The revamping of Xbox Live Community Games comes with more than just a new moniker, apparently. The most important new feature among those recently announced is the new pricing model:
Instead of the old 800/400/200 MSP options that were previously available, options will now be remapped onto a new 400, 240 or 80 point system which games can apparently switch between at will (within physical size restrictions similar to those imposed before). Games previously priced at 800 points may remain that way at the discretion of the developers.
Additionally, developers now have the option of handing out tokens for their game, which will presumably allow them to offer free copies to people. Great for keeping those picky journalists happy, right? *Winkwinknudgenudge* and all that.
In addition to all that money stuff, the service has also been extended to some regions which were previously left out of all the fun, and there’s a new reputation system which will rate developers based on activity. This would extend to game quality too, if we had our way; it’d be a fairly simple way to separate the wheat from the chaff. No word on what exactly the rep system affects yet, though, so we’ll wait and see. In the mean time, get making more XNA games, folks! This platform is looking as promising as ever.
– Chippit