homebrew and small developers
TechDirt points to an interesting news item about Microsoft opening it’s XBox development tools to consumer-level users. They suggest this could open up the platform (and console gaming more generally) to more interesting “user-generated content.” Although I’m not a gamer, I was a little suspicious, since the console gaming business model hinges on the scarcity of production tools. Microsoft and other console manufacturers sell consoles at a loss, then recoup the investment through the a licensing fee for each title. While this ensures Microsoft makes money, it also restricts game production to studios with enough capital to pay for expensive development tools and distribution to large organizations that can work with retail channels and pay the licensing fees. Microsoft’s announcement warps the established model for console game production.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer article clears up some questions I had about the program. The initial, free tool XNA Game Studio Express allows non-programmers to produce games for Windows, and a later, full-featured tool will enable users to create games for the XBox 360 at a $99 per year cost. These aren’t the same tools used by game studios, and it is not really geared for Microsoft’s console platforms. Instead, it seems more like a response to the far-from-new phenomenon of modding and allows Microsoft – and users – to make money at the very low end of game production.
“the console gaming business model hinges on the scarcity of production tools. ”
Not so much scarcity of production tools as a single gatekeeper/licensor–the hardware vendor. So it’s sort of like the scarcity of cabs in NYC caused by the lack of taxi medallions.
But this move does make sense: the more stuff that’s available for a given platform, the more attractive that platform becomes.
yeah, you’re right, I was being sloppy, and trying to move on to the newsy part of the post.
Two things:
1) It’s become a fairly accepted gospel in the game industry that the current (or-soon-to-be-released) generation of consoles - the XBox 360, the PS3, and the Nintendo Wii - will be the last console cycle to rely on disc-based media for content delivery. Since retail distribution makes up such a huge amount of the cost of taking a game to the market, they’re probably trying to find new ways to push more stuff into their online service. It’s somewhat forward-thinking in that sense, because that particular portion of the game market (the low end, cheap-to-develop and cheap-to-buy stuff) will continue to scale nicely for some time to come.
2) More speculatively, they may be looking for content opportunities for their upcoming handheld device. No one seems to know what the thing will look like, but assuming that it will behave similarly to the current handhelds in terms of how people actually use it, they probably want some simple, easily-ported, and easily digestible games on hand to appeal to the “casual gamer” market and to commuters.
You’re right about it also being a response to the modding and homebrew communities that are already so well established.