...what are the steps and requirements going to be for getting one?  I am in college at the moment(a Sophomore), so hopefully I could get one.

For those who have not seen it yet:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/1212-xnasupportslive.htm

Academic Trial Memberships
Since its release last December, XNA Game Studio has been an incredible success, with 750,000 downloads, adoption by more than 300 universities worldwide and at least nine textbooks on the tools in development. In subjects from computer science to fine arts, introductory courses to graduate and research projects—XNA Game Studio is helping faculty members and students explore the boundaries of applied gaming technology in education.

Along with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft will also provide a free academic trial membership in the XNA Creators Club beginning in January, allowing faculty members and students to use XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Xbox 360 for instructional purposes.

Thanks! I forgot to post a link.

Also note the wording

"allowing faculty members and students to use XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Xbox 360 for instructional purposes."

Until details are released we should not assumethis means a free for all if you are a student.

True.  Hopefully it'll be part of the MSDNAA, but I doubt it.

In this thread http://forums.xna.com/thread/36854.aspx

Dave Mitchell (XNA team) said:

if you are a student or faculty member, you'll soon have a free membership level made available to you for deploying, debugging and playing games on an Xbox 360 for educational purposes.  This level of membership in the XNA Creators Club however will not include access to premium content.

 

and the official announcement says January http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/1212-xnasupportslive.htm

Along with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft will also provide a free academic trial membership in the XNA Creators Club beginning in January, allowing faculty members and students to use XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Xbox 360 for instructional purposes.

So it looks like you will have to wait a short while for the announcement on how this i going to work

In January when it becomes avaliable, will it be to all MSDNAA subscribers? Also, will it be avaliable for purchase through the MSDNAA web interface, or will we have to contact the institute's faculty?

The ZMan [MVP/Moderator]:

and the official announcement says January http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/1212-xnasupportslive.htm

Along with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft will also provide a free academic trial membership in the XNA Creators Club beginning in January, allowing faculty members and students to use XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Xbox 360 for instructional purposes.

It is nearing the end of January. Have there been any updates on this?

I have heard nothing... ask again on Feb 1st ;-)

The ZMan [MVP/Moderator]:

I have heard nothing... ask again on Feb 1st ;-)

It is Feb 1st. Have there been any updates on this?

I have pinged the MS guys about this - hopefully someone will come in and respond.

I guess the  Academic Creator's Club was nothing but a overhyped rumour :(

I am assured it is not (an 'overhyped rumour') but I have no permission to share more... until the MS guys come visit this thread you will all just have to be patient.

Oh ZMan you tease :p  Thanks for constantly keeping us 'updated' though.

Hello everyone, i have been watching this thread for some action. I am interested in the academic use of live because of my senior design project and im hoping i catch the eye of an MS rep. Please help me out, we need a few creators club subscriptions to test out our Net code.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Adam

Come on, the suspense is killing us. Send an anonymous message to someone on this forum ZMan and let them share all the details.

EDIT: @XNAtticus: sorry I was being sarcastic about the above.

Where are all the Microsoft guys? They seem to be keeping away from this thread.

I tried e-mailing them 2 days ago, but I'm yet to hear back from them.

MessiahAndrw:

Come on, the suspense is killing us. Send an anonymous message to someone on this forum ZMan and let them share all the details.

Where are all the Microsoft guys? They seem to be keeping away from this thread.

I tried e-mailing them 2 days ago, but I'm yet to hear back from them.

Not exactly positive but I'm pretty sure ZMan and/or anyone else that is 'in the know' is usually under some kind of NDA against saying anything to anyone even if the listener knows them or not.  Basically if it's found out they leaked, depending on the information leaked, it could range from like a warning to fines to even more.  Maybe I'm completely off base here because things are leaked plenty of times but I doubt ZMan or anyone would just wake up one day and be like "So everyone, here's MS's inner most secrets of XNA" (haha, yet another exaggeration).

SO Still no updates to this?

My guess is that all this and more (community arcade, future features, etc) will be presented at GDC on February 18 (5 days after my b'day, 4 after Valentines), and their head of the team said "don't tell anyone anything until GDC" which is why the MS guys have been ignoring us and are not denying, comfirming, nor saying anything else in this thread.

Can you give me an email or phone number of someone that can get a creation club access.  I am a professor that is teaching game programming with XNA.  I want to show console programming but do not have a creation club subsription.  Yes I do know how to buy it but I want it as a teaching tool and am hoping to get it free.  Thank you for any help you can give me.

nstenlund@nvcc.edu

See this thread http://forums.xna.com/thread/14822.aspx

I can try to get someone from MS to contact you but they are all very busy with GDC right now and I can't promise a response. You would be much better off going through MSDNAA or contact your local acedemic evanglist or general MS evangelist.

You can find your local evangelist in this list http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/events/bb821237.aspx

It seems like it's now avaiable from:

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

See Daves post here for more information

http://forums.xna.com/thread/46431.aspx

I can't help you, I'm in a similar situation.

I attended the Microsoft Academic days game conference in 2007 and got 2 four month redeemable codes from Dave Mitchell.  So I bought an xbox 360 and upgraded its hard disk to use the system in a lab open to students.  Now the codes have expired.  As a faculty I can't use DreamSpark to get a free membership.  I will not put my credit card information on an xbox in a lab open to students so I can purchase a membership and hope that Microsoft will promptly remove it.  The risk is too great.  What I would like to know is how can I purchase a 4 month or 1 year code safely (no credit card exposure) that I can use to allow my students to deploy programs to the xbox.  We are currently using windows xna only (I don't think this is as motivating to students).

 I've looked around trying to find an answer to this problem.  I've written to my MS Evangelist  a couple of times.  I still don't know how to do this...  Any help would be appreciated.

Mike Barnes
renzo@csun.edu or vrlab@csun.edu

We are trying to do the same thing here.  We've got 10 xbox 360s that we bought 4 month memberships for last year and they are just running out now.  We need to re-subscribe but I refuse to put our CC in again as it was a huge hassle to get MS to disable the CC on the live accounts.  I've spent the last two hours calling around trying to find another way to pay but have not found any useful information yet.

It was extremely frustrating dealing with MS the first time and even more so now.  I don't understand why they do not have a good educational program in place for xbox development as it seems from the posts here that many are interested.

Back in December I was able to get MS to put a lock on the live accounts where we had entered the CC number.  The manager said that they did that anytime they suspected an xbox was stolen.  The accounts were still active, but unable to make further purchases.  This took 5 phone calls, totalling more than 6 hours on the phone.  To say that I was extremely frustrated would be an understatement. 

Mark Gryn
University of Windsor