XNA Game Studio 3.1 is now available. What the new version brings into the world of XNA programming? Well the first important feature is the support for avatars. With the introduction of NXE, many of the Xbox users enjoyed the creation of avatars, that made their profile more individual. Now, you can use these avatars in your game.

Video playback is yet another feature included in XNA 3.1. You may ask - why do I need video playback in XNA? Well, maybe you wanted to create a splash screen for your game, that would be a video, like in those major games? Yes, now you can do this. You can also control the playback (such as stop it, pause it or resume it). Multiple video streams can also be played at the same time.

Now XNA 3.1 supports the Xbox Live Party system. You will be able to communicate with your friends even if they play your game in different sessions.

Other additions and enchancements include improved Audio API support, CP (Content Pipeline) enchancements and XACT 3 support.

On a side note, from now on Xbox Live Community Games will be named Xbox Live Indie Games.

For more information on XNA 3.1 click here.