Microsoft Corp. today marked the next step in its initiative to democratize game development and unleash the creativity of the community with the release of the XNA Game Studio 2.0, the next generation of the popular game development platform for Xbox 360 and Windows. The new version builds upon XNA Game Studio Express, released one year ago, and includes the ability to create online, cross-platform multiplayer games for Xbox 360 and Windows using Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows — LIVE, respectively. XNA Game Studio 2.0 adds more than 15 new features and is available for download from http://creators.xna.com.
Many of LIVE’s best features are supported by XNA Game Studio 2.0 with minimal to no coding necessary to activate them — features such as matchmaking, which uses LIVE to find the best games for gamers to play based on their location and Internet connection. In addition, XNA Game Studio 2.0 fully supports game development with all versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio product line.
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