Microsoft to offer cheap Xbox 360 game development kit?

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Since last spring when the Xbox 360 was first announced, one of the biggest concerns was that it would be too expensive for most game developers to create games for the next-generation console.

In the end, it's hard to judge whether those concerns were valid, since the Xbox launched with a pretty solid lineup of games. However, almost all of those games were published by the big dogs of the industry: Electronic Arts, Activision, Sega and the like. Not so many mom and pop-type development shops were in the mix.

But at the Game Developers Conference here on Tuesday, the rumor is that Microsoft plans on announcing Wednesday a developers kit that would make it possible for anyone to build games for the console, or for PCs, and that the kit will cost only about $100.

It's hard to know exactly what such a development kit would mean for the larger body of Xbox games, but one thing seems clear: There would be a lot more games on the horizon, something that would no doubt annoy Sony as it ramps up for the launch of the PlayStation 3 sometime late this year or early next year, presumably not with such a cheap developers kit available.

Another result could be that a lot of small teams might start building low-cost online games in a bid to make it onto the Xbox Live roster of games, or to take on the more traditional massively multiplayer online games from the likes of Blizzard Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment and NCSoft.

Microsoft did not respond to multiple requests for comment.