Jen:

How does this announcement affect networking in XNA, specifically the requirements for interfacing over Xbox Live?  Does the end-user need a creators club subscription to play the game over Live?  Is a creators club subscription required at all for the end-user?  What about on the PC; is a creators club subscription required for Live anymore?

I think that it's ok for requiring a creators club subscription for developers, considering how it's not that expensive anyway.  The prospect of being able to sell games on the Marketplace is very appealing, too.  But I have always thought that a big barrier to getting XNA games out into the wild was the fact that interfacing the game over Live required a creators club subscription in ADDITION to Gold, no matter what platform.  If this has changed, I am one very happy puppy! :)

Community games on the 360 will not require a CC subscription to download and play, just to develop and "publish". For Windows, nothing changes for now.

preston181:

Is the game "The Dishwasher" going to be a full Live Arcade game? I loved it, and would gladly pay for a full version of it. Also, is there plans in the future for a "rate this game" system on the Xbox Live Community Games part of Xbox Live's dashboard? Like, for example: I play a game like "The Dishwasher" and love it, and want to give it a good rating, so that Microsoft or other gamer recognize it as a good game. Thanks in advance for taking the time to address my questions. It's nice to finally see something become of the XNA system for those of of who play rather than just program.

According to the FAQ:

"games can be rated by the community for playability, “fun factor”, etc."

Michael Spencer:

What sorts of content will be permitted in games published using this service?  Are there requirements for disclosing mature content before it is presented to the user?

This is what the peer review system is for.

Albert and Dax are going into more detail about how this works in their presentation at GDC this afternoon: stay tuned for details.

Jen:

How does this announcement affect networking in XNA, specifically the requirements for interfacing over Xbox Live?  Does the end-user need a creators club subscription to play the game over Live?  Is a creators club subscription required at all for the end-user?  What about on the PC; is a creators club subscription required for Live anymore?

The Creators Club subscription is only for Creators who are making or reviewing games.

After a game has passed the review process and becomes available on marketplace, gamers do not need a subscription to play it. That's the whole point of building this distribution mechanism!

This does not change anything on Windows.

Shawn Hargreaves:

Jen:

How does this announcement affect networking in XNA, specifically the requirements for interfacing over Xbox Live?  Does the end-user need a creators club subscription to play the game over Live?  Is a creators club subscription required at all for the end-user?  What about on the PC; is a creators club subscription required for Live anymore?

The Creators Club subscription is only for Creators who are making or reviewing games.

After a game has passed the review process and becomes available on marketplace, gamers do not need a subscription to play it. That's the whole point of building this distribution mechanism!

This does not change anything on Windows.

Isn't that basically what I said? ;) :D

Shawn Hargreaves:

Michael Spencer:

What sorts of content will be permitted in games published using this service?  Are there requirements for disclosing mature content before it is presented to the user?

This is what the peer review system is for.

Albert and Dax are going into more detail about how this works in their presentation at GDC this afternoon: stay tuned for details.

 * Machaira goes to check out the GDC coverage sites

Machaira:

Shawn Hargreaves:

Jen:

How does this announcement affect networking in XNA, specifically the requirements for interfacing over Xbox Live?  Does the end-user need a creators club subscription to play the game over Live?  Is a creators club subscription required at all for the end-user?  What about on the PC; is a creators club subscription required for Live anymore?

The Creators Club subscription is only for Creators who are making or reviewing games.

After a game has passed the review process and becomes available on marketplace, gamers do not need a subscription to play it. That's the whole point of building this distribution mechanism!

This does not change anything on Windows.

Isn't that basically what I said? ;) :D

Haha, you two may have been saying the same thing but I think (I could be wrong) that Jen was asking something a little different.  If not, I'll ask it anyway, since I'm curious:

Will I be able to create a game that supports network play over XBox Live (say a co-op RPG) that can be played (over the network) by everyone?  Or will it require Gold?  And even more restrictive -- Creator's Club?

I'm expecting the answer will be Gold will be required for network play, as that'd be consistent with existing XBLA titles -- you can download them even if you are Silver, but if you wanted to play over XBL you have to have Gold.

I'm fearful, however, that it'll be a bit more restrictive and require the CC (and Gold), as that is what XNA network play requires now.  I hope not, though.

(All under the understanding that there won't be leaderboards or anything, as those are XBLA rights).

Oh, and just a personal plug: I'd LOVE to have achievements, but have them mandated to be worth 0 gamerpoints.  Any ability to do that?  Though I guess having to have that icon available so that others can see it when comparing games (oh yeah -- will these community games showed up on our played list?) could be problematic.  I'll have in-game achievements, at least. =p

BigWeather:

Will I be able to create a game that supports network play over XBox Live (say a co-op RPG) that can be played (over the network) by everyone?  Or will it require Gold?  And even more restrictive -- Creator's Club?

All you will need is a Gold membership, just like all other LIVE titles.

Oh, and just a personal plug: I'd LOVE to have achievements, but have them mandated to be worth 0 gamerpoints.  Any ability to do that?  Though I guess having to have that icon available so that others can see it when comparing games (oh yeah -- will these community games showed up on our played list?) could be problematic.  I'll have in-game achievements, at least. =p

It's been discussed before and from what was said it won't (99.9%) happen. There can still be issues with having games load up hundreds or thousands of achievements and, even at 0 points, it's still a jab at developers with officially published games. Achievements will not happen to XNA until you get a publishing deal and get ahold of those special bits of the framework reserved for published games.

Nick,

Thank you for the very speedy reply.  Gold membership is great, and expected.

Understood on the achievements too.  XBLA needs to remain a rewarding environment for professionals to target and opening achievements up to the community diminishes that.  In addition the more I think about it the harder it seems to pull off due to the inability to limit the scope.  Sure, you could say "Only 12 achievements per game, each worth 0 points" but the sheer number of games could baloon the achievement total, even at 12 a pop.  Like I said it's not a huge deal and I imagine most people will just have in-game achievements to compensate with spiffy Crackdown / HL2-like interfaces to browse them (which I wish all games had, by the way =)).

Thanks again.

I think Nick's got it. Just for the record, the main game I'm working on will have in-game achievements. :)

couldn't there be a limit like XBLA has 200G limit, couldn't XNA have a smaller 100G, Just wondering, i hope at least 0G achievments are added.. (that way i can laugh at people who say my game sucks and can't even beat it :D), What about XP\Vista : are achievements available? (just a quick question: Can i sell XNA Games (XNA CG)?

Speewave:

couldn't there be a limit like XBLA has 200G limit, couldn't XNA have a smaller 100G, Just wondering, i hope at least 0G achievments are added.. (that way i can laugh at people who say my game sucks and can't even beat it :D), What about XP\Vista : are achievements available? (just a quick question: Can i sell XNA Games (XNA CG)?

Like I said, it's been discussed a lot (with and without Microsoft employees) and the consensus is that achievements will never come to XNA. Certainly none that have any gamerscore. That's just asking for people to make "play my game and get 100gs" games. There will likely never be achievements for public XNA games. It's a major draw to professional developers to make games for Xbox 360 (the only system with a very driven score system like that) and something that Microsoft is not likely to take away from them (the exclusivity of them, that is).

If you read the FAQ about Xbox LIVE Community Games, it says they are working on various options for either free releasing of games as well as profit making. Details have not been released as far as who sets the price and how much Microsoft keeps. That's coming soon I believe.