XBOX-HQ.COM - New XNA Names and Price System Explained

Should you be a fan of the Xbox Live community games then you will want to read about all the changes to names and prices, here is the official word from creators.xna.com on the subject.

New Countries
We have two new additions to our family of Creators – welcome Japan and Germany! Additionally, we have an update for Singapore and Sweden…

Japanese and German Creators can now submit Indie Games (as of July 23, 2009)
o Japanese-specific forums are now available here on CCO!

Localized versions of XNA Creators Club Online in Japanese and German.

Creators can now submit their Indie Games into Japanese, German, Singapore and Swedish Xbox LIVE Marketplaces!

Note: In Japan the Xbox LIVE Indie Games Marketplace will be available to consumers on August 11, 2009.

Reputation
Ever wonder who’s a seasoned Creator and who’s just dropping by? With our new Reputation system, Creators receive points and levels based on their activity on XNA Creators Club Online. Your profile and reputation may reflect items such as MVP or XNA Team badges, reputation score, and more. Learn more about how you earned and how to keep your Reputation high in this article.

Tokens
Help media outlets help you - Premium Creators now have the ability to give out tokens for their games! Each game title will receive a maximum of 50 tokens, and you decide how to distribute them. Tokens are a great way for media outlets to easily review and potentially increase awareness of your game, and will be available to all creators beginning July 30th on the My Business page.

Servicing Your Game
Today, when a Creator has an update to their game, they notify users via the Xbox.com forums…not anymore! As of August 11, 2009, if Creators have an approved update to their game, customers who’ve already purchased the game will automatically be asked if they want to download the most updated version of that game.

* Submitting XNA Game Studio 3.1 games: Starting today, Creators can submit games updated or created in XNA Game Studio 3.1! 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.

Price Changes
Indie Games will have three price points to choose from, to keep them more in-line with other products available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Games can be sold at 80, 240, or 400 Microsoft Points. Only games 50 MB and under can be priced at 80 Microsoft Points. How does this affect currently priced games?

Games currently at 400 Points: Will retain current price point, but have the option to change to one of the new price points during an update or price change event.

Games currently at 800 Points: Can remain at 800 points for the life of the game unless an update needs to be submitted, at which time one of the new price points will need to be chosen. The option to price your game at 800 Microsoft Points will remain until October 22, 2009.

Games currently at 200 Points: Will remain at 200 points until October 22, 2009. At that point, XNA will automatically change these games to 80 Microsoft Points. For price changes, game updates, and new games the 200 price point is no longer available.

Only Games less than 50MB are eligible to be sold at 80 points.

Between now and October 22, 2009 a game can be updated as often as the user wants just like they can today (excluding the seven day submission jail)

As ever, price changes to a game can only be made every 90 days.

Name Change
We began the change from Xbox LIVE Community Games to Xbox LIVE Indie Games with the launch of XNA Game Studio 3.1. Our roll out of this change continues today, in the following places:

XNA Creators Club Online

Xbox LIVE Community Games channel now is called Xbox LIVE Indie Games