Microsoft’s Xbox Live Creators Program is now open to all game developers

With Microsoft’s latest announcement, you can be a small indie developer and have your game available on the Xbox platform without going through the company’s existing channels. The new Xbox Live Creators Program lets any developer take a retail Xbox, which also serves as a dev kit, and use that to create and self-publish a game to the Xbox marketplace. The published game needs to be a Universal Windows App, meaning it would run on any Windows 10 device. Microsoft also reserves the right to remove the game from the store if it has “harmful or inappropriate content.” It also isn’t free as developers need to shell out a one-time fee that ranges from US$20 to $100. It isn’t clear how much developers will be charged.

Aside from those conditions, you can’t enable online multiplayer or access Xbox achievements features if you aren’t part of the ID@Xbox program. What you do have access to is leaderboards and party chat features. A downside is it looks like games published this way are kept in a separate section of the Xbox Store, which could minimize exposure of the game. The program is currently in its preview stage but is expected to open up to the public soon.

Source: The Next Web + The Verge

Trailer released for Man of Steel mobile game

Just to tease you a bit more before the June 14 release, Warner Bros. showed off a trailer of the Man of Steel game for iOS and Android devices. It will be up for download on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon Appstore for Android.

Review: Forza Motorsport 4 on Xbox 360

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios' Forza Motorsport 4 improves on the solid experience offered by Forza Motorsport 3 which is the racing game we have kept coming back to even after the initial thrill of its rival Sony's Gran Turismo 5 wore off. As visually gorgeous and sublime as GT5 is to look at, it isn't as much fun to play as FM3 specially in career mode. Sony's venerable GT5 is the quintessential racing simulator but we find that it isn't the most pleasurable driving game. We were anxious to see if FM4 could be what we were looking for.

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