XNA Announced

Microsoft used the keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference today to announce XNA, a "next-generation" software development platform. It involves several things but mainly this is meant to help developers working on Xbox (2) and Windows titles cut down on development time. XNA will also bring Xbox Live functionality (billing, friends list, matchmaking) to the PC. IGN has a Q&A with Microsoft's Dean Lester and Jay Allard about it.

"It's the age-old problem of game development: how much time do you spend on your tools and technology and how much time do you spend on your game design? The better the tools and technology, the better -- and faster -- you can make your game. The more Microsoft does to provide developers with tools, the easier it is for game developers to develop better games." -- Epic's Tim Sweeney "On the PC we have tools like HLSL. On Xbox, we have tools like PIX. These are both really powerful, and XNA combines the power of the PC and the power of the console into a best-of-breed platform." -- Valve's Gabe Newell