I just read this interesting article on Develop online > http://www.develop-online.net/news/32788/Channel-4-ramps-up-game-funding

In a nutshell for those who don't have time to read it all. Basically Channel 4 is a pretty big TV channel over here in the UK, and they're planning to commision a series of game projects with several indie studios, one of the target platforms being XBox Live Indie Games! Has anyone else heard about this? It seems pretty exciting! It mentions in the article that these projects might have budgets of up to £800,000! (over $1.3 million).

It's great to see XNA/Indie Games getting attention outside of the hobbyist arena :D

I think it's neat that they're targetting the platform, but I certainly hope they've done some pretty good research if they're planning on releasing a game with a budget like that over XBLIG.  I don't think anything on the platform has come even close to that in sales yet.

I don't think they're too concerned about that, it says in the article they plan to release most of these games for free on other platforms (presumably then at the lowest price point on XBLIG). It'll certianly be interesting to see what a well funded and experienced indie studio can do with the technology :) Looks like this is the studio that will be handling it.