Come visit us at the Game Developers Conference!

David “LetsKillDave” Weller

XNA Community Evangelist

We’d like to offer a reminder that the 2008 Game Developers Conference is only a week away. For those of you that might still be on the fence about attending, here’s 4 exciting reasons why we think the conference is well worth your time:

1) John Schappert, the Microsoft VP that oversees LIVE, Windows gaming and XNA, will be giving the keynote, “A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community”, on February 20th

2) A rockin’ “XNA Game Studio Developer Day”, on February 18th, featuring many of the cool people that post on the XNA Forums: Shawn Hargreaves, Michael Klucher, Mitch Walker, and Frank Savage. This is the list of talks scheduled for that day (look here for all the details).

· Networking with Game Studio 2.0 (Shawn Hargreaves)

· Extending the Content Pipeline in game Studio 2.0 (Frank Savage)

· XNA Game Studio 2.0 for Xbox LIVE Arcade (Mitch Walker)

· CLR Performance on Windows and Xbox 360 (Frank Savage)

· Understanding XNA Framework performance (Shawn Hargreaves)

· Advanced Debugging with Game Studio 2.0 (Matt Picioccio)

3) Four conference sessions from members of the XNA organization

1. Pete Isensee (Development Manager) will present “Chills and Thrills: Undefined Behavior in C++” in Room 2005 (West Hall) on Thursday, Feb 21st from 4-5pm

2. Anibal Sousa (Test Manager) will present “The Profile of a Great Software Tester” in Station 5, 2nd Floor, on Feb 20th from 1-2pm.

3. Albert Ho and Dax Hawkins (Program Managers) will present an XNA Keynote Breakout Session in Room 3002 (West Hall) on Thursday, Feb 21st from 2:30-3:30pm

4. Michael Klucher (Program Manager) will present a follow-on XNA Keynote Breakout Session in Room 3002 (West Hall) on Thursday, Feb 21st from 4-5pm

4) Microsoft will host a Lobby Bar & Lounge in Moscone West, giving you a chance to mingle with developers from several XNA teams, including the XNA Game Studio team. You will also have an opportunity to check out the Finalists of the DBP Warm-Up Challenge while you’re there.

We look forward to seeing you there!