GDC: Microsoft announces XNA Studio

Microsoft announced the evolution of the XNA development environment today, titled XNA Studio, just ahead of the start of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The system is based on the company's current Visual Studio development system, and is being described as an "integrated, team-based development environment tailored for game production."

Based on a standardised tool suite designed to be used across an entire team, XNA Studio also apparently works on a unified file format.

"New hardware will be required to deliver the experiences consumers crave, but the real challenge is integrating the whole development process to allow fast iteration of game content and code with minimal rework," said Chris Satchell, general manager of XNA at Microsoft. "This allows developers to realise their visions and deliver higher-quality games more quickly."

XNA was first announced at GDC last year, in place of a highly vaunted but ultimately bogus Xbox 2 announcement.

XNA Studio, the tailored product to emerge from the XNA project, includes tools for managing not just the technical creation of games, but asset management, work lists and defect traffic, among many other features.