Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox Live had a humongous success last year, but that’s no reason to stop there. John Schappert, vice president of Microsoft Corp, announced on Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco the plans for this year: double the number of users, from 10 million to 20 million, and if possible, at a much more rapid pace.
This year Microsoft will turn to its Xbox 360 players who want to develop their own games, and will make them available on Xbox 360 live. Through the new Community Arcade section, the number of games is expected to reach 1,000 this year. If you want to see your game up there, and submit yourself to the online community critics, all you need is a Microsoft XNA Game Studio Software ($99 per-year subscription) or to be an XNA Creators Club member.

“The time has come for the games industry to open its doors to all games creators, enabling anyone to share their creations with the world,” Schappert said. “I think of this as games created by the community, managed by the community and enjoyed by everyone,” Microsoft’s vice president added during the San Francisco Conference.

This is just one step from Microsoft’s plan to invest in the Xbox 360 Live service, and appealing directly to the gamers’ community is a good strategy to keep a solid position compared to its rivals, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Hard to tell if the Xbox Live download service will appeal to the masses, but it will most certainly appeal to game developers and it will increase the accessibility to video games.

There are of course fears that the Xbox live could turn into a quantity-over-quality service, with many poor-quality games, but at the same time, the community will be asked to vote for them, and that could change the balance. As it seems, it is a risk Microsoft is willing to take in order to outrun the competitors.