Microsoft Announces XNA Studio Game Development Tool

At Game Developers Conference, Microsoft has taken the opportunity to more fully flesh out its XNA concept with the announcement of a major new Windows product, named XNA Studio. Based on the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System, XNA Studio is an integrated, team-based development environment tailored specifically for video game development, and will likely launch as a PC retail product early in 2006. In particular, XNA Studio builds on top of Visual Studio, currently the tool of choice for the majority of game programmers, and adds asset management, defect tracking, and project automation tools, as well as significant workflow functionality. This new build framework and integrated tool suite is intended to make XNA Studio important to artists, designers, QA testers, and even producers. In relation to this major announcement, Gamasutra.com had a chance to discuss XNA Studio in detail with Chris Satchell, the general manager of XNA at Microsoft - please read the in-depth interview (available on Gamasutra without registration for a limited time) for more information.