XNA Game Studio

XNA Game Studio Express

XNA Game Studio Express is a new offering, targeted at students and hobbyists for game development. XNA Game Studio is based on Visual C# Express 2005 and lets developers target both Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio Express contains the following:

• The XNA Framework Content Pipeline, which is a set of tools that allow developers to more easily incorporate 3D content into their games.
• The XNA Framework, a set of managed code development libraries that make it possible for game developers to be more productive when creating games for Windows and Xbox 360.
• Game Studio Express also contains a full set of documentation, how-tos, and starter kits that demonstrate how best to use the content pipeline and XNA Framework.

XNA Game Studio Express was released on December 11, 2006 and can be found at the XNA Developer Center. 

Windows Development with Game Studio Express

Developers will be able to download Game Studio Express from MSDN and develop games for Windows at no cost. Additionally, XNA Game Studio Express will allow developers to commercialize their games for Windows.

Xbox 360 Development with Game Studio Express

Developers wishing to target Xbox 360 for game development will need to join the XNA Creators Club. The XNA Creators Club will be a new Xbox Live subscription offering that will provide the additional pieces needed to develop non-commercial XNA Framework-based games on an Xbox 360 retail kit. The subscription program will be open to everyone. There are two subscription options: $99 a year, and $49 for 4 months.

XNA Game Studio Professional

XNA Game Studio Professional is a new offering targeted at the professional game developer. It will contain all the functionality present in XNA Game Studio Express and will add support for tools and services that professional game developers need to ship commercial games built using the XNA Framework on both Windows and Xbox 360 (a membership to the Xbox 360 Registered Developer Program will still be required). A beta release of XNA Game Studio Professional is currently targeted for 2007.

XNA Framework Content Pipeline

The XNA Framework Content Pipeline is a set of tools focused on reducing the learning curve of 3D game development for small teams. Getting content from DCC tools into a usable format for runtime consumption is a fundamental problem for 3D game developers. Consuming this content requires that the content be properly conditioned based on a diverse number of factors ranging from the breadth of DCC formats to optimizing content for different platforms (Windows, Xbox 360). The XNA Framework Content Pipeline aims to solve this problem by using Visual Studio as the key design point around organizing and consuming 3D content. More information about the XNA Framework Content Pipeline will be published at the XNA Developer Center as it is available.

XNA Framework

The XNA Framework allows game developers to create modern games using the C# programming language and a rich set of development libraries. The XNA Framework also provides a very high level of API unification across the Windows and Xbox 360 implementations, thus virtually eliminating the cost and effort required to port games between these two platforms. The XNA Framework builds on top of DirectX and offers a .NET 2.0 compliant API.