I will reply with what I know.  As many of you may or may not be aware Visual Studio 2012 does not currently support Windows Phone 7.  VS2010 is still required.  XNA is tied to Windows Phone 7, I can't say for 8.  But they do understand there is a large difference between developing in C# and in C++.

But I can say MS is moving more inoto DirectX, since XNA uses DirectX 9, and though Windows 8 desktop will support it, the WinRT will not support it as in not run it. This is due to the architecture of WinRT.  SharpDX provides that link for C# developers to use their XNA skills but isnt an MS framework.  Managed DirectX did become XNA (XNA was part of the set of .NET assemblies on the 360 including the Compact Framework).

I have attached the model it might help explain it. Sorry i didn't get all of the right hand side but that looks at no WinRT applications.

I will reply with what I know.  As many of you may or may not be aware Visual Studio 2012 does not currently support Windows Phone 7.  VS2010 is still required.  XNA is tied to Windows Phone 7, I can't say for 8.  But they do understand there is a large difference between developing in C# and in C++.

But I can say MS is moving more inoto DirectX, since XNA uses DirectX 9, and though Windows 8 desktop will support it, the WinRT will not support it as in not run it. This is due to the architecture of WinRT.  SharpDX provides that link for C# developers to use their XNA skills but isnt an MS framework.  Managed DirectX did become XNA (XNA was part of the set of .NET assemblies on the 360 including the Compact Framework).

I have attached the model it might help explain it.