Up next 'YouTube' of video games MICROSOFT RELEASES TOOLS TO ENCOURAGE HOME CREATORS OF GAMES FOR XBOX 360 CONSOLE

Microsoft hopes to recruit future video game developers by making it possible for just about anybody, working from their home PC, to create games for the Xbox 360 video game console.

The company is announcing today that it will make available a stripped-down version of its game development tools for $99. The XNA Game Studio Express software will have everything someone needs to make a working video game.

Peter Moore, head of the games business at Microsoft, said the company wants to encourage high school students and others to make their own games the way that YouTube encourages consumers to create their own videos.

"We need to develop the YouTube of games," he said. "With YouTube, the tool is a video camera. In this case, it is tools for making games."

The strategy is part of a plan to make the Xbox 360 more attractive by putting consumers in control of the content, much the way that consumers are taking to grass-roots entertainment on YouTube or on their iPods.

And the strategy is consistent with Microsoft's overall plan in the console business. It wants to make the Xbox 360 the easiest platform to develop games for. It thus hopes to attract the best game developers to its side so that it will have better games than rivals Sony and Nintendo.

But Microsoft doesn't expect to win the console war simply because of this move. Moore says that for the long term, Microsoft wants to recruit more talent to the industry so that it can broaden the reach of video games for the masses.

Microsoft has released its XNA tools for professional game developers as part of this effort. Those tools cost thousands of dollars, but the subset of tools in the $99 XNA Game Studio Express kit will be more limited.

With the tools, gamers can create their own games on Windows PCs and uploaded them into Microsoft's Xbox Live network, which could theoretically sell them to console gamers via download. Moore said that game creators could share their work with others, for free or for purchase.

"We're very excited to enable game development at the consumer and hobbyist level," said Moore. "For $99, you can create Xbox 360 games. My dream is that a high school student will get a royalty check from Microsoft some day for a game that sells on Xbox Live."

Game developers and university educators who teach game development are excited about the new program. Ten universities with video-game degree programs have signed on to get the tools.

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, students in game development are asked to create their own games as part of the curriculum. But they often have to create and learn new tools in order to do so.

"The fact that it will be financially viable for us to equip a lab with development work stations and consoles, and also be financially viable for many of our students to buy their own setup, is fabulous," said Blair MacIntyre, an associate professor at the institute's college of computing.

The news is also welcome among smaller developers.

"Microsoft is opening up great new possibilities for game developers," said Josh Williams, chief executive of GarageGames, a small game publisher in Eugene, Ore., that will provide some of the tools Microsoft will use in the XNA software.