Chris Satchell is having a good week.

Yesterday he was just promoted as Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business Group, closed the loop on indie game distribution for the Xbox Live platform, and will shape the future of Microsoft's various entertainment commodities: a huge leap from his early dev days on games like Project Gotham Racing. Sure, he surely just got a fat raise, but mostly I envy Chris because he's about to become the patron saint of indie game makers everywhere.

Destructoid had the unique opportunity to speak with Mr. Satchell following his keynote at XNA Gamefest in Seattle to get the dirt on Community Games, the Netflix deal, digitial distribution, and how to make serious cash by making catchy Xbox Live Community Games from your smelly bedroom.

Destructoid: So, that's a hell of a way to start a conversation! Congratulations on your promotion. (I should have asked if he had called his mother yet) What will you be doing at this new gig?

Chris Satchell: (With a charming British accent) Why thank you! Microsoft has all of these exciting properties (proceeds to name 20+ things as my brain melts) so I'm asking myself, how do we take these platforms to bring them together in new and exciting ways? I'm very fortunate and excited to be a part of it.

DT:  My jealousy burns like the foreheads of a thousand camels. Let's go ahead and jump straight into it: What's the big news from GameFest in Seattle?

CS: At E3 we talked the concept of community gaming, games for everyone, and really broadened our vision of "creativity everywhere" with triple-A game developers. In the past we've opened up the platform and delivered the tools to build great games (last GDC). The big announcement from Microsoft this morning is our offering of Xbox LIVE Community Games. With it, we are democratizing and revolutioning the way consumers get and play community-created games on Xbox 360. This new offering allows you to actually sell your game on Xbox Live; a vibrant, enganged community of 12 million that has generated over a billion dollars in revenue.

DT: That's brilliant. It really closes the loop on XNA. Indie publishers have never had it this good. I'm actually blown away that this is happening so soon. So how do we get started, how does it all work?

CS: Its very simple: The first step is to join the Creative Club program. You simply submit your games which are then put into a peer-review process by other creative developers building XNA. You describe your game as accurately as possible (if a game is obscene, etc.) so that it can be screened. Community game developers can choose to sell their games for 200, 400 or 800 Microsoft Points. Community Games on Xbox LIVE will be restricted in size based on suggested retail price points: 50 MB for 200-point games, 150 MB for 400- or 800-point games, and developers will receive up to 70 percent of the revenue generated for their game. If you consider the size and how vibrant and active the Xbox Live community is, this is truly a great opportunity for game developers.

DT:  Um, ok.

Hold on. 

So ... let me get this straight. (Whips out calculator)

If there are 12 million users and only 0.001% of people buy my awesome 150mb game for $8 and I lose half of that in royalties and to Uncle Sam ... that's still like ... holy meseta that's still a lot of money!

CS: It's definitely a very unique opportunity for start-up game developers.  (Our system) will also automatically create demos for any game, so you can try every  title on Xbox Live Community Games before you buy. There will literally be hundreds of games.

DT: I think that my tape recorder had a heart attack. Sorry, you are going to be paraphrased horribly in this interview from my scribbles. Anyway, so what about adult games, M-rated titles that people will surely create for XNA? (As in, can I build dirty porn games all day and sell them on Live? I have a tattoo of Larry Flynt on my right buttock!)

CS: The imporant thing to keep in mind here is that there isn't an actual ratings body looking at these games like the ESRB, they are going to be rated by the creative community that are actually making XNA games. There will be descriptors. For example, one can be "How much sex does your game contain?" and you can say 2/3, etc. That's what we mean by "democratizing" community-created games.

DT: Thank God. That's a very unique way to go about it; I wish we could bump the ESRB in favor of something like that. So how succesful is this; how many XNA studio downloads have there been? How many games will it launch with?

CS: I don't have the exact numbers, but I know there have been over a million XNA studio downloads. Bare in mind that the service hasn't launched yet, but there will be multiple games, and I'll give you an example of how quickly games can be created. Last year we gave developers 4 months cash prizes to build games which produced over 200 playable games. 50 of them were good, 100 of them were great, and at least 20 were just exceptional.

DT: I think we're going to really enjoy this. Is anybody else doing anything like this right now on the PC or otherwise? Nobody doing is doing this on console. On the PC there are a few web sites that have attempted to do something similar, but nobody has the complete pipeline: we give gamers the entire solution, the support, and the tools.

DT: What is the most succesful XNA game of all time so far?

(Note: The demo video shown above is over a year old)

CS: Last year a wonderful game called "The Dishwasher" by James Silva won the top award. You must see this game, it's truly fantastic.

DT: Aside from games, what else can people do with XNA? Can they build widgets? Software?

CS: XNA Studio doesn't allow you to create dashboard gadgets per se, but it is a full development platform. Various developers have built software that they are using for research purposes. There are no limits.

DT: You know, sooner or later someone is going to create a homebrew emulator with XNA to play roms. You know, piracy stuff.

CS: We haven't run into that yet, but in theory it is possible.

DT: How is Microsoft's strategy different than Nintendo's Wiiware model? What is your edge?

CS: They're vastly different. Wiiware is a registered developer program, whereas XNA is available to everyone, and your games are rated by your peers.

DT: What about guys like me? How can someone with no programming experience get into this and build the ultimate Destructoid game?

CS: That's a really good question. You do need some programming experience. Get a simple programming book and XNA studio, for starters. I know that there are good tutorial books available at Borders as well. In addition to that, we give you a lot of content, example games, and there's an entire community online that's also providing resources. You can download 2D examples, 3D examples, and go on to create your own games from scratch.

DT: We're going to sell a kidney to cover rent so we can do this all day. When does it launch? (I can has?)

CS: Creator's club in North America is going on now as a beta, and we will launch this holiday season. We also plan to add additional countries such as Japan, some Scandinavian Countries, Europe, France, and so on -- there's a lot of great talent coming from these countries.

DT: Speaking of far away masses, where's Alan Wake? We just posted the leaked TGS trailer, but it had been two years since we saw it.

PR guy swoops in from the sky and kicks me in the face: That's not really Chris's department ... (Bad blogger! Bad! Bad!)

DT: I'm sorry, you can't blame me for trying! Ok, next question. Let's talk Netflix and digital distribution instead.

CS: Netflix is a super exciting distribution service that we're very happy to have on...

DT: So is retail dead? Can I stop going outdoors yet?

CS: Not necessarily. I think there will always be a strong retail presence. A perfect example is Rock Band: they can go online to extend their content online, which works really well together over time.

DT: Now that we can get movies over Netflix on our Xbox, how long do you think it will take for Netflix to add a game rental service? Will we be able to rent Blu-Ray titles and play them in our 360's? *jab jab*

CS: Well, the thing to keep in mind is that Netflix is a digital download system; you can watch high-quality video without the physical media.

DT: Fair enough! Let me stop before you never answer our calls again. Where can Destructoid readers go to learn more about XNA? Can they call you at home?

CS:  (laughs) No! Actually, you'll find it hard to find me there.

The best place to begin is creators.xna.com.

An XNA Creators Club Premium membership is required to develop for Xbox 360, submit games for peer review and participate in revenue sharing. Memberships are available for an estimated retail price of $49 (U.S.) for four months or $99 for 12 months. Faculty and students can obtain a free, personal development license for educational use only.

DT: Thanks so much for your time, I'm sure you're a busy guy. Thanks for all your work on XNA and we're looking to the holiday launch.

Destructoid will be keeping a close eye on Community Games -- look for featured titles in our Indie Nation column starting later this year. If you have an XNA game you'd like us to consider (such as an incredible Destructoid title that somehow mixes Tetris, Warcraft, and Gears of War into a musical weight loss game) let us know! Tips@destructoid.com!

As an aside, your plucky friends at Destructoid strongly urge people to look at this platform seriously, especially our younger readers. Now is the time to call up every geek and artist you know and put together a garage game company and build great unique games for Xbox Live. I would have strangled my grandmother for an opportunity like this when I was growing up. You will read stories on Destructoid in the future about some guy who made a great "it" game for XNA that made a million bucks, so it may as well be you.

The tools and books are dirt cheap and the distribution platform is vast, so get off your asses and make great Xbox Live Community Games happen!