Microsoft XNA
XNA is a framework and set of tools that enables game/3D entertainment developers to write reusable code and content for both Windows and Xbox 360 - that's both exciting and a compelling business case straight away. But there's more..
XNA Studio builds on Visual Studio 2005 Team System and enables the roles and processes of game development to be managed in the build environment.
So with XNA technologies a game studio can produce content for an Xbox 360 and Windows PC at the same time, in a fully collaborative development environment.
"Software will be the single most important force in digital entertainment over the next decade. XNA underscores Microsoft's commitment to the game industry and our desire to work with partners to take the industry to the next level." - Bill Gates
Good stuff, I've written solutions that feature 95% cross compatible .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework code -and I can tell, it really does cut development time down dramatically - plus it improves agility as you can easily move functionality between PDA to PC to Smartphone and vice-versa depending on the market demand. The only bits that have to be unique to each device are the interface and some kind of complex API abstraction layer, but if your building with a three tier architecture its common sense anyway :)
If this XNA stuff does similar things for game developers, then they will realise similar efficiencies.
http://www.microsoft.com/xna/
