Today at the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced new XNA (TM) software that will enable enhanced collaboration between content creators, programmers, management and quality-assurance staff members to speed the game production process. Based on the Microsoft� Visual Studio� 2005 Team System, the latest innovation of the company's flagship development platform, XNA Studio is an integrated, team-based development environment tailored for game production.

Demand for high-definition content and richer, more involved game worlds will bring increased complexity to the process of creating next-generation games. Game teams are already wrestling with the challenges of growing content requirements, larger and more specialized teams, and globally distributed resources. XNA Studio will address these workflow challenges by delivering an advanced build framework driven by a unified file format. The build framework is partnered with an integrated tool suite to optimize the game production process for all team members.

"The productivity gain from Microsoft's collaboration and build tools has already been proved for programmers, so the opportunity to bring the same process and technology to content creation is huge," said Marc Petit, vice president of product development for Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc. "XNA Studio can have a clear impact on the business of making games and will likely emerge as a differentiating force in game development."