Microsoft XNA (Beta) Released

Microsoft have released Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express (Beta). With all the hype surrounding this release we should be in for a real treat! Are Microsoft going to corner the market by releasing tools which enable developers to write their own games? Should Sony be worried?

The studio can be downloaded here

You will Need c# express which can be found here

XNA Overview

XNA Game Studio Express enables individuals and small teams to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries for Windows and Xbox 360. This beta release targets the development of games for Windows. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of a XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well.

System Requirements and Prerequisites

• Only supported on Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 (all editions) at this time. Windows Vista will be available only in a future beta release of XNA Game Studio Express.
• Hardware requirements are identical to those for Visual Studio 2005 plus a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 2.0.
• This release requires Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to be installed before proceeding. You can install Visual C# Express Microsoft. However, other members of the Visual Studio 2005 line of products, for example Visual Studio 2005 Professional, can co-exist with XNA Game Studio Express (Beta) on the same computer.

What is not in this Beta (but coming soon)

While we’re very proud of this Beta milestone, it does not represent all of the great features we are enabling in XNA Game Studio Express which will be available in final release form by this holiday. Some of the key feature areas that were not able to make it into this beta include:

• The XNA Framework Content Pipeline feature is not present in this release of XNA Game Studio Express (Beta). It will be made available in a future beta release of XNA Game Studio Express
• Support for retail Xbox 360 game development. This feature will be made available upon final release of XNA Game Studio Express later this holiday
• Additional starter kits and tutorials will be made available upon final release of XNA Game Studio Express