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User-made Content Part of Xbox Live 2.0?
The first details of the Xbox Live 2.0 service were revealed at the Game Developer's Conference by Microsoft VP J. Allard. Now GamesIndustry.biz has a discussion on the possibility that end user made content may be a part of the micropayment economy mentioned in the keynote. From the article: "...allowing players to create and trade their own in-game items, although presumably the game would have to provide some creative tools for this to be possible in the first place, so we wouldn't expect it to be a feature of every title."
It's the scope, hassle, and cost. Micropayments (charging a nickel for a new decal on your character) isn't feasible, because the fees that the credit card vendors charge to process a transaction mean that you LOSE money doing this. MS is proposing that they unify the system, aggregate transactions so that you can charge really small amounts, without worrying about the Visa/MC fees. If the account is independent (but possibly linked to a credit card account), then they you can "buy" money for your micropayment account at retail stores, on pre-paid phone-card style things, for example. There is no infrastructure to support that yet.