Creators Club Communiqué 45
Aloha, Creators!
What a busy week it’s been! Earlier this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we announced XNA Game Studio 4.0 and shared a few details about some of the features it will offer all developers.
XNA Game Studio 4.0 beta is slated to become available to the public in the next one to two months. It provides indie developers the ability to develop games for Windows Phone 7 Series devices as well as integration with Visual Studio 2010. Existing and future XBLIGs will also benefit from added buffered audio support to the audio APIs as well as many other features! You’ll want to stay tuned for additional announcements we're planning at MIX 2010! Additional details will be available when we’re closer to release.
XNA Game Studio 4.0 also enables Xbox LIVE Gamer Services APIs for managed developers (managed developers are a select group of developers under contract with Microsoft). This means managed developers will be able to provide a premium gaming experience on Windows Phone 7 Series that can include a user’s gamertag, 2D Avatar, Achievements and asynchronous turn-based gaming; these features are not currently available to non-managed developers. Interested in become a managed developer? Specific details can be found at developer.windowsphone.com
While XNA Game Studio 4.0 is a shift to include studio developers, we haven’t forgotten our amazing indie developers. There are additional improvements Creators will enjoy through XNA Game Studio 4.0, and we’re so excited to share more of these details later this year.
For now, be sure to tune in to Windows Phone 7 Series dev team members on Twitter: (@ckindel) (@shawnhargreaves) (@ozymandias) (@ai) (@cschormann) (@lokeuei) (@mklucher). Don’t forget to check out Michael Klucher and Shawn Hargreaves’ blogs and, you can even watch video posts from GDC of them through Kluch’s Vimeo account!
~kathleen sanders
XNA Community Manager