Developer Programs

Thanks for your interest in creating games for Xbox 360 or Windows. In addition to traditional retail games on disc, we're very excited about the new opportunities that XBLA and XNA Game Studio Express have opened up.  For the best information, please select the link below that best applies to you.

New to the computer games industry?
If you are a new game developer or designer we highly recommend that you download XNA Game Studio Express, a new game development platform designed to make it easy to create games for both Windows and Xbox 360.  For Windows  game development, XNA Game Studio Express is completely free and built on top of the popular and powerful Visual C# Express.  For Xbox 360 game development, you'll need to subscribe to the Creators Club and have a retail Xbox 360 with a hard drive.

For the download and tons more information, go to: http://creators.xna.com/Education/GettingStarted.aspx

Other helpful links and resources

Building games on MSN Games

Building games on MSN Messenger

Building game on Xbox Live Arcade

Building Casual Games

Game tools & middleware providers

Game Content Providers

Building a full retail game for Xbox 360 or Windows
Work with your existing publisher or Microsoft account manager.

For First party publishing submission only to Microsoft Game Studios, contact gamesub@microsoft.com.