Microsoft's Own X-Prize For Xbox Games
from the it's-a-game dept
We recently pointed to an article discussing the increasing role of prizes in the private sector. VCs are interested in them as a way of spurring innovation in a particular area, while companies are using them to get the general public to help solve specific problems. The latest to try this model is Microsoft, which will announce a $10,000 prize for the best videogame made using a particular suite of development tools, called XNA. Critics of private-sector prizes argue that the prize system is not a market mechanism, and so there's no reason to think that the prize winner will actually have developed something of value. But that criticism misses the point with this example. Developing a popular game is just a small part of Microsoft's goal with this prize. The larger goal is to get developers to use its XNA tools to start making games. If they can get several to try, the $10,000 they spend on the effort will be well worth it, even if the actual game that wins never goes anywhere.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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I agree
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Re:
Then tell those wonderfully financed indie Dev's not to waste their time. If I knew thing 1 about development or XNA, I'd be busting my keister for a chance at the $$$ - The bucks are the bonus, because MS is not exactly a company who isn't going to turn this into a marketing campaign - Marketing the winner and the runner's up in million $$$ campaigns - but of course indie devs don't want the money OR the fame that goes with this - that's another slap in the face!!!!!
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what's there to lose?
I know very little about XNA, but I thought access to it was closed. At least closed to the point that homebrew sites were afraid to link to tools made with components of XNA... Been a long time tho...
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Re: what's there to lose?
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Quack--
I'm just saying if I had such ambitions, this sounds like a nice way to get noticed. Hell, even 3rd-place in such a competition would look nice on a resume...
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This is new?
No matter how the contest pans out, M$ will have gained from it. Not only will it get more people into XNA dev, but it will also get the project publicity (like this). This will even trickle down to get the Xbox more publicity as people will be interested in the future development of the platform.
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VMware held a contest last year...
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Not Just $10K
This makes the prize well worth any indie developers time, a chance to be published by one of the dominate publishers.
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