Well first you need to make the game and talk to Microsoft about developing it for Xbox live arcade. You will also need to buy XNA pro next year so your game can be sold.
I have made the common mastake of thinking about bring the game to XBL arcade etc etc and not actualy developing the game. Make working on your project your main priority. As you are useing XNA it wont cost you anything to develop it.
sarge mat wrote:
Well first you need to make the game and talk to Microsoft about developing it for Xbox live arcade.
There is no conspiracy and I don't see what conversation needs to be had in this area. If you build a great game that runs on the 360 and is likely to sell a lot of units and differentiate the 360 in some significant way, Microsoft will be very interested in publishing your game on XBLA because doing so is in their best interest. That's all there is to it.
Just go into it with the mindset that getting on XBLA is like getting into the big leagues of pro sports, as far as casual game publishing goes. Many will try, very few will ever reach that level, no matter how much time and effort they devote. If you've never developed a commercially successful game before, the chance of breaking through is very small. You mention Microsoft doing something to make people "feel secure that investing effort won't be lost". They can't do that. 99% of small/casual indie games for any platform end as unpublished failures with all effort being "lost" (though for people who are really dedicated, I wouldn't say the effort is truly lost, nothing teaches as effectively as failure).
Until you have a great game built, you have nothing, so why should Microsoft or any other big publisher waste any time dealing with you or the 100,000 other people who think they are going to create the Next Big Thing They simply don't have the resources. That's life. If you want to hedge your bets, and you should, target both the PC and the 360 so if your game is rejected by Microsoft for XBLA publishing you can at least publish it to the PC shareware indie market.
It kinda smells of how big record labels treat small artists.
I know that's being conspiratorially minded, but you have to admit that the lack of information in this department has a somewhat purposeful feeling.
Indeed, that is how the game industry has worked in the past. Our vision with XNA Game Studio Express is to help change that. HOWEVER: The infrastructure is not yet in-place to help independent game developers get past that really big first step. We (and more specifically, I) are working hard to get it in place for 2007. In my case, that means I've voluntarily given up two weeks of holiday vacation just to drive this forward.
There is DEFINITELY nothing "purposeful' about it. Indeed, that would be insane -- we made XNA Game Studio Express to help lower these barriers (and are still working on it). Microsoft is a corporation, but the Game Development Group here (of which 40 or so are attached to XNA GSE and the XNA Framework) are people that are passionate about making games and lowering the barriers to game development for everybody. Take your conspiracies to Slashdot, you'll find many sympathetic ears there.
Sorry, but I just get a little ticked off when people make posts that seem to dehumanize this hard-working team of developers. 
Err, something like strip poker I am sure there is a market for something like that (just look at the direction where G4TV is headed). I wonder what is the official guide line for the XBLA say.
I wonder the same for XNA games, there isn't any enforcement of rating system on XNA games. So parental control is all or nothing. I wonder if there will be some form of review/approval process before people can share their games (when the sharing is available).
so i think it's safe to say that M rated games are ok, but i doubt msoft will allow strip poker games...haha
I have heard that people use their Vision Cam to do naughty things in UNO... ;)