Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express 3.1

XNA Game Studio Express enables hobbyists, academics and small, indie game developers to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on .NET for Windows and Xbox 360. The beta 2 release targets games development for Windows.

The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available later this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of an XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well.

While we`re very proud of this Beta 2 milestone and it represents full functionality on Windows, it does not include the full feature set for developing, debugging and playing games on the Xbox 360. The features specific to the 360 console will become available upon the final release of XNA Game Studio Express later this holiday.

This beta also does not include the additional starter kits and tutorials which will be made available upon final release of XNA Game Studio Express and/or as part of your XNA Creators Club subscription

Instructions
- Install Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition using the link below.
- Download and run the Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2 installer.
- Follow the instructions displayed during setup.
- Launch Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express from the Start Menu.

System Requirements:

- Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP Service Pack 2
Only supported on Microsoft Windows XP SP2 (all editions) at this time. Windows Vista support will be available in an update to version 1 next year.
- Hardware requirements are identical to those for Visual Studio 2005 plus a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 1.1 (Shader Model 2.0 is recommended and required for some Starter Kits).
- This release requires Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to be installed before proceeding. You can install Visual C# Express from the Visual C# Express Download Page. Visual C# Express and XNA Game Studio Express can co-exist on the same computer with other members of the Visual Studio 2005 line of products, for example Visual Studio 2005 Professional.