Today at the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft announced new XNA(tm) software that will enable enhanced collaboration between content creators, programmers, management and quality-assurance staff members to speed the game production process.

Based on the Microsoft(r) Visual Studio(r) 2005 Team System, the latest
innovation of the company’s flagship development platform, XNA Studio is
an integrated, team-based development environment tailored for game
production.

“The productivity gain from Microsoft’s collaboration and build tools
has already been proved for programmers, so the opportunity to bring the
same process and technology to content creation is huge,” said Marc
Petit, vice president of product development for Discreet, a division of
Autodesk Inc. “XNA Studio can have a clear impact on the business of
making games and will likely emerge as a differentiating force in game
development.”

XNA Studio will provide robust versions of key production tools such as
asset management, defect tracking, project automation and work lists.
These tools will work together seamlessly to automate common development tasks and present interfaces tailored to the different functions within the team. XNA Studio will allow team members to collaborate quickly and effectively using familiar techniques and tools, even when elements of the team are distributed geographically. This all adds up to more developer time generating unique content and less time running the content process.