14 DAY TRIAL // In terms of an online sharing service offering users the ability to upload and broadcast home-produced video materials, Microsoft already has a copy of YouTube set up and ready to go. In fact, taking into consideration both Soapbox on MSN Video and MSN Video, the Redmond company has a couple of YouTube competitors, although the combined audience results of the two services amounts to next to nothing. Microsoft is nothing more than the bottom feeder of the online video service market dominated by Google with YouTube. Still, while Soapbox and MSN Video are in the position of underdogs, Microsoft is ready to apply the YouTube receipt to an online service designed to act as a distribution model for public game sharing.
Chris Satchell, Microsoft's General Manager of the Game Developer Group, confirmed that the company is building on the vision of an Internet medium that would allow users to publish and share games developed with the XNA platform. Microsoft XNA is essentially a bundle of software, services, and resources addressed at game developers that create content for the company's gaming platforms.
"It's always been our vision since we've started. 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? 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," Satchell revealed as cited by DevelopMag.
Currently, Microsoft is offering XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh, but the company is making headways towards XNA Game Studio 2.0, announced at Gamefest 2007 in August and planned for availability later this year. But according to the Redmond company, delivering the platform is just the first step. A stage that will have to be followed with offerings of resources and the availability of an open distribution platform.
"We don't have anything to announce about it yet, but I think it's really exciting, and to me that's the next really big step - we've opened up the Xbox, we've given a cross-platform framework, we've changed the paradigm of game development to make it easier. Now we need to provide people a stage to play on, a distribution medium so that they can show off their creativity to everyone. That's always been our vision and remains our vision," Satchell added.