Microsoft retools Indie Games for Xbox Live

San Francisco (CA) – Microsoft has retooled its XNA Creators Club program. The project –
renamed Xbox Live Indie Games – offers new price points based on a
three tier system: 80, 240 and 400
MS Points.

“Developers are able to change price as they want, but as is all 200 MS Point games will be automatically moved to the 80 MS Point price point if the developer does not choose another price,” explained a blog post on Xbox Indies. “Games currently priced at 800 MS Points will stay at that price unless the developer wants to update the game, at which point they’ll have to choose one of the new prices.”

Xbox Indies also confirmed that it was accepting submission for games updated or created in XNA Game Studio 3.1, but cautioned that the launch of such apps would be delayed until August 11, 2009.

“Be aware that even after passing Playtest and Peer Review your 3.1 games will not appear on Xbox Live Marketplace until the new Xbox Live Dashboard launches on August 11, 2009. We will also continue to accept XNA Game Studio 3.0 versions of games until October 22, 2009. After October 22, 2009 if you want to submit or service your Indie Game, you will need to provide XNA Game Studio 3.1 .ccgame files,” added Xbox Indies.

XNA Game Studio 3.1 allows developers to create video games for Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune digital media players by utilizing optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on the .NET Framework in the C# programming language. Notable features include avatar support, Audio API, Xbox Live Party and video playback.