinks about developing them for the PC as a hobby. But as a college kid learning programming, he wouldn't have to give it a second thought, says the 36-year-old biotech engineer at Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories in Mattapan, Mass.

Inman is the gamer Microsoft wants to attract. The Redmond, Wash. software maker Monday began to lay out plans that could eventually see a trading and a sales platform geared toward independent game developers and students similar to YouTube, which has become a popular Web site for sharing user-generated video clips.

The future platform will focus on developers building video games with a development toolset called XNA Game Studio Express and sharing or selling the games through the just-announced Xbox 360 Creators Club. "We haven't locked down the business model," said Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft's Game Developer Group. "Our vision is to provide a YouTube for games. Not this year, but that's where we'll end up." Satchell also anticipates "a ton of independent Web sites will pop up" to support the platform. Game developers will need a PC running Windows XP to operate XNA Game Studio Express, a new set of tools based on Visual C# Express 2005.

The XNA Framework that comes with XNA Game Studio Express offers a set of managed libraries based on the .NET Framework 2.0 that developers use to create video games for either the PC or Xbox Live.

"Microsoft wants the Xbox 360 to be an all encompassing platform for content connected online to the Xbox Live service, hosting any amount of content, whether from Electronic Arts or the hobbyist," said Colin Sebastian, senior research analyst with Lazard Capital Markets LLC. "The Xbox should benefit from the viral marketing."

Initially, the XNA Game Studio Express toolset will go live in beta on Aug. 30, allowing developers to begin working with the tools to create games on the PC. Microsoft will release the final toolset toward the end of the year, as well as provide the ability to move files from the PC to the Xbox 360. There are two versions. The professional version will launch in spring 2007.

Microsoft will support Autodesk Inc.'s FBX file exchange format that helps to move video, audio, 2D and 3D assets from one application to another. "If I create a 3D asset in Maya, I can easily import it into Motion Builder, which is high-end character animation software, using the data transport protocol," said Elisabeth Laett, Autodesk's senior manager for the strategic account team in the media and entertainment division.

Satchell said more than 10 U.S. universities, including the University of Southern California and Southern Methodist University, will include XNA Game Studio Express and Xbox 360 development in their curriculum.

User-generated content isn't new, but development has been nearly impossible for the hobbyist, independent developer and academic community as a result of complicated tools and closed hardware platforms.

IDC gaming analyst Billy Pidgeon said: "Microsoft is looking toward nontraditional sources to promote gaming, which is good for the industry."

Sony has quietly offered the hobbyist tools for both the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 consoles. "Available, but not easy to use, and they didn't promot it similar to what we're seeing with Microsoft," Pidgeon said. The XNA Game Studio Express tools and runtime environment for Windows is free. To develop, debug and/or play games on the Xbox 360, users will need to purchase a XNA "Creator's Club" subscription on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Marketplace. The subscription is available for $99 per year, or $49 for four months.