Microsoft Research has released Kodu Game Lab to Community Games ($5). It’s a game-making tool with a very high-level iconographic programming language for making simple games using only the Xbox 360 controller as input. Geared towards kids and non-programmers as young as seven, Kodu allows players to modify terrain and preset objects to create games. The games can then be shared to with friends on XBLA.
To get an idea of what Kodu can do, check out this video from CES 2009, or this post on the Kodu blog. Sounds pretty nifty, actually! If only they could somehow combine this with the editors in Spore…
Update: Here‘s Rob “Oddbob” Fearon’s take on Kodu. (He really likes it but is worried it will get buried because of the 8-minute-long demo!)