The XNA Community Games initiative, which hopes to empower small, independent game makers, enabling them to create original games for the Xbox 360's download channel, could see the Live Arcade 'leapfrog' the competition. So says Microsoft's David Edery.

Speaking to GI.biz, Edery was asked about Microsoft's outlook, with WiiWare now launched and the PlayStation Network on the up.

"I certainly think from an innovation perspective it's going to help us leapfrog the competition, effectively until they find a way to duplicate it, assuming they ever do," he said.

"To some extent it will certainly help us have more innovative content than either of them, just by definition. With all this random stuff coming from the community, every once in a while there's going to be a real gem in there that you just couldn't have found otherwise, it wouldn't have found its way on to a console."

Diversity is the key, according to Edery, who says that more games for more gamers is the aim of XNA, that will also make previously un-viable 'niche' titles possible.

"Who knows, maybe a guy like Will Wright will spin out a game in three weeks, toss it out on XNA and see what happens. This could become a wonderful test bed and you'll start to see super-cool stuff coming from guys who wouldn't really have that opportunity to do that kind of test marketing," he added on the opportunities available to mainstream developers.

By Luke Guttridge

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