nice, cant wait!

Me either!

Whoa....Am excited !!

The XNA seems more limited than I think because the #@?king crossover platafrom (XBOX360 and PC), right now I see that the XNA games doesn´t work native with the XBOX it only use an .net compact framework that wasn´t mean to be use as a game plataform.

What a shame, they should divide the two plataforms cause the XNA for PC is only been castrated by the limits of the .net C.F.

The only major limitation for games I am aware of resulting from the compact framework is a non-generational GC, which isn't a big deal at all if you learn how to work with it.  What libraries are in the full .net framework that you could find use for on the Xbox? Excluding networking of course, since that is now coming.  Also, I don't think execution of unmanaged code is so much a limitation of CF, as much as it is a security limitation that was intentionally placed on the Xbox incarnation of XNA to prevent modding, etc.

The new networking API looks truly brilliant!  I can't wait to give it a go.

well I mean it is not only the limitation from de CF it also is the limitation to work with the MDX9 and work with the shader model 3.0 and even in the future with some kind of MDX10 and shader model 4.0.

Does it isn´t a big deal?

I found the lack of any way for indies to distribute their games on 360 and make a profit was very annoying. After all the great features and enhancements to the XNA framework. The last session of the day effectively reversed that by saying you would need a publisher and to pass microsoft certification in order to get on arcade. that's fair enough but, then we get told that there are no immediate plans to create a channel alongside arcade for indies to put up their stuff and make some money.

It's a very confusing mixed message we are getting. On the one hand XNA is apparently targetted at indies and hobbyists. On the other hand you need to have a publisher agreement with microsoft and pass certification. It then turns out that there is no way to contact or otherwise get your game in front of the relevant microsoft team in the first place.

All of which adds up to a fun but, ultimately pointless exercise for anyone who isn't using it in an academic capacity. I can see indies deserting XNA in droves if Nintendo's WiiWare is really what they say it is. There you get published provided you are have ESRB rating below AO. No other questions asked. They rely on the fact that only serious indies will spend the money needed to get the rating so the channel will be relatively free of dross simply by this limiting barrier (it costs to go through the ESRB process).

What I need to understand better is how the DirectX team and XNA teams work internally at Microsoft? Is the C# focus strong enough to eventually move DirectX 10 into XNA, or is this never going to happen?

How many resources are committed to XNA vs DirectX 10? Do the business plans merge at some points or are they seperate market segments? Is it assumed that an indie developer who needs cheaper faster development life cycle will go to XNA and when they 'Grow Up', they need to eventually move to DirectX 10 to compete with the big-wigs?

What bothers me is that the XNA effort seems very experimental with the 'If the games are developed and sell, then we will put in more money', which is fine from a business angle, but it is scary to invest so much time into XNA when Microsoft is not saying... this is the 5 year plan... They were so much stronger when .NET was being introduced.

Another issue I don't get... Why can't they add support for the XNA builds into the main core of the XNA. I remember a comment yesterday that said that they need to sign stuff so that the Xbox can run it securely for the DirectX builds. I also heard that the Xbox Live XNA stuff will anyway need to go through certification (and thus can be signed). If there is so much effort being put into creating and managing a user layer with the compact framework, why not engineer the XNA directly into the core kernel? Then we can get it signed just like the Direct X 10 and get the same treatment as the C++ code...

Just a thought.

read 'main core of the XNA' as 'main core of the XBox' in the comment above. Sorry.

I DEMAND

ON-DEMAND!!!

NOW!!!!!

I concur

really looking forward to see the videos... are they available anywhere else?

In the forums some ones are saing that the On-demand Is going to be able the next week

I'd really like to see the on deman as well..

Yeah- any word? Haven't heard anything and its been a week since the proposed date ...

That's odd. "Be sure to keep an eye on this post for the archive link to watch the Gamefest 2007 webcasts, available around August 16th" .. is that August 16, 2008?

For those who missed it. The webcasts are now online and reached from the main page: http://creators.xna.com/Headlines/presentations/

Why they're not linked from here like it says is a mystery.

Link is updated.  Sorry for the delay.  Save this url for the shortcut: http://creators.xna.com/Headlines/presentations/