Ever wonder why Microsoft doesn't allow user-modded content to be distributed over their online services? XNA's general manager Chris Satchell explains why. He also explains how Microsoft hopes to deliver more user-generated content in the future. Read on what Satchell has to say by following the "read more" link below.

Back during the last Game Developers Conference, Microsoft's Chris Satchell announced that XNA will soon be providing a community publishing pipeline for the Xbox 360 and the Zune. Now it seems that XNA might be extending its reach even further. Read the story in the full article by following the "read more" link below.

It seems that Xbox Live Arcade gamers won't have the same high definition luxury their PSN and PC counterparts will be getting when they play Capcom's upcoming Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Capcom's Ben Judd explained that the XBLA version of the game may have lower resolution textures across the game due to the XBLA's 150MB limit on file sizes. For more information, check out the full article.

For those eagerly awaiting the newly announced Community Games service for the Xbox 360, you will be glad to know that it has just been updated by seven new titles for your playing pleasure.

What are these titles, you ask? Well, we provided a couple of descriptions for each as well as several screenshots in the full article. Have fun!

 

Through XNA boss Chris Satchell, Microsoft has revealed that it indeed has plans to someday create a community where games can be played or watched YouTube-style.

Satchell said in a recent interview with Develop that it has always been part of their goals to allow independent developers to show other users what they've got and the best way to allow the creativity to flow is by setting up the right channels where communities can converge.

"We use a music analogy – you know, it’s like we’ve given the instruments so they can go and play music now, but what’s the radio station where they can reach everyone?" asks Satchell. "It’s cool that they can invite people around and play in front of them, which is sort of the Creators Club, but hey, they want to play to the world."

One of the factors currently limiting the flexibility of the XNA community is the annual subscription fee and the rule that only Creators Club members can share software. Under the "YouTube XNA" vision, everyone can get a crack at playing user-made games for free.

Satchell said that opening up the Xbox 360 independent games scene is a major step towards attaining this goal and now a stage must be set where raw talents could be shown off.

"Now we need to provide people a stage to play on, a distribution medium so that they can show off their creativity to everyone," he says. "That’s always been our vision and remains our vision."

And fresh from the press wire, Microsoft has officially announced the winners of the Dream-Build-Play game development contest at this year's Game Technology Conference of Microsoft, dubbed GameFest 2007. And out of more than 4,500 budding XNA Game Studio minds and craftsmen from 100 countries worldwide, a shining 20 individuals have stepped gracefully into Microsoft's favor.

 

And two of them were tied for first place. David Flook of Ontario (Blazing Birds) and James Silva of New York (The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai) bagged the top prize - namely publishing contracts with Xbox LIVE Arcade, US$ 10,000 in cold cash each, and a slew of other unmentioned prizes.

Runner up positions were claimed by Steve Olofsson of Sweden (Gravitron Ultra) and Daniel McGuire of the UK (Yo Ho Kablammo!). The two were also invited to publish their games on Xbox LIVE Arcade, while being offered US$ 5,000 each in cash prize money and other unmentioned prizes. 16 others were recognized with the top four, although particulars were not revealed.

The results, it appears, has taken Microsoft by surprise. "The games we received in the Dream-Build-Play competition are truly inspiring. Created in just four short months using XNA Game Studio, these games demonstrate an incredible range of innovation, fun gameplay and technical achievement." said XNA general manager Chris Satchell.

The participation of many fledging game developers - together with their varied creativity, technical know-how and fusion of fun and concept in a short time span - has put the independent game development segment back into focus. "It’s aspiring, independent developers like these who are really driving our industry," said content director Bryan Tussel of Microsoft Casual Games, and we're inclined to agree.

 

Tandem Events recently announced that NCSoft's Richard Garriott and Microsoft XNA Group's Chris Satchell will be keynoting the event at the second Develop Conference & Expo to be held in Brighton, UK this July 24-26. With speakers such as game legends Peter Molyneux to also appear as speakers at the event, the two will tackle issues with creativity and community and the future of the MMO game.

Satchell's main speech will dive into Web 2.0 keeping two of the four key themes of the conference in mind: creativity and community. Using online social phenomena such as YouTube and MySpace as examples, Satchell will expound on how the gaming community drives Web 2.0 direction and development and how it will effect the online gaming scene.

"Lord British" Garriott will share his vision of the future massively multiplayer online game and the possibilities that can be achieved by developing for the medium. Garriott will also share his experiences in developing games and share it with the budding developers of the European community.

The organizers of the event, Tandem Events, have also announced that the conference already has an amazing line up of speakers slated, stating in the official press release that "the speaker line up is already reading like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the video game industry." Event director Andy Lane concluded the announcement, saying:

Develop is still three months away, but already we have a fantastic line up in place – of both speakers and sessions – for conference delegates, who will be travelling to Brighton this summer from all over the world. It goes without saying that we’re delighted to confirm Chris Satchell and Richard Garriott as two of our keynote speakers.

Regardless of your preferred console, you have to admit that Nintendo Wii's Wiimote is unique and different, if not at all revolutionary. This has been noticed, needless to say, by Microsoft itself, and the company is even considering to make its own motion-sensitive controller.

According to Microsoft Developer Group General Manager Chris Satchell, their company is taking a "wait and see" approach on this meaning that they will in fact create one if there are enough demands for it.

There's no point building the hardware if nobody really wants it. One thing I'm not certain of is that third-parties are super-excited about that motion control - or at least they're not showing it with the games that are hitting the shelves yet. We're yet to see a really good game on Wii that really says 'OK that control kicked ass.

Back in February, Microsoft executive Peter Moore commented that they are looking to compete with Nintendo's mainstream appeal with the fun-centric Wii. He added that experiments with a motion-sensitive controller for the Xbox 360 are currently on-going in their labs.

Anyway, as far as Satchell is concerned with rival Sony, its motion-sensitive SIXAXIS for the PlayStation 3 is not that important. He even went on and said that it is not at all meaningful. "I think the jury's way out on that. I don't know if it's really that meaningful or not. So I think the jury's out on whether everybody really wants motion control so we'll wait and see."

Wait and see, eh? So the good question to ask now is, "Kids, do you want a motion-sensitive controller for your dear Xbox 360?

Just a couple of days ago, the unveiling of the spanking-new Playstation Home and LittleBigPlanet by Sony at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007 has caused a myriad of reactions among the public - but let's not forget that there are also reactions coming from the camps of both Nintendo and Microsoft. As we've previously reported, Nintendo referred to the online service as the "Mii-too approach", but now, we finally get to hear what Microsoft has got to say about it.

According to Microsoft general manager Chris Satchell, he believes that even though PlayStation Home makes use of some concepts which are similar to what the Xbox 360 uses (such as in the case of game achievements), he acknowledges that Sony is "pushing in a different direction" and that Sony's "sort of fundamentally got two different approaches going on here".

Satchell has also shown fondness for Sony's LittleBigPlanet which he considers to be "a very cool game" with "a cool user-generated content feature". However, he also notes that he "can't see a big portfolio of games at the moment that do this. I don't think there's a whole load to catch up."

The Microsoft bigwig has a rather valid gripe about Sony's new online service, though. According to him, as fun as Home and LittleBigPlanet may be, "It's not a very game-centric approach." He then explains that "It's a cool world but it's like a little game by itself. Our approach is the other way around; that games are the center and that's the star of the show, that's what people buy the console for."

So there you go. Microsoft basically thinks that Sony may have something good going on in there, but that for it to succeed, it's going to need a whole lot of work first. Well, one has to admit that the man has a point, right?

Kotaku's Brian Crecente brought up a good point, and thus we ask: how in the Forerunner's name could this have slipped under the radar? He asked Microsoft game development manager Chris Satchell about backwards compatibility, and the reply was that Microsoft's team was still on it, but:

"At some point we're going to focus less on it... When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."

Did back-compat drop in Microsoft's priority To-Do list? The justification that there are so many 360 games out there has to sit with another statement Chris made earlier: 50% of 360 owners don't own the original Xbox. From that perspective, it's like saying that as the market composition changes, the original Xbox segment becomes a smaller minority, and sooner or later, it'll probably be more effective to redirect resources on back-compats to other endeavors.

But then that brings up one question legacy Xbox gamers will ask: so, when or how many of our favorite games will be back-compatted before the axe falls (specific games dependent on each gamer's preferences)?

Oh well. Chris also said that XNA Studio Express is getting wide usage - we won't be surprised if, after Microsoft dims the lights on official backwards compatibility, and people still clamor for it, someone starts working on a homebrew Xbox emulator for the rest of the library. Unless that takes an exploit for it to work, or something, which starts raising some very uncomfortable questions... Just wondering.

And if you want to start the countdown now, well, start with January's back-compat update.