GDC has started and the press releases are starting to roll in. Candice is covering the event for us, but we’ll be here trying to keep our readers updated.

Microsoft announced XNA Game Studio 4 details which involve a set of tools that let developers create games for Windows Phone 7 Series.

Developers can also reduce their workload by being able to use some of the code in XNA Game Studio 3.1 to adapt a Windows Phone 7 Series game for Xbox 360, Windows or Zune.

Don’t expect Windows Phone games to have simple or much reduced features. Microsoft is creating a Windows Phone Marketplace where publishers will have the ability to create Xbox Live Games for the Games hub. These games will have Xbox Live features such as Achievements and leaderboards. They can even include your avatar.

Hopefully developers will get tons of hands on time at the Game Developers Conference and we’ll start seeing what XNA Game Studio can do.