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SINGAPORE: The Media Development Authority (MDA) is offering grants to budding video game developers in Singapore to create games for Xbox LIVE, an online gaming community with 14 million members.
The MDA will offer a grant of up to S$50,000 for every successful applicant under the MDA-Microsoft XNA Development Initiative.
Singapore is the first Asian country to launch on Tuesday developer access to the Xbox Live Community Games Channel, a few weeks after the service was launched in the US and some parts of Europe.
Xbox Live Community Games is a new games distribution channel that allows consumers to create, submit and commercialise their own creations.
Along with the launch was the debut of "CarneyVale: Showtime", the first Singapore game published on Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel.
Its developers, Team Gambit, beat 7,800 participants from 100 countries to emerge winner in Microsoft's global Xbox game development challenge. It joins 70 other games currently put up for sale on the network.
Microsoft says a system of independent reviewers can help drive content on the gaming channel.
Regional marketing manager of Xbox 360, Alan Chou, said: "Whenever you have community developing games and are putting them online, there's always that question of what is appropriate and what is not.
"To help solve that, Microsoft has put together a peer review system where other independent developers will review games that gets submitted... to make sure that the level of content, whatever is in that game, is appropriate for the Xbox LIVE community... Hopefully, it will be a nice self-governing system."
MDA hopes its grants will generate quality games for the global market.
Deputy director of business development at MDA, Michelle Lui, said: "What we are looking for is quality game proposals, game ideas. As long as you are good, and you are being evaluated as innovative, I think the evaluation panel will be very happy to support these games under the initiative."
Every project must be launched within six months, and applicants have up till February 16 to apply for the grants.
- CNA/yt
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