Further Details

We've walked through creating, submitting, reviewing, and playing your game. As you get to know the system, there are a few points to keep in mind.

Countries and languages

As a creator, you'll notice that you have different options when it comes to filling in information about country and language support. We treat the countries from which we accept game submissions different from the countries to which we make payments.

We separate the two categories of countries. Community Games version 1 supports the following languages: English, French, Italian, and Spanish. You must use one or more of these languages when you provide your description for Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Also, you must provide a game binary that supports one or more of these languages. Peer reviewers must review both your description (which is part of the game information) and the language your game exposes (which is part of your binary).

Important: If you provide a game binary that exposes any other language than those explicitly supported, peer reviewers will reject the game.

The following table shows the countries from which you can submit games and the countries to which you can distribute games. The first column means that a creator living in that country can get paid.

The second column means that the game will be available in Xbox LIVE Marketplace in that country. You'll notice, for example, that a Danish game creator can sell games in the United States market. The game will not show up in Denmark, however, and Danish is not supported as a language.

Subsequent versions of Community Games will expand our support for both languages and countries.

Getting paid

One of the most exciting features of Xbox LIVE Community Games is that you, as a creator, can get paid for your games. In order to get paid, however, you need to give us the appropriate account information.

This information specifies things like your bank routing number, your tax identification number, and other essential information we need to make a direct deposit to your account.

You can fill in this information from the my business pages as specified in the profile section in the beginning of this article.

The rules for payout are as follows:

• Creators will be paid once per quarter and only after they have submitted their tax information.
• The minimum payout amount is $150 USD.
• All payments are made as direct deposits
• The following countries are supported in version 1 for payout:

Creators receive up to 70 percent of the total revenue from their game sales as a baseline.

Also, we will invest in and feature a handful of games at a time by promoting them both on the console as well as on Xbox.com. During that time, we may use some of the revenue to support our publicity efforts.

This portion ranges between 10 and 30 percent, based on performance, in exchange for driving increased exposure and sales. The creator always benefits from the sales of his or her games. We'll be working with our merchandising team to help boost the game's revenue when we see potential for even greater success.

This business model acts as an incentive for game creators to ensure that the best, most innovative games continue to be made for Xbox 360.

The first payout occurs 45 days after the end of the first quarter of 2009. This means that you should not expect your first payment until May. For more information about getting paid, please visit http://creators.xna.com. We have a FAQ under the resources menu that has an entire section dedicated to making money.

Game updates

Perhaps you'll find that there is a serious bug you want to fix in your game after it has been placed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Playtest should flush these issues out. However, just in case something does slip through the cracks, you can address this situation by updating your game.

Updating a game incurs non-trivial overhead for the creator, the peer-reviewers, and your customers. Your update, no matter how small, must go through the entire peer-review cycle again. We also have no mechanism in version 1 to notify customers who have already downloaded your community game that an update is available (we're working on this).

Please use the update mechanism judiciously to only fix serious errors in your game. To us, this means crashes, unplayable levels, and so on.

To update a game, go to submit game, and view the game under your project. If you scroll down, you'll see that your game is currently on Marketplace.

Note that you can still change your game information or submit a new binary, or do both, even though you have a version already on Xbox LIVE. The steps to follow are the same as those you followed when submitting your game the first time.

You can even choose to go through another iteration of Playtest. Once you put your game in review and it is approved by creators, it replaces the version currently on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Important: You do not have to remove your game from Marketplace before putting a new binary into review or Playtest.

Removing your game

As a creator, you own the rights to your game. If for some reason you choose to remove your game from Marketplace, it will not be available for download by new customers. If someone has already purchased your game, that person still needs to go to his or her download history on the console to acquire the game.

Important: When you click remove from marketplace, you remove your game from all countries. We do not allow creators to selectively remove a game from one country, while remaining in others.

Note, however, that you can add countries in an update. For example, if your game is currently only in the U.S. and you need to do an update, you can choose to opt in France as well.

What's Next?

You are now prepared to take your masterpiece, share it with the world, and reap the benefits of your hard work. Check out http://creators.xna.com, learn about the cool new features in XNA Game Studio 3.0, join our Creators Club, and continue to give us feedback on Community Games.

We are continually evolving game creation and game distribution. You can expect updates from us throughout the year. Now that we are open for business, get your game on.

Consumers will get their hands on Xbox LIVE Community Games in the New Xbox Experience on November 19, 2008. Will your game be ready? We can't wait to see what you have in store (literally!).