Zune Thoughts: XNA 3.0 News

With all the excitement of the Zune 3.0 update, it's easy to forget another Microsoft technology also at version 3, XNA Game Studio. Where last we saw the CTP (community tech preview) was compatible with the 2.5 firmware, allowing end users to create and deploy games to their own Zunes, XNA's Michael Klucher tells us you might want to hold off on updating to Zune 3.0 if you want to keep enjoying this feature, at least until they get some of the kinks worked out. As it stands now, XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is not compatible with Zune 3.0 firmware. This will change with the new version of the CTP coming in the next couple of weeks, which will now enable you to exit games without restarting your Zune as well as a few unannounced goodies.

All upgraders to the 3.0 firmware need to manually uninstall all games on their 2.5 Zunes before upgrading. Let us know if you have any problems or experience any weird behavior with games following the updates. Personally, I can't wait to try out Hexic on my Zune, and hopefully the many other community-developed options too.