Guests play the Xbox 360 "Halo 3" Multiplayer Beta video game during a preview party at Quixote Studios in Los Angeles May 15, 2007.

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Microsoft Corp. said that it will begin selling "user-generated games" via its Xbox 360, making gamers design and building their own video games, media reported on Wednesday.

The world's largest software maker's "XNA" initiative first made game-development tools available to the general gaming public in 2006. The XNA tools allowed amateur game-developers to create video games playable on the Xbox, the Microsoft Zune and Windows-based computers.

Currently, prospective game developers must purchase a XNA Creators Club membership for 99 U.S. dollars a year in order to upload their games for sale. However, Microsoft will pay developers with a "check every quarter, for up to 70 percent of the game's total revenue," according to a statement on the XNA Creators Club website.

"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.

The games will be sold on the Xbox Live Marketplace at three different prices -- the equivalent of 2.50 dollars, 5 dollars or 10 dollars -- using Microsoft points.

In order to get the game into the Xbox Live store, the games must pass a peer-review system.