Tens of thousands of 'bedroom developers' are vying to create the next best-selling computer game after Microsoft effectively handed the keys of its Xbox console to the gaming community.
Microsoft has said it wants amateur developers to write games that can be played and downloaded via its Xbox Live web platform, which has ten million users worldwide - and for them to share in the revenues their creations generate.
The software giant said that a 'toolkit' it had released which enables developers to write games for Xbox had been downloaded 800,000 times and was being used by teams in more than 400 universities worldwide.
The first trials of the community-generated games for Xbox are due to begin in the spring, with a full commercial roll-out expected later in the year.
"I think of this as games created by the community, managed by the community and enjoyed by everyone," John Schappert, corporate vice president of LIVE software and services at Microsoft, told the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco.
Once a game is created for Xbox Live, it will be submitted for 'peer review' by other developers, who will check that it does not contain any prohibited material and that it is correctly labelled for graphic content, Microsoft said. The game will then be uploaded to Xbox Live Arcade and placed alongside other Xbox games that can be bought and downloaded.
Micrsoft also hinted that developers would be able to share the revenue generated from their games - either through download sales, or advertising that appeared alongside free versions - but said that the business model for the new venture was still being worked out.
The company released its free toolkit for creating games, known as XNA, two years ago, but until now the games developed using it could not be shared. Only seven community-generated games have so far been uploaded to the Xbox Live platform, Microsoft said, but by the end of the year this number would swell to more than a thousand.
"There are tens of thousands of developers out there chomping at the bit," Mr Schappert said. "We need to unlock that potential."
Third-party developers have always written games for Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, but typically the software which enables them to do so is expensive, meaning that only established games developers have been able to afford it.
Microsoft's announcement reflects an increasing desire on the part of the large console makers to tap the skills of the wider developer community. Nintendo has released a similar toolkit - called Wii Ware - and already about a hundred titles are in development, with the first due to be released in the US in May.
"It makes sense for Microsoft and others to develop their online platforms in this way," Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at Screen Digest, said. "It doesn't cost them much - other people are generating the content, plus it's a way of maintaining good relations with the online gaming community, and there's also a number of business models they can explore."
Asked whether bedroom developers could compete with the likes of Activision, the company behind games like Guitar Hero, Mr Harding-Rolls said: "You can definitely make extremely interesting, entertaining and addictive casual games that become popular with a huge number of people."
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