   [XNA] Use and Implementation of XACT
  Can someone explain to me why I have to use exact for creating games in XNA? Why can't I just load in a wave file and play sounds (asking more for the benefits of using XACT), thanks.   
  XACT allows a sound designer to work on the sound aspect of the game, and the programmer to easily apply hooks for events for when the sounds are to be played. That's the theory, at least. As far as implementation goes, it's lacking, to say the least.   ;  Is there an alternative to using XACT? I really don't like the file size of wave files.   ;  If you want your code to run on the XBox360, then there is no alternative. The announcement of XNA 2.0 (here) mentions a new XACT editor, but unfortunately it gives no further details. If you are planning to stick to the Windows platform though, you can pretty much go with whatever you like. I heard the FMOD package is very good; it's free for non-commercial use, it comes with a supported C# API and it supports numerous formats. 