Most of the professional game development community will tell you that you should learn C++ to get into the industry.

In reality, they’re only partially right. The professional game development companies are using C++ to develop their games, while an independent (indie) game developer has the freedom to choose the language and platform on their own. Visual C# 2008 Express and XNA Game Studio 3.0 are superb tools for the indie developer. C# is very easy to learn, and Visual C# 2008 Express greatly increases development speed. XNA Game Studio 3.0 is a framework added onto Visual C# 2008 Express. It takes the headache out of developing a lot of the low level systems in game design. The two together make an excellent choice for indie game developers. You can get games out faster and easier!