XNA will help Live "leapfrog" PSN and WiiWare, says Microsoft

Speaking to GI, David Edery, Xbox Live Arcade's worldwide portfolio planner, said that user-created games will set Xbox Live apart from its rivals.

"I certainly think from an innovation perspective it's going to help us leapfrog the competition, effectively until they find a way to duplicate it, assuming they ever do," he said.

"To some extent it will certainly help us have more innovative content than either of them, just by definition. With all this random stuff coming from the community, every once in a while there's going to be a real gem in there that you just couldn't have found otherwise, it wouldn't have found its way on to a console."

The XNA game-creation stuff for Live was announced at this year's GDC and will go live later this year.