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Earlier this year, the XNA team showed off managed code running on an Xbox 360 at GDC. At that moment, people have already been speculating about the endless possibilities that could happen if they could have access to managed code on their consoles.
And today, the rumors are about to cease, for they have finally confirmed that they will ship XNA Game Studio Express this fall. What this means is that the consumers can now develop games using the Visual Studio environment on the Windows computers, AND THEN run those games on either Windows, or on their retail Xbox 360!
XNA promises further that this is one program that will help you learn and develop games in general. They will also continue to give away working examples of games that can run on either platform. In fact, the first one will be made available to you once you download the (windows only) beta of the tools come next month.
What's even more cool about this is the fact that the tools Windows runtimes will be free of charge, as opposed to the $99.00 yearly subscription you have to pay for just to run an unsigned code on your Xbox 360.
The underlying principle for this project is the company's desire to create an opportunity wherein games can be turned into a creative, educational experience they can do with their child. But this is more than just a mere beginner's tool. The program actually allows you to write full-on games with shaders and high-end graphics if you may be inclined to go deeper.
To illustrate, Garage Games have built a version of Marble Blast entirely in C#. Garage Games have been creating a managed code version of their tools and engines that work the XNA technologies. And for those storytellers and artists who aren't as inclined to fancy code, they also have a lot of good tools that will make game development much more accessible for them.
Yes, this top-secret development was definitely worth the wait.
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