You can win an Xbox 360 Elite and several creators club subscriptions.

More info: ziggyware

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.

Read More on the XNA Team Blog

Xbox Live Community Games

Source: ziggyware

This morning at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the next step in its Xbox Live and XNA initiative: the Zune will become the third pillar supporting XNA software, with over 1,000 games ready for the device by year end. XNA software developed for the Xbox Live Arcade is now going to be opened to the public.

Microsoft showed off an XNA game running on a Zune during a keynote speech presented by vice president John Schappert. A top-scrolling space shooter was shown running on a PC, an Xbox 360, and, lastly, a Zune. In addition, Zune games will be multiplayer: users will be able to play against each other online. Games for the platform will be arriving this year alongside the launch of Xbox Live Community Games.

The new XNA-oriented service, Xbox Live Community Games, allows select user-created software to be distributed through Xbox Live, effectively opening user-created games to the masses. Titles will be selected through a democratized game distribution system pulling on the Creator’s Club user base. Members will be able to screen and vote on games, with those reaching a certain level of approval cleared and released to the public. A handful of these games are now available as trials on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Creator’s Club members are paying subscribers who have access to the XNA development platform. Much like the gamercard, a “creator card” will show what games specific creators have built. XNA is a suite of development software which Microsoft introduced in 2006. The suite allows developers to create projects that can easily be translated between the support platforms. Previously only the PC and the Xbox 360 were supported, but the Zune represents Microsoft’s first significant step into the mobile gaming market.

excerpt from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080220-xna-games-coming-to-the-zune-xbox-live-arcade.html

A preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 will be available in the Spring 2008 timeframe, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season.

FAQ Link
Forum Thread Discussion Link

This contest is open for developers and designers, working on XNA Games. The development and demo can be done on a PC platform or XBOX 360.
The participants can form teams of 2 people working together. Participants have to be 16 years old at the days of the finals, but not older than 36 years (born between February 23, 1972 and February 23, 1992) AND live in Belgium.

The contest is based on a ’starter kit’, consisting of a ‘nearly finished’ game, build on top of XNA. The purpose of the contest is to extend this starter kit in the best and most creative way. The starter kit will be made available from February 1 on http://www.xnabug.net/starterkits.htm
Submissions will be judged on creativity, innovation and ‘playability’ of the demo.

To judge the submissions, participating teams need to:
- Enroll for the contest by mailing an enrollment form to [BRECHT at XNABUG dot NET]. The enrollment form is available here. The enrollment form has to be received by February 18 midnight.

- Prepare 2 ‘posters’ explaining the submission. The posters have to be printed on A3 paper size. These posters will be used during round one on during the finals, February 23. Based on the posters and questions and answers, the jury will select the teams which will present and demo their submission.

- Prepare a presentation/demo of 10 minutes and 5 minutes of questions and answers. This demo and presentation will be done February 23 in front of the jury and the audience. It will be executed on the equipment of the participating team. The facility to project on a large screen will be provided by the organization.

Judging criteria:
The submissions, posters and presentations/demo’s will be judged by a multidisciplinary team of gaming specialists., active in training, development, design and press. The judging criteria will be: |innovation|, |creativity| and |play, demo|.

What can you win:
The winning team will receive an XBOX 360 elite for every participant (up to 2). Every team presenting / demo during the finals will receive an XNA Creators Club account and more.
The finals will take place in the auditoria of Groep T, Campus Vesalius, Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven (INFO).

For more information:
http://www.xnabug.net
http://www.microsoft.com/xna

From the article:

Rendertarget changes in XNA Game Studio 2.0

The bad news:

If you had a program using rendertargets that worked with the XNA Framework 1.0, it might not still work with 2.0.

The good news:

Things are actually much more consistent now, honest!

Let me explain…

How rendertargets used to work (1.0)

On Windows:

* Each rendertarget lives in a separate piece of video memory
* After you select the rendertarget, you can draw onto that video memory
* When you are done drawing, you call GetTexture to reuse that same area of video memory as a texture
* You can draw onto the same rendertarget as many times as you like, and its contents will always remain valid

On Xbox:

* All rendertargets share a single special piece of EDRAM memory
* This means only one of them can physically exist at a time
* When you finish drawing to a rendertarget, the GraphicsDevice.ResolveRenderTarget method copies from EDRAM to a separate area of texture memory
* You can then use this texture in any way you like
* But EDRAM is now being reused by some other rendertarget!
* This won’t work like you expect:
o Draw to backbuffer (EDRAM contains what you just drew)
o Switch to rendertarget
o Draw to rendertarget (EDRAM contains what you just drew)
o Resolve rendertarget (RenderTarget.GetTexture() contains a copy of what you drew)
o Switch back to backbuffer (problem! the act of selecting a different rendertarget has overwritten what you previously drew to the backbuffer, so the EDRAM no longer contains that backbuffer image)

* The rules in summary:
o Any time you change rendertarget, the contents of EDRAM are overwritten, so all previous rendertargets (including the backbuffer) are clobbered
o Rendertarget data which was resolved into the associated texture remains valid, however
o This is ok:
+ Draw to rendertarget A
+ Draw to rendertarget B
+ Draw textures from rendertargets A and B onto rendertarget C
o But this is not:
+ Draw to rendertarget A
+ Draw to rendertarget B
+ Switch back to A and continue drawing over the top of it

Problem with the 1.0 behavior:

It was far too easy to write a program that worked fine on one platform, but then rendered incorrectly when you run it on the other!

How rendertargets work now (2.0)

By default:

* You get what used to be the Xbox behavior
* On Xbox, it works exactly the same as before
* On Windows, we automatically clear your rendertargets at the right times to emulate the Xbox behavior
* This is fast on both platforms (Clear is very cheap)

If you don’t like that default:

* You can specify a different RenderTargetUsage
o RenderTarget2D constructor parameter
o To change it for the backbuffer, use the GraphicsDeviceManager.PreparingDeviceSettings event to alter GraphicsDeviceInformation.PresentationParameters.RenderTargetUsage
* Specify RenderTargetUsage.PreserveContents to get what used to be the Windows behavior
o Works exactly the same as before on Windows
o On Xbox, we automatically copy data back from the resolved texture into EDRAM to restore its contents when you change rendertarget
o This is not cheap! Use it if you must, but be aware of the performance penalty
* Specify RenderTargetUsage.PlatformContents to get the exact same behavior as 1.0, which is different on Xbox versus Windows

Shawn recommends:

* If at all possible, use the default RenderTargetUsage.DiscardContents mode. This gives good performance and consistent behavior on both platforms.

Other good stuff:

* In 2.0, you no longer need to call the GraphicsDevice.ResolveRenderTarget method. In fact you can’t, because we removed it. We now do this automatically when you switch away from the rendertarget.
* In 2.0, we now support multiple simultaneous rendertargets (MRT) on Xbox.

Only a few seats are left for the XNA Game Studio event on 29 November in Utopolis, Mechelen. Register here. And thanks to Walter and Tom, I can share some more details about the event below.

Are you interested in learning how to build great video games for either Microsoft® Windows® or the Xbox 360™ console? Would you like to be one of the first to see the all new version of Microsoft XNA Game Studio before it releases later this year? Want to discover just how easy it is to build a game with XNA Game Studio in just 60 minutes and get to grips with the XNA Framework and the disciplines of games development?

Then the XNA Game Studio European Tour 2007 is a not to be missed event, visiting seven different countries and bringing together top speakers from the Microsoft XNA product group in the US, local Microsoft speakers as well as experts from the games industry.

Microsoft XNA Game Studio is the revolutionary tool that makes it easy to develop video games for Windows and Xbox 360. So whether you’re an experienced games developer or a total newbie, sign up for the XNA Game Studio European Tour to build the games of your dreams.

Agenda

* Welcome
* Keynote: The Ongoing Democratization of Game Development, Dave Mitchell, Microsoft Corp (US)
* Games Industry Overview, Tommy Boffin & Hector Fernandez BGin & Streamline Studios
* Diving in to XNA Games Studio 2.0, XNA Framework and the disciplines of game development, Dave Mitchell, Microsoft Corp (US)
* Putting XNA to the test: Building a game in 60 minutes, Charles Cox, MS Corp (US)
* Closing & Wrap Up, Luc Van de Velde, Director DPE, Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg

Keynote: The Ongoing Democratization of Game Development, Dave Mitchell, Director, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation
Join Dave Mitchell from the Microsoft XNA organization as he shares Microsoft’s plans to democratize game development beyond the initial XNA Game Studio Express offering. As the video game industry is reaching a critical juncture in its growth as a mainstream entertainment form, consumers are becoming an increasingly important partner in the creation of innovative, fun gameplay experiences which compliment commercially released titles. This keynote will share the next instalment of the XNA vision to further democratize game development by the community.

Diving in to XNA Game Studio 2.0 and the XNA Framework, Dave Mitchell, Director, & Charles Cox, Developer Educator, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation
XNA Game Studio 2.0 is the highly anticipated new release of a revolutionary game development tool that gives hobbyist, academic and indie game programmers a chance to develop and share their own games on Windows and Xbox 360. This demo-heavy session will take a closer look at what is new in 2.0 including the newly-added networking libraries based on Xbox LIVE, support for Visual Studio 2005 Standard, Professional and Team editions, new multiplayer starter kits, samples and more.

Building a Game in 60 Minutes with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Charles Cox, Developer Educator, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation
During this live session we put XNA Game Studio 2.0 to the test and build a fully-realized casual game running on an Xbox 360 in just sixty minutes. Whether you are a seasoned games coder or a programmer thinking of moving into game development, this demo-packed session will give you plenty of food for thought and the information to get you started.

Speaker Biographies
Dave Mitchell, Director, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation
Dave is a Director in the Microsoft XNA organization and manages the Microsoft XNA community offerings in addition to global business development, marketing execution and PR for XNA. XNA not only includes XNA Game Studio but also spans all tools, technologies, and services used in game development by game developers ranging from hobbyists and academics up to the largest of commercial game studios. Dave has been with Microsoft for nearly ten years and has been heavily involved with developer tools and platform technology for more than 17 years. His passion and love for video games easily outstrips that however and dates back to his Atari 2600, nearly 30 years ago.

Charles Cox, Developer Educator, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation
Charles is a Developer Educator, a role which focuses on developing and delivering innovative educational materials for game developers using XNA. His contributions focus on “quick-start” beginner instruction, and include the popular “Going Beyond” video tutorial series, presentations at several universities and the 2007 Game Developers Conference, and most recently the creation of the new XNA Game Studio Express Beginner’s Guide DVD. Prior to joining Microsoft, Charles worked at Sierra Studios on the popular Police Quest: SWAT action series. Charles is a graduate of the Digipen Institute of Technology, a video game development school in Redmond, Washington.

Resources:

* Original 2D Project
* XNA Creators Club
* XNA Team Blog
* TorqueX (Drag & Drop Game Components)

The XNA team is pleased to announce the Beta release of XNA Game Studio 2.0! This Beta release is your chance to try out the new features available in XNA Game Studio 2.0, including support for Visual Studio 2005, multiplayer support over System Link and LIVE, and many more features and enhancements, many suggested by you, the community members.

If you’re an existing XNA Game Studio Express user, you won’t have to worry about uninstalling anything – XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) lives comfortably side-by-side with XNA Game Studio Express. Just follow the link below to find out what’s new in XNA Game Studio 2.0 and download the Beta, as well as updated sample content you can use with the Beta right away. There’s even a multiplayer-enabled starter kit you can use to familiarize yourself with multiplayer programming in the XNA Framework.

XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) supports multiplayer gaming over Games for Windows - LIVE. If you are planning on making multiplayer games on Windows that make use of any Games for Windows - LIVE features, you will need an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership, and a special token.
To receive your token, send a message to xnacgp@microsoft.com with the subject “Beta Key Request”. Note that you must send this message from the same e-mail address that is associated with an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership. (Note it may take up to a few days to receive your code in email)
If you’re not an XNA Creators Club member, you can use the System Link functionality or program against the multiplayer API’s without a code.

Please keep in mind that the timeframe between this release and our final release will be very short, in fact we’ve already had a chance to fix some of the larger issues that you may run into during the beta. That said, if you do run into issues I would encourage you to file them through our Microsoft Connect site at: http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=226

XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) Download Page

Thank you for your interest in XNA Game Studio 2.0, and we hope you enjoy the Beta!