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gamasutra
Per una quota annuale di 99$, gli utenti potranno sviluppare giochi per XBOX 360 e condividerli con gli altri sottoscrittori. Esattamente: solo i sottoscrittori, almeno inizialmente, potranno usare i giochi sviluppati amatorialmente. Prima di indignarvi, leggete questo commento su Slashdot:
Che ne pensate?Re:Why a subscription fee?
Companies tend to have these low-cost barriers to entry simply to keep every random person with a game idea from throwing stuff onto their development site. In addition, if it's free, one is more likely to sign up, piddle around and then never create anything. At least with a small entry fee there is a slight financial incentive for you to actually go through with creating and deploying something. To me, $99 is nothing, but it seems like this is targeted at younger kids in their late teens/early twenties. Depending on your family's financial background, $99 is a lot of money to a student with little to no income stream and will ensure that you at least have a vested interest in their program.
Weight Watchers (the only example I can think of right now) has the same principle. They charge you $10-12 a week for their program whether you attend or not. They don't really do anything but weigh you and give you some rah-rah speeches to keep you motivated. The financial cost is there because, psychologically, people who have a vested financial interest in something tend to follow through with it more often and more completely.