Microsoft has announced plans to release a new development platform that will enable indie studios and hobbyists to create cross-platform titles for the PC and Xbox 360.

The announcement was made at the Gamefest 2006 by Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. Game fest is a Microsoft game developer event hosted by Microsoft in Seattle.

The product, XNA Game Studio Express, is based on Microsoft’s XNA game development platform and will be available free (by download from 30 August) to anyone with a PC running Windows XP.

To help out the new initiative, Microsoft signed with some partners. GarageGames provided its Torque Shader Engine and Torque Game Builder 2D designer for XNA Game Studio Express while Autodesk has contributed its FBX file exchange format.

“By unlocking retail Xbox 360 consoles for community-created games, we are ushering in a new era of cross-platform games based on the XNA platform,” said Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft’s game developer group.

“We are looking forward to the day when all the resulting talent-sharing and creativity transforms into a thriving community of user-created games on Xbox 360.”

“This represents the first significant opportunity for novice developers to make a console game without a significant investment in resource,” according to Microsoft.

A second XNA toolset geared toward game development professionals is scheduled to be available in the Northern spring of 2007. Microsoft claims it will “fundamentally change the way commercial games are developed.”

This is not all. Satchell claimed that a number of academic institutions - including University of Southern California, Georgia Tech College of Computing and Southern Methodist University Guildhall - were planning to include XNA Game Studio Express in their courses. Gaming anyone?