Maybe I’m being completely dense here but why doesn’t the hobbyist game framework for building Xbox 360 games XLA Game Studio Framework that I’ve been excited about and looking forward to work with Visual Studio 2005 Professional? Why is it only with the Visual Studio C# Express edition? I looked around the official XLA Framework Team blog and there doesn’t appear to be an explanation (?). There is a very thorough explanation of the psychology behind the framework and other interesting details about the framework. I’m subscribed to this team blog and like what I’ve seen so far here.

On the XLA Game Studio download page system requirements clearly shows that it requires Visual Studio Express, but doesn’t indicate if the future non-beta release will support VS Studio Pro:

This release requires Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to be installed before proceeding. You can install Visual C# Express from the Visual C# Express Download Page. However, other members of the Visual Studio 2005 line of products, for example Visual Studio 2005 Professional, can co-exist with XNA Game Studio Express (Beta) on the same computer.

I understand this framework is intended primarily for hobbyists to make games and most hobbyists aren’t going to use Visual Studio Pro which costs like $1,000 but shouldn’t everything work with the pro edition out of the gate? Or is there some really good reason that the beta only works with the VS C# Express edition?

Yeah, I know, it’s just a beta and for evaluation purposes only and if you don’t like the terms, don’t bother, I get all that. It sounds like VS Pro and Express can co-exist just fine but I’m a little leery based on past experience with some botched Visual Studio installs and system conflicts wanting to play too much with something that’s working good.

I’ve been wanting to check out and share this program for our middle teen who is interested in game development. It’s not a big deal to put on another machine with VS Express since we have several but I remain curious if the final non-beta version will support VS Pro? I’m sure this has been addressed somewhere by someone, but I didn’t see it with a quick search.

If anybody knows the answer to this one, has a link which specifically addresses this, etc, please let me know in the comments below. I’ll update this when/if I find out the answer. Thank you.

• Visual Basic Express doesn’t compliment existing Visual Studio 2003 users?
• Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1
• Visual Studio 2005 Express free for first year
• Create and deploy your own Xbox 360 games with XNA Game Studio Express launch
• Develop for Xbox 360 for only $99 a year, oh yeah
• Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition for shipping and handling fees only (US only)