In the battle for gaming supremacy (http://www.xbox365.com/news.cgi?id=GudPrPLLGG02190833), Microsoft has finally deployed the big guns against the Playstation and Wii: Web 2.0 and the Zune.

Microsoft game developer group chief Chris Satchell told the Game Developers Conference (GDC) (http://www.gdconf.com/) in San Francisco, California, his company is "democratising distribution" of Xbox Live games by giving developers the opportunity to punt their software through the Xbox Live network.

And, for an added, er, incentive, developers can port their software to the Zune mobile music player, which has struggled to compete against the iPod and other players, later this year. Version 3.0 of XNA Game Studio - that will work only with Visual Studio 2008 - will extend support to Microsoft's Zune player so developers will be able to build common code for Windows, Xbox and Zune.

If the idea of putting your hard-developed software on the Zune isn't sufficient incentive, Microsoft pointed to the fact the games market continues to thrive. The US market alone will be worth $18 billion this year. Its move to expand the Xbox Live "community" will, Microsoft said, help it keep up in an increasingly competitive market.

Microsoft laid the ground for "community" development of Xbox products two years ago when it launched the XNA (http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/) framework. This .NET-based development platform made it possible for third-party developers to build Xbox games using XNA Game Studio (http://creators.xna.com/Education/whatsnew.aspx) - a game-building toolkit based on Microsoft's Visual Studio integrated development environment.

Under the new regime, planned for later this year, game developers will be able to load their games on the Xbox Live network for peer review and subsequent distribution to Xbox Live subscribers. Financial arrangements are yet to be finalized and are currently being worked out by Microsoft's lawyers.

The community and mobile gaming pledges came as Microsoft also renewed (http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18482573F500116FD2.html) its commitment to the HD format used in the optional Xbox 360 DVD drive after Toshiba became the latest (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/08/paramount_poised_to_drop_hd_dvd/) to abandon HD.®

Related stories

Microsoft picks Exchange and Sharepoint for the online draft (4 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/hosted_microsoft_services/
Linux goes Wii (27 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/27/wii_linux/
Hotmail dies on both sides of the Atlantic (26 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/26/hotmail_goes_down_in_us_and_uk/
Why is Microsoft dancing with Danger? (21 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/21/ms_danger_why/
Yahoo! tunes! out! of! music! subscription! (4 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/04/yahoo_music_byebye/
Xbox Live account takeovers put users at risk (9 January 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/09/xbox_live_account_takeovers/
MS 'disappointed' with Xbox Live connectivity woes (4 January 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/04/ms_xbox_live_freebie/
Xbox 360 gets friendly (27 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/27/xbox_friends_of_friends/
Xbox Live gamers to get game, gratis (14 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/14/microsoft_xbox_live_fifth_anniversary/
Microsoft opens Xbox 360 Arcade (23 October 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/23/xbox_arcade_microsoft/
Microsoft revamps Zune with Flash (3 October 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/03/microsoft_zune_revamp/
Zune price slashed to under $200 (5 September 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/05/zune_price_cut/
MS announces revamped Xbox 360 coding kit (14 August 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/14/ms_announces_xna_2/
MS: Zune 2.0 to arrive in time for Xmas (23 July 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/23/ms_confirms_zune_2/
Red ring of Xbox death costs Microsoft $1bn (6 July 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/06/microsoft_red_ring_death_charge/