XNA Game Studio Express Launches

In last August, Microsoft released the first beta of its free XNA-based game development platform, XNA Game Studio Express, and followed up with a second beta release last month. Today, the company announced that it has officially launched XNA Game Studio Express 1.0, bringing the software out of beta. It remains freely downloadable, allowing Windows users to develop Windows- and Xbox 360-compatible games using an environment based on Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and the .NET Compact Framework. Users can compile and share games for Windows freely, but to compile games for Xbox 360 a subscription to the XNA Creators Club is required. Subscription fees are $49 for four months of membership or $99 for a year of membership. In addition to allowing Xbox 360 game creation, Creators Club access also confers a number of resources to aid in development, including starter kits, white papers, samples, and thousands of pre-created assets. To showcase the opportunities provided by the Creators Club, in January Microsoft will launch the Dream-Build-Play development contest, the winner of which will have the chance to see his or her game published on Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. Alongside today's launch of XNA Game Studio Express, GarageGames has begun an open beta of its Torque X game engine, which runs in Windows and integrates fully with the XNA platform. The company expects to have the first full release of Torque X in January 2007. For more on GarageGames' XNA initiatives, check out our interview from Microsoft's Gamefest event earlier this year.