Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Taken from http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2006/11/01/538557.aspx

Microsoft today released the second major iteration of its XNA Game Studio Express beta, upgraded with full functionality for Windows and third party toolset support, allowing hobbyists, academics and independent game developers to more easily integrate game content into their creations. The pioneering technology has already opened the doors of game development to numerous audiences, and promises to ratchet up indie game development yet another notch with an expanded set of features.

Whether you’ve been tinkering for just a short time with XNA Game Studio Express or are completely new to the software, today’s update maintains Microsoft’s goal to empower the masses through offering easy-to-use and affordable tools enabling them to bring their creativity to life by offering:

• The addition of XNA Framework Content Pipeline, a feature set that makes it simpler and more straightforward for game developers to use 2D and 3D content in their game projects from third party digital content creation packages like Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and SOFTIMAGE|XSI.
• New content importers for .X and Autodesk FBX 3D asset format in partnership with Autodesk.
• Xbox 360 project system gives game developers the ability to preview game design specifically for the Xbox 360 and pre-compile games starting today, giving developers a head start in preparing their games for the XNA Creators Club availability in December.
• Improved game component architecture updated with a simpler design, adding increased usability based on community feedback.
• Overall performance improvements and optimizations – XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2 is a near final version of the tool.

Novice game creators can download the updated software today from http://msdn.com/xna to develop games for Windows, at no charge. Furthermore, games built using Windows can be migrated to Xbox 360 console systems when the final version of XNA Game Studio Express is released. The XNA Creators Club membership will launch simultaneously with XNA Game Studio Express and be available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace allowing users to activate their personal retail Xbox 360 console to create, test and play XNA games on Xbox 360. A one year membership is available for $99 USD and a four-month trial is available for $49 USD.

INFORMATION ABOUT BETA 2 UPDATES:  http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/default.aspx

BETA 2 DOWNLOAD:  http://msdn.com/xna