> Part of XNA would appear to be Managed DirectX:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/episode037/default.asp ).
>
> If XNA isn't .NET based then I would be suprised.

Yeah, clearly it's going to be at least related to .NET/Managed DirectX. Lots of people scoff at it, but I still maintain that .NET was one of MS's better ideas, since it lets them ditch a whole bunch of their crappiest technologies at once (the Win32 API, MFC, VB, COM/OLE, etc).