XNA Game Studio 2.0 Beta Released

The XNA team is pleased to announce the Beta release of XNA Game Studio 2.0! This Beta release is your chance to try out the new features available in XNA Game Studio 2.0, including support for Visual Studio 2005, multiplayer support over System Link and LIVE, and many more features and enhancements, many suggested by you, the community members.

If you're an existing XNA Game Studio Express user, you won't have to worry about uninstalling anything - XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) lives comfortably side-by-side with XNA Game Studio Express. Just follow the link below to find out what's new in XNA Game Studio 2.0 and download the Beta, as well as updated sample content you can use with the Beta right away. There's even a multiplayer-enabled starter kit you can use to familiarize yourself with multiplayer programming in the XNA Framework.

XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) supports multiplayer gaming over Games for Windows - LIVE. If you are planning on making multiplayer games on Windows that make use of any Games for Windows - LIVE features, you will need an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership, and a special token.

To receive your token, send a message to [email protected] with the subject "Beta Key Request". Note that you must send this message from the same e-mail address that is associated with an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership. (Note it may take up to a few days to receive your code in email)

If you're not an XNA Creators Club member, you can use the System Link functionality or program against the multiplayer API's without a code.

Please keep in mind that the timeframe between this release and our final release will be very short, in fact we've already had a chance to fix some of the larger issues that you may run into during the beta. That said, if you do run into issues I would encourage you to file them through our Microsoft Connect site at: http://connect.microsoft.com/site/si...spx?SiteID=226

http://creators.xna.com/beta/betahome.aspx