Revealed at GDC ‘08, Community Games were shown as a way for Indie developers to get their games out, reviewed and analyzed before they were released. Now, XNA Community Games have moved into the Beta phase, preparing for their widespread domination this holiday. In order to review and submit games however you will have to have a premium membership, which costs $49 (USD) for 4 months, and $99 (USD) for a year. The Beta is available to everyone, however only members with a US Live ID will be able to download the to-be-reviewed games to their Xbox 360. The ability to network and submit games for others to review is still there for all members that are interested.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, go to the Creators Club Online, and sign up. You can get a free membership with your Gamertag/Windows Live ID, which does give you some benefits but not really the fun ones you can get with a premium membership. The announcement post on the MSDN Blogs also has a ton of links to valuable resources, so that is worth checking out as well. So go ahead and enjoy! And don’t forget to let us know if you’re developing a game on XNA, we’d love to feature it here!

Via X3F and GSB