I probably don't need to be telling you this, because you've been downloading Quake Mods or Battlefield maps for over ten years. But get this: "User-created content" is the wave of the future.

That's the word from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, speaking as the keynote of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival this week. "The goal is really to make sure our consumers become creators," he says. Guillemot explained that Ubisoft has a secret project in the works to empower gamers to make their own content -- and even port it across platforms.

Of course, those of us who've been downloading user-made content since the DOOM days tend to be pretty hard-core. What makes Ubisoft's message interesting is that it's intended for the mainstream. The idea is for everyone to feel empowered to make game content, and for it to be easy to share. This message is resonating across the whole industry right now, from the easy-to-use creature editor of EA's Spore to the interactive level design of Sony's LittleBigPlanet.

Microsoft has probably invested the most into empowering gamers to create content. And not just levels or mods, but whole games from scratch, stepping stones leading from your garage into a career as a professional game designer. Microsoft has just revealed XNA Game Studio 2.0, which combines the amateur and professional versions of the product into a single toolset, allowing anyone willing to play around with code to create Xbox 360 games. Another nifty feature of 2.0 is that it works with Xbox Live, so amateur developers will be able to try their hand at building voice chat and other features into their titles. 2.0 is expected later this year.

So there you have it. The future is you.

By the way, if you're serious about making games, check out a site we've had in development for some time now: ModCenter.com! IGN has created a set of tools to help you get together with your team and create the ultimate mods or indie games. Expect to hear more in the coming weeks...

      -Fargo