With the Zune 3.0 Firmware right around the corner, there are a couple of things related to the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP that you’ll want to keep in mind.

Most importantly, the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is not compatible with the Zune 3.0 Firmware. While the software will let you deploy your game to the Zune it will not start. This was one of the bugs we didn’t know existed in the CTP and could not go back and change to make the experience better. Ideally we would have blocked on deployment, but the game simply will not run. We’ve learned from this, so we should have better experiences moving forward with future releases of XNA Game Studio!

Additionally any games that you have on your Zune that you deployed or were built with the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP will not run on a Zune that has been upgraded to the Zune 3.0 firmware. These games will need to be uninstalled off your Zune. This is an easy process:

• Go to the games menu on the Zune device, select any games that were deployed with the CTP and select “uninstall” instead of “play”. This will remove the game and all the associated content (save data, etc) from the Zune.

You’ll also want to keep in mind that your Visual Studio project will need to be upgraded going from the CTP to Beta, the project wizard will not accomplish this for you but we’ll have clear guidance in the readme on how to make this work.

Don’t worry, we haven’t left you without options for those of you working on Zune games. The upcoming XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta is fully compatible with Zune 3.0! We’ve added a lot of new features and improved stability making this a release you’ll want to try. If you have trouble, head over to the XNA Creator Club Forums so we can help you out!