Much like Nintendo has reached out to independent developers with WiiWare, Microsoft is now following suit via Xbox Live, opening up their doors for the inde crowd.

Announced today, the corporation said it will start to sell "user-generated" games later this year via Live, sharing up to 70 percent of the revenue with the developer. How awesome is that!

Microsoft has been offering production tools to the public for two years now under the "XNA" initiative, which would allow the finished product to work on the Xbox, PC, or Zune.

The deal here is an aspiring developer pays a $99/yr premium membership to the XNA Creators Club; in return, they get a hefty revenue cut (hey, it's a lot better than what musicians get), proportional to how well their game sells. Speaking of which, the titles will go for $2.50, $5, or $10, in Microsoft Point form, of course. A peer review system will help keeps things in check, too.

"Not only are we democratizing game development with Xbox Live Community Games later this year, but we're creating an opportunity for aspiring developers," Chris Satchell, chief technology officer at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business group, said in a news release.

Microsoft is expecting double the amount of games to be available for its console when the Community Games sector of its Live store comes out of beta this fall, so get crackin'.