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Tens of thousands of 'bedroom developers' are vying to create the nextbest-selling computer game after Microsoft effectively handed the keys ofits Xbox console to the gaming community.
Microsoft has said it wants amateur developers to write games that can beplayed and downloaded via its Xbox Live web platform, which has ten millionusers worldwide - and for them to share in the revenues their creationsgenerate.
The software giant said that a 'toolkit' it had released which enablesdevelopers to write games for Xbox had been downloaded 800,000 times and wasbeing used by teams in more than 400 universities worldwide.
The first trials of the community-generated games for Xbox are due to begin inthe spring, with a full commercial roll-out expected later in the year.
"I think of this as games created by the community, managed by thecommunity and enjoyed by everyone," John Schappert, corporate vicepresident of LIVE software and services at Microsoft, told the GameDevelopers Conference in San Fransisco.
Once a game is created for Xbox Live, it will be submitted for 'peer review'by other developers, who will check that it does not contain any prohibitedmaterial and that it is correctly labelled for graphic content, Microsoftsaid. The game will then be uploaded to Xbox Live Arcade and placedalongside other Xbox games that can be bought and downloaded.
Micrsoft also hinted that developers would be able to share the revenuegenerated from their games - either through download sales, or advertisingthat appeared alongside free versions - but said that the business model forthe new venture was still being worked out.
The company released its free toolkit for creating games, known as XNA, twoyears ago, but until now the games developed using it could not be shared.Only seven community-generated games have so far been uploaded to the XboxLive platform, Microsoft said, but by the end of the year this number wouldswell to more than a thousand.
"There are tens of thousands of developers out there chomping at the bit,"Mr Schappert said. "We need to unlock that potential."
Third-party developers have always written games for Xbox, PlayStation, andNintendo, but typically the software which enables them to do so isexpensive, meaning that only established games developers have been able toafford it.
Microsoft's announcement reflects an increasing desire on the part of thelarge console makers to tap the skills of the wider developer community.Nintendo has released a similar toolkit - called Wii Ware - and alreadyabout a hundred titles are in development, with the first due to be releasedin the US in May.
"It makes sense for Microsoft and others to develop their onlineplatforms in this way," Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at ScreenDigest, said. "It doesn't cost them much - other people are generatingthe content, plus it's a way of maintaining good relations with the onlinegaming community, and there's also a number of business models they canexplore."
Asked whether bedroom developers could compete with the likes of Activision,the company behind games like Guitar Hero, Mr Harding-Rolls said: "Youcan definitely make extremely interesting, entertaining and addictive casualgames that become popular with a huge number of people."