XNA GSE Update Introduces Standalone Binary Sharing

Officials from Microsoft have announced an incremental update to its XNA Game Studio Express, the software toolset aimed at Windows and Xbox 360 homebrew programmers and students, now containing a utility to let users share binaries for both PC and 360 platforms. Dubbed XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh, the most significant addition to the new release is the XNA Packager, which will allow XNA users to create binaries that can be shared with others, without having to share project source code as well. Sharing binaries with other Xbox 360 users requires, of course, a subscription to Microsoft's XNA Creators Club, purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace at $49 for four months, or $99 a year. Other new updates to the Refresh release include official compatibility with Microsoft's new Vista operating system, support for 3D audio using XACT, support for fonts in the XNA Framework itself, and "various other product enhancements and performance tuning." The free Refresh update as well as a full feature list can be found at both http://msdn.com/xna and http://creators.xna.com.