Microsoft released two new products today that will give aspiring game developers a nice head start. XNA Game Studio Express is a free software package for Windows that makes it easy (and cheap) to get working on your best game idea. The software, which is based on Visual C# 2005 Express, will allow you to develop games for Windows and Xbox 360. But if you want to run your games on the Xbox 360, you'll need to join the XNA Creators Club.
Annual subscriptions cost $99 and a four month subscription costs $49. A subscription includes access to game assets, examples, starter kits, and support papers. Subscriptions can purchased on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Hobbyists have always been able to make PC games (that's how this whole video game thing got started). But this is the first time that amateur games will end up on consoles. If Microsoft has the right philosophy, I see a thriving community of part-time developers turning some creative ideas into great games. If they have it wrong, we'll probably see a lot of funny crap. Either way, I can't wait to see the stuff that results from this.
This is nice, that they are thinking in this direction. Its like they finally learned something from web 2.0 and open source people. If people actually embrace this like the way open source on the web has been embraced, then I can't imagine the possibilities.