XNA Game Studio 2.0 Beta Available!

Man, I disappear for a few days and all the excitement happens!  Not only did Microsoft ship Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 Monday, but the XNA team also released the Game Studio 2.0 Beta!!

If you want to try it out, you can download it here and see the cool new integration with Visual Studio 2005 - now you don't have to have Visual C# Express.  All versions of VS 2005 (standard, professional, etc.) are supported.  But don't worry about uninstalling your existing version of Game Studio Express, the two can exist side-by-side.

There are a lot of new features in Game Studio 2.0 and the XNA framework including new networking APIs, new XACT audio editor, hosting inside of Windows Form (although this did not make it in to the Beta), virtualized GraphicsDevice, and more.  There are also some interface changes, project templates for content importers and processors, and lots of enhancements and tweaks.

The blog entry notes that the time between this release and the final release will be quite short, so stay tuned for the release version.

Technorati Tags: XNA Game Studio Express , XNA , Microsoft , Video Game Development

Cross posted from Martha's Blog