Xboxist

Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express 2nd beta

Microsoft said yesterday they had released the second beta of their XNA Game Studio Express, a game development application which will let anyone create Xbox 360 games so they can be shared on Xbox Live. New features in this second beta include:

- 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.

The final version of XNA Game Studio Express is expected December 11 of this year, with XNA Game Studio Professional available in summer of 2007.