[8] An open-source spiritual successor / API re-implementation exists in the form of the MonoGame framework.

The initial release had no way of shipping precompiled binaries to other Xbox 360 players, but this was changed in "XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh" which made it possible to compile Xbox 360 binaries and share them with other Microsoft XNA Creator's Club members.

[10] On April 24, 2007, Microsoft released an update called XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh.

[12] XNA Game Studio 2.0 features the ability to be used with all versions of Visual Studio 2005 (including the free Visual C# 2005 Express Edition),[13] a networking API using Xbox Live on both Windows and Xbox 360 and better device handling.

[17] It adds support for the Windows Phone platform (including 3D hardware acceleration), framework hardware profiles, configurable effects, built-in state objects, graphics device scalars and orientation, cross-platform and multi-touch input, microphone input and buffered audio playback, and Visual Studio 2010 integration.