Zune Halo 3 Edition up for pre-order

Oh yes it is. That special edition Halo 3 Zune is real, out, and up for pre-order exclusively through GameStop. Available June 15th (pre-order now), the $249 promotional Zune comes packin' a 30GB disk loaded with a flood of Halorific music, video and artwork. Although you've made your thoughts about Microsoft's would-be iPod killer abundantly clear, the tie-in with the hotly anticipated September 25th release of Halo 3 by Bungie Studio (owned by Microsoft) could generate some renewed Zune-buzz all but lost since its initial launch. Welcome to the Social Covenant kids.

[Thanks, Russell D. and everyone who sent this in]

[Travis @ May 16th 2007 3:46AM]

Hey look, its ANOTHER thing Microsoft isn't doing to help fix the Zune.

[Beef Stallmer @ May 16th 2007 4:32AM]

"Although you've made your thoughts about Microsoft's would-be iPod killer abundantly clear"

Why don't you stop referring to the "results" of that travesty of a poll. The only thing abundant here is Apple-fanboys and a load of anti-MS sentiments. Besides, it ain't really fair comparing a 5th gen device available worldwide to a first gen device only available in the US.

[DIMEBAG @ May 16th 2007 7:44AM]

Ahhh… did someone get their feelings hurt?

[Gil @ May 16th 2007 3:49AM]

How does the "digg this" mechanism work on Engadget? How come some articles have a digg button while others don't?

[MisterShrubber @ May 16th 2007 3:53AM]

Congratulations to Microsoft for the first good-looking Zune.

[wslcrew @ May 16th 2007 4:05AM]

Another "Special" edition Zune???

[Homeboy @ May 16th 2007 4:24AM]

Zune Halo 3 edition or Xbox 360 core? That is the question

[Adrian @ May 16th 2007 4:31AM]

That looks really sad.

[Rick @ May 16th 2007 4:34AM]

ahahahahaaaahahaa, Is anyone noticing how far Microsoft has gone in squeezing dollars out of people who will buy anything Halo related:

Halo books
Halo 2 only in Vista
Halo 2 maps
Halo 3 beta w/Crackdown
Halo 3 box set for $129.99!!!!


I mean its absurd but good for them, they're making stupid amounts of money based on something conceived almost a decade ago.

[Chicksta @ May 16th 2007 11:06AM]

I guess some people don't remember that Halo was originally a Mac-only game, until Microsoft bought out the company, killed the Mac development, and created a console more or less around it. Okay, more. At least they knew a good thing when they saw it...

[CraigS @ May 16th 2007 4:45AM]

Remove fashionable colours, add a few kiddy decals, et voila!

[dukrous @ May 16th 2007 5:01AM]

Gamestop exclusive means I'm not going near it. I don't do business with Gamestop.

[MINIratman @ May 16th 2007 6:20AM]

Get proper .avi files playing on it and I might think about it but other than that its just a crappy product with "HALO 3 BUY ME" stuck on...

[marklar @ May 16th 2007 6:25AM]

as if it wasn't uncool enough owning a zune.....

[zoara @ May 16th 2007 7:34AM]

I was going to say something about lipstick and pigs, but even a pig wouldn't want to wear lipstick that unpleasant.

[Anonymous @ May 16th 2007 7:59AM]

If this thing wasn't coming out through gamestop, I would be tempted to buy it. But it's my policy never to give a single cent to that worthless good-for-nothing crap shack. Babbages, Funcoland, and the original EBgames. WE WILL NOT FORGET HOW GAMESTOP KILLED YOUR SOULS!

[Cupajo @ May 16th 2007 8:59AM]

It's nice to know that if I ever feel like I'm running low on snide, I can always read Zune posts at engadget to get my level topped off.

[J Low @ May 16th 2007 9:09AM]

You can paint a turd gold...

[kynetx @ May 16th 2007 9:40AM]

Hey Engadget, this is getting stupid. Knock it off. You don't need to take a shot at the Zune every time a piece of news about it is released. This is starting to undermine your credibility.

[Cupajo @ May 16th 2007 10:05AM]

"Hey Engadget, this is getting stupid. Knock it off. You don't need to take a shot at the Zune every time a piece of news about it is released. This is starting to undermine your credibility."



Assumes facts not in evidence.

[Ange @ May 16th 2007 10:21AM]

I am a dirty fucking spammer: [e-mail]

[Cupajo @ May 16th 2007 11:15AM]

"I guess some people don't remember that Halo was originally a Mac-only game, until Microsoft bought out the company, killed the Mac development, and created a console more or less around it. Okay, more. At least they knew a good thing when they saw it..."

partially correct. It wan't Microsoft that killed the mac development for Halo. It was Bungie. They were tired of doing Mac-only games. Know why? Because there's no money in it.

[zoara @ May 16th 2007 12:05PM]

Cupajo, your story doesn't tally with Wikipedia's, or the references that Wikipedia cites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Combat_Evolved

Care to cite a reference for your apparent claim that Bungie killed Mac development before they were acquired by MS? Particularly given that Halo was upheld as a poster-child for simultaneous Mac/PC games releases by Jobs before Bungie was bought by MS.

Not claiming you are wrong, just wondering where you got the story from.

[Cupajo @ May 16th 2007 2:49PM]

"Not claiming you are wrong, just wondering where you got the story from."

Unfortunately, I have nothing to back the statement up. I remember reading it in a magazine interview in the months before launch, but I couldn't tell you what magazine or who the interview was with. Seems to me like it was a Bungie guy, but for all I know it could have been an MS guy trying to lay some spin. Hell, for that matter, it could have been a 3rd party industry guy who didn't really know what he was talking about.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter though. Had the product launched to Mac only, I don't think there would have been a 2 or 3. As it is, it's made MS and Bungie a boatload of cash.
But not any more of mine. I sucked at 1. I sucked at 2. I won't be buying 3.

[tekdroid @ May 16th 2007 12:41PM]

I'm convinced that if Oprah and Bono knew about this (clearly a work of art) Zune, they'd be singing a different 3-plays-or-3-days tune.

[HoldenCfld @ May 16th 2007 1:46PM]

I don't see what it matters that Halo was originally for Mac/PC. Microsoft acquired the company, like most large corporations do all the time, and brought Halo out on Xbox first. As Cartman would say, "Whats the big fucking deal bitch?"

[josh @ May 16th 2007 3:13PM]

I don't think people realize that the zune is already a success in the manner in which it was intended. The first zune was not meant to conquer the iPod anymore than the first xbox was meant to conquer the PS2. They are meant to build mindshare, to get across the idea that MS is a valid player in that arena, so when v2 comes out they actually have a fair shot of capturing some decent market share. It worked for the Xbox 360 (it helps that Sony seemed to be Sony's worst enemy building up to the PS3), and while a v2 Zune isn't out to compare things with there is already some evidence that it does have a great deal of mindshare.

Next to the iPod who gets the most PMP media coverage? The Zune, despite creative, iriver, sandisk, and others having been battling the iPod for much longer. The platform has been successful if for no other reason than Microsoft is now a big name in the PMP market, even if they don't have market share to back it up. Couple that with the fact that plenty of Zune users (albiet a population much smaller than iPod users) actually prefer their player over the ipod, despite engadget polls otherwise (which proves that for some reason consumers have this stupid sense of brand loyalty despite NO company deserving that), and MS seems to be doing just fine.

That may seem like a cop out, but one thing I have seen from MS is that they are willing to bleed for a long long time to ultimately become a success in a market. If you look at almost all of their large products they entered a market dominated by another and worked for years to take it over, but they succeeded. They beat Mac OS on the desktop, Novell on the Server, Netscape for the browser, Word Perfect for the office, Open GL for the graphics library, Lotus for the business Email server, and are doing a fair job giving oracle a run for their money on the database front. Go ahead and discount the zune now, but one thing MS has shown a track record of doing is coming in small and building momentum.

[plaidpjs @ May 16th 2007 3:46PM]

What you're really saying here is what every Microsoft competitior has said for years and unfortunately cost consumers innovation and quality in many regards.

Microsoft does not bring quality, new products to market, they either acquire their competitors in the market they want to dominate or, barring that, they enter the market with an inferior product, find a way to tie it to their operating system as voraciously as possible or use it as a loss leader for however long they have to, until the rest of the market has no choice but to crumble.

And, the only reason they got the dominant computer marketshare to drive all of that is because they made OEMs sign monopoly generating contracts to allow them access to DOS and later Windows.

As for the "mindshare" you are professing will lead Microsoft to success, you may very well be correct, it is unfortunately one that is, in the majority, negative. And, that is not just from people reading FUD. I've seen Zune's in the wild, few and far between, but out there nonetheless and for every person I can count claiming them to be "great" devices on these boards, I have witness 3 or 4 ready to throw their Zune on the floor and crush it with a sledge hammer.

I cannot say the same about any iPod. Whether because of brand loyalty, the "kewl" factor, or just because you want to call them fanbois, with rare exception, every iPod user I see, in my home life and at work, has almost no qualms and sings their praises to anyone that will listen.

Ciao!

[josh @ May 16th 2007 5:32PM]

"I cannot say the same about any iPod. Whether because of brand loyalty, the "kewl" factor, or just because you want to call them fanbois, with rare exception, every iPod user I see, in my home life and at work, has almost no qualms and sings their praises to anyone that will listen."
If you listen, most people who own zunes would do the same. I certainly will. I like it much better than the ipod. The UI is nicer, and certainly easier to use while in the car, the casing doesn't show scratches or prints the same way the ipod does, and you just get more for the price.

The same could be said about the other businesses. SQL Server is a whole lot better than Oracle (unbreakable my ass, it is one of the most insecure applications ever written, whereas security researchers have basically lost interest in SQL Server 2005 because they haven't had much luck breaking it), Exchange + Outlook is a a million times better than Lotus, Office continues to deliver substantially quality products (they are competting against themselves after all), Windows 2003 server is an amazingly nice product, and contrary to the noise on engadget most Vista users are really happy with it once they get accustomed to it. Oh, and IE 5 was far and a way better than netscape 4.

I think you are still stuck back the mid nineties. MS is a fairly different company, and their products are actually pretty nice. They aren't often the end all be all, but they sell products ultimately because people WANT to buy them. You seem to be the type of person who hates the company just to hate them. I don't buy MS products I think are crap (still using gmail over hotmail, google over live, anything over digital image suite) but I won't not buy a product just because they make it. The zune, despite all the complaining from the iPod crowd, is a solid, good product. The wifi may not be everything, but it is more than the iPod (and for those of us who prefer the subscription model, the 3 days 3 plays catch is non-existant), the fm tuner works pretty well, the screen is nicer, and the UI is nicer. The case is a matter of preference, but the iPod in my mind has always been "really pretty so long as you don't touch it". And while the Zune software is crap, iTunes is a hell of a lot worse. It very much is the xbox gen 1. Not the end all be all, and larger than it should be, but not a bad product for all the faults and with some compelling features over the primary competitor.

[Aaron @ May 16th 2007 8:34PM]

Thanks for saying all of that. I agree with you, and I also see the Zune being similar to the Xbox. Start out with something good, take what you learned and come back a second time with something great. I don't think it's a bad way of doing things at all, and I can't figure out why the iPod crowd can't accept this. After all, how many iPods have we seen? All told, there have been ELEVEN iPods over the course of 6 years. The Zune haters are quick to forget that...

[danny rho @ May 16th 2007 5:32PM]

I hated Halo, I hate Zune.

Halo theme Zune....?

Are you freaking kidding me?

[danny rho @ May 16th 2007 5:32PM]

Just so you know,
Wikipedia is full of incorrect infomation.
Do not reply on it. Just use it as a toy.
Their data base is too large, they don't know
what they are going to do about it now.

[Matt @ May 17th 2007 10:28PM]

I have an iPod 80Gb and I am not happy with it. It has lag issues between songs and the case you cannot ever touch without having to clean it. I have teated it oike a baby but just last week the headphoone jack came loose and now the thing only plays in mono. I am seriously considering this to be my next player. If i buy something that expensive I want it to last longer than eight months without breaking. As forthe Zune's size, I do not mind that it is larger as long as it works. the Wifi is not all it can be but where is the iPod wifi?

[WebDev511 @ May 17th 2007 2:32PM]

Fodder for Halo fans? But of course.

That said, if you've only seen a zune in pictures or in a display case, then please make sure you add that disclaimer to your bash.

Try using one for a week as your only player then tell me how much it totally blows chunks.

[Ross @ May 18th 2007 1:30PM]

"i hate halo" "i hate zune"

"this product sucks"

"i wont buy this, halo and zune sucks!"

if you guys really believed that, would you be on this page looking at this product right now? and if you would be just on here to bash halo, ms, or zune, that shows how much of a loser you are that you have so much nerdy ambition that you have to bash things you dont like while you are waiting for the next WoW or whatever the hell your nerdy games are so you can forgo reality in another way.