Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 game developer kit XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 back in August. Then end of August the first public beta of the XNA Studio was made available. Yesterday, Microsoft released the final 1.0 version of the game developer kit for the Xbox 360.

The XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 is based on the Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. To publish games and get access to lots of game resources from MS and Turbo Squid Inc., you need to join the XNA Creators Club, which is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for $49 (U.S.) for a four-month subscription, or $99 (U.S.) for an annual subscription.

I am still a fan of the idea that Microsoft supports any game developer out there to make games for the Xbox 360. This will make the Xbox 360 a lot more attractive to many.
In addition MS launched the “Dream-Build-Play” contest, which will be open to XNA Game Studio Express customers on Windows as well as those on Xbox 360 through the XNA Creators Club membership. You can show of your home-made games and win. Contest starts in January. More details here.

More details about XNA Studio Express 1.0 can be found in this Microsoft press-release and on the XNA homepage.