In which hints become facts: XNA Game Studio 4.0

Originally posted to Shawn Hargreaves Blog on MSDN, Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Today we announced what I've been hinting at this past few weeks: XNA Game Studio 4.0 is coming soon* to a phone near you!

Quick summary:

• New platform
  • Windows Phone 7 Series

• New features
  • Integrates with Visual Studio 2010
  • Dynamic audio output
  • Microphone input
  • BasicEffect has four new siblings
    • SkinnedEffect
    • EnvironmentMapEffect
    • DualTextureEffect
    • AlphaTestEffect

• Improved portability and usability
  • Collapsed graphics caps into just two profile levels: Reach and HiDef
  • Many graphics API improvements
  • This involves some breaking API changes
  • Split Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll into several assemblies, to make it more obvious which pieces are available on each platform

I will be writing more about these things over the coming months. If you have questions, the comment box below this post is ready and waiting to receive them...

* no, I don't have a release date for you at this time :-)