As announced today on this post on the XNA team blog, the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta is now available for you to download and try out.

Getting started

Here are some links with information about how to download and get started using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta:

• Download location - http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/d/9/8d9a667f-a898-4542-9a7b-fa49a02ec8b7/XNAGS30_setup.exe
• Getting started page - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121507
• FAQ - http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq#xgs30
• Readme - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121512
• Reporting bugs or feature suggestions - https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=226

If you previously had the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP installed

If you previously had the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP installed, there are a few things you will need to keep in mind:

• You must uninstall the item named Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 (CTP) from Add/Remove Programs prior to installing the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta.
• Game projects created in the CTP must be manually updated to work in the beta.  If you try to compile a CTP project in the beta, you will get an error that contains a link to the beta readme.  There are instructions in the readme that explain how to update your CTP projects.
• Games compiled and deployed in the CTP must be recompiled and redeployed using the beta.

If you encounter setup failures in the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta

If you run into setup failures while installing the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta, it can help to look at the log files created by XNA Game Studio 3.0 setup.  They are located at %temp%\XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup\Logs.

Limitations of the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta

Here are some key limitations to keep in mind when getting started installing and using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta:

• You can create and compile Xbox 360 projects in the beta, but you cannot deploy and run them on an Xbox 360, even if you have a Creators Club membership.  This functionality will be available in the final release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 though.
• Deploying and playing Zune games in the beta requires that your Zune device has the recently released 3.0 firmware installed.  You can find more information about getting the 3.0 firmware at http://www.zune.net/.
• As described in this blog post, once you install the Zune 3.0 firmware, you will no longer be able to use the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP to create and deploy games to your Zune, and you will no longer be able to run games already on the device that were created with the CTP.  There are instructions in that blog post for how to delete old CTP games from your device.
• XNA Game Studio 3.0 only supports Visual C# 2008 Express Edition and VS 2008.  It does not support Visual C# 2005 Express Edition or VS 2005 like previous versions of XNA Game Studio.  You must have a VS 2008 edition installed on your computer before you will be able to install XNA Game Studio 3.0.  You can install VS 2005 and VS 2008 side-by-side on the same computer with no problems though, so there is no need to uninstall VS 2005 or any previous versions of XNA Game Studio in order to try out the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP.