With Visual Studio 2008, It can create games for Windows, Zune, and XBox 360.  Not interested to create Windows games, don’t have a Zune(yet), the only option left is to test it on my XBox 360.

To deploy your game onto XBox 360, you need a Creators Club Premium Membership.  Without this membership, you would not be able to connect your XBox 360 to your computer through XBox live.

Took out my credit card and $100 later, I am now a Creators Club Premium Member!

Set up XBox 360 with XNA Game Studio

• Logged onto XBox Live from my XBox 360, went to Games Market Place, downloaded XNA Game Studio Connect.
• Launched XNA Game Studio Connect, it spitted out a 25-character key for the first time.
• On my PC, started  XNA Game Studio Device Center, entered the key, and the PC and XBox made the connection.

My first Game

If you used Visual Studio before, nothing is new here:

• File => New Project, picked XBox 360 games
• Seconds later, a game template was created
• Pressed F5, VS deployed the game onto XBox, and my first “game” was running.

It was just a blue screen, not even a “Hello World” on it, but it was every exciting: this might change the landscape for XBox 360 game creation.  For a $100, .NET programmers can create games/applications for XBox 360 and Zune, it’s no longer a privilege for big game studios.