Two weeks ago, I mentioned XNA Game Studio Express in a short article called Can You Say “C# Xbox 360 Development?”. This week, Microsoft has released the first beta for XNA Game Studio Express.
Don’t get too excited, this is not a complete beta, nor will it allow you the joy of creating Xbox 360 games. It will, however, let you get started with the tool and begin to see what it can do. Be aware also that you must use it on Windows XP with service pack 2. Upon final release it will also support Windows Vista, but that support is not stated for this beta. Additionally, support for Windows Server 2003 is not provided.
A few features are also not complete in this beta. This includes the XNA Framework Content Pipeline feature. Additionally, there are a few broken items such as a memory leak when destroying Cues.
Even with the issues, this first beta is a chance to start playing with a new tool for creating your own custom games! You can download the beta from HERE.
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