Community Games on Live beta begins
Democratisation at the door.
Microsoft has begun testing its Community Games on Xbox Live project in closed beta.
This is tied in with the the "democratisation" idea it harped on about at GDC earlier this year. Everyone can create games and rate the work of others, with the best picked to appear on Xbox Live.
Only premium members of the XNA Creators Club Online will be able to take part for now. Membership costs USD 49 for four months or USD 99 for a year.
Head over to the freshly redesigned website to get involved.
The XNA tools have continued to gain momentum since their launch in 2006, with student initiatives and design competitions hosted by Microsoft in order to drum up support from its community.
Most recently, Microsoft unleashed a batch of XNA-developed games as demos on Live during the Game Developers Conference 2008.
Pop over to our XNA trials roundup to see what we made of them.
Alternatively, head over to our interview with XNA boss Chris Satchell to find out what he has planned for the future.