GDC: XNA hits 800,000 downloads

Microsoft's open development platform, XNA Game Studio, has now hit 800,000 downloads since it was first launched 18 months ago.

In addition Microsoft is now working with over 400 universities using the software, which is designed for creating basic games quickly and effectively.

Chris Satchell, on stage during the Microsoft keynote at this year's Game Developers Conference, stated his belief that the company had "revolutionised the industry by democratising development," and the numbers of downloads pointed to "a lot of creativity and passion that we've tapped into out there."

The Dream Build Play competition, which ran last year to promote use of the XNA platform, yielded over 200 game entries, and although only one was supposed to result in an Xbox Live Arcade title, the company decided to hire four people instead.

One of those people, James Silva, demonstrated his game - a 2D hack-n-slash called Dishwasher - to the assembled audience at the conference session.

Community-designed games will be made available for free for the first time this year via the Xbox Live service.