Cut-n-paste blogging at its best...

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta is GO!

That's right! You can download it now! We'll be asking your help to put this baby through her paces as we lead up to the official release later this year. It is your input that makes us stronger, faster and better.

Download XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta at Launch Center

If you do find any bugs or just have a suggestion on ways we can make XNA Game Studio 3.0 more awesome head over to Microsoft Connect to submit them to us.

In case you missed Michael's post last week here is a list of the changes:

Zune

  • Compatibility with the upcoming Zune 3.0 Firmware release. Please note that the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP will no longer work once you have upgraded your Zune device to the 3.0 firmware.
  • Improved deployment stability.
  • Support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64 Systems!
  • You can now use the Remote Performance Monitor for Zune games.

Xbox 360

  • Xbox 360 project templates (You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release. We felt this was important to include so that you could get projects converted over and look at the system, even if you are not able to run the games, yet).
  • Support for the Big Button Pad.

Framework & Visual Studio Features

  • Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
  • Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
  • Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
  • Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
  • Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
  • ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
  • Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
  • Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
  • Support for .NET language features like Linq
  • Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio.
  • FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya.