‘Distribution will drive user creativity’

XNA boss Chris Satchell has said that he believes the ability to distribute XNA games to any of the ten million Xbox Live subscribers will drive more people into game creation.

In an exclusive interview with developmag.com, the first part of which is published today, Satchell admitted that many people had initially shown interest in the XNA framework but had been put off due to the inability to share Xbox 360 binaries with anyone other than fellow paid Creators Club subscribers.

"I definitely think that [Xbox Live Community Games] will drive more people to XNA. A lot of people want to show others what they’ve done, and that’s what we hear a lot."

Indeed, one of the core beliefs behind the XNA initiative is that by enabling a community to be creative you’re engaging them in development, and this will bring more people into the industry.

"I really worry about the university system and the decline of computer science students," he says. "I mean, these are people we need to hire for our industry. But when you think about what you learn on the Xbox 360 – maths, physics, computer science techniques like parallel processing – it’s really setting people up for success and helping our industry too."

For more from Satchell – including more in-depth details of the game submission process, the effect that Community Games will have on Xbox Live Arcade developers and what the Community Games mean to regular gamers – check out the first part of our interview here.