Developer Programs

Thank you 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 opportunities that Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) and XNA Game Studio have opened up for game developers.  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 , Microsoft’s game development platform designed to make it easy to create games for Xbox 360, Windows and Zune.  For Windows and Zune game development, XNA Game Studio is completely free and built on top of the popular and powerful Visual C# Express.  For Xbox 360 game development, you'll need an XNA Creators Club Premium membership and have a retail Xbox 360 with a hard drive.

Download XNA Game Studio today, and find tons of great resources at XNA Creators Club Online. Get started today at: 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.