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XBox 360 Games for Change Challenge Winners Announced Today in Paris!

Posted by Suzanne Seggerman on 07-08-08

From Paris - Today Microsoft and Games for Change announced the winners of the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge - a game contest on environmental sustainability made using XNA Game Studio, Microsoft’s toolkit which allows almost anyone to make and distribute a game for the XBox. We launched the contest during last year’s 2007 festival Expo and then saw the 6 finalists during the 2008 festival just last month. Today the final three were chosen and feted in a big splashy show at the Louvre. It was great fun and the work was very impressive. The 3 winners were CityRain from Mother Gaia Studio in Brazil in first place; Future Flow from Belgium’s Drunk Puppy in second, and CleanUp from the South Korean team Gomz in third. We’ll be seeing those excellent games up on our site by the end of the month, and they’ll also be on XBox Live soon as well.

The entries for the other categories were also impressive. The Imagine Cup is an annual contest created by Microsoft to encourage university students to tackle world problems through technology. This year’s Imagine Cup attracted more than 200,000 students from more than 100 countries to create technology solutions around the theme of environmental sustainability. 2008 was the first year the game development category was included and the 6 game finalists from around the world stood up to some pretty intense competition over the past week. They were all great games with serious messages and solid gameplay. The criteria were primarily: Fun Factor, Innovation and Adherence to Theme. Other judges besides me included Bill Wagner, XNA Product Manager, and John Nordlinger Senior Research Program Manager, both of Microsoft; and Ian Bogost CEO of Persuasive Games.

Winners were awarded $25K in prize-money and their games have a chance to be included on Xbox Live. The winning team will also be considered for internships at Microsoft.

Keep your eyes out for more great G4Cs using XNA Game Studio - it’s a fantastic platform for this community.

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