Hoping to spur interest among video game enthusiasts, creative types and students, Microsoft Corp. said it plans to offer a consumer version of the professional software tools used to create video games for its Xbox 360 console.
The XNA Game Studio Express program, an offshoot of the company's more robust XNA Framework, will be available August 30 for a $99 annual subscription, the company announced Monday.
The software, which requires a Windows PC to operate, will let anyone with the desire create their own video games and then share them on Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service, said Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president.
"It's our first step of creating a YouTube for video games," Moore said, referring to the wildly popular free online video sharing Web site. "It will give you everything you need to bring your game to life on Xbox 360."
The program would be a first for consoles, which traditionally have been the exclusive domain of skilled programmers, artists and designers.
Moore said the program is basic compared to the pro tools, which cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Though it's designed to eliminate much of the tedious hand-coding involved in making a game from scratch, some basic programming skills are still going to be needed for the consumer version.
Analysts cautioned that making a game -- a multidisciplinary process requiring artists and animators, programmers and mathematicians -- will never be easy.
Moore said several schools, including Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the University of Southern California and Georgia Tech, already plan to incorporate the software into their curriculum this fall.
"It's a critical need in the evolution of how video games are made," said Peter Raad, executive director at SMU's Guildhall video game school.
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