Details emerge on user-generated games on Xbox Live
Microsoft offered up a few more details on Tuesday about its upcoming online video game marketplace for aspiring game developers.
Originally announced in February, Microsoft will allow user-generated games to be sold on its Xbox Live service this fall. On Tuesday, the company said it will let the developers keep up to 70 percent of the revenue generated by their games.
The scenario is similar to Apple's App Store, which sells applications for the iPhone created by developers that pay a fee to put their creations for sale in the online store.
Game developers will have to pay $99 a year to be part of the XNA Creator's Club, which will get them shelf space in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Any game created must past muster with their peers, however. Microsoft says there will be a peer-review system in place to establish some measure of quality. The games will be sold in the Community Games section for Microsoft points, which equate to $2.50, $5, or $10.
Microsoft says when the feature debuts this fall, it should double the number of games currently for sale on Xbox Live.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
