Pushed to the Edge #10: Homebrew, 360 Style

In contrast, XNA could radically change gaming. That's not just hyperbole, even though a truly successful rollout would do little more than create the same sort of homebrew gaming landscape on the 360 that has long existed on the PC.

Think about that. Xbox Live has always had the potential to become a clearinghouse full of interesting games, and XNA only adds to the equation. Sure, there are hundreds of cool games scattered over the Internet, but there's no single portal to access them all in use by every PC owner. On the 360, content creators can be certain that their games will be set down in front of an audience, to sink or swim.

Compared to the increasingly negative press swirling around Sony and the PS3 (which might have its own Linux-based user development environment), Microsoft seems to be making a very sharp move. Opening the 360 to public development demonstrates tremendous confidence in the hardware and userbase.

PlayStation 3 Xbox 360

The company has always positioned itself as a software giant, not a hardware innovator, and by putting the 360's game tools into the hands of the public, they're following up on that claim.

We've been waiting to see Sony make a similar move on the PSP for a long time, and in the wake of the nosediving attitiude towards Sony's handheld, this announcement resonates loud and clear. Microsoft is sending a very clear message with this release: the Xbox 360 is meant to be the console for absolutely everyone, including budding creators.

A key factor in the success or failure of XNA won't only be the games created through it, however. It will be the evolution and development of the tools themselves. Will users be able to code their own custom environments, and if so, could they be distributed as easily as games? That will be a must for the platform to become a thriving, useful development environment rather than a promising curiosity.

Meanwhile, some will be tempted to see this effort as a transparent recruiting ploy on Microsoft's part. The company has agreements with 10 universities to integrate XNA and the 360 into their coursework, which represents a fertile recruitment pool for the company. But for now I'll hold off on the pessimism. If a bunch of kids get jobs at Microsoft studios because of the XNA, good for them. In the meantime the swelling 360 userbase will potentially have far more games to play than otherwise would have been the case. I'll take diversity over total corporate control any day.

Pushed to the Edge is a regular commentary covering elements of the video game industry that cause elation, dismay, outrage, or some combination of the above.

• Pushed to the Edge #9: Is There An Ecko In Here?
• Pushed to the Edge #8: Indie To Go
• Pushed to the Edge #7: A Tale of Two Launches
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