Microsoft announces games for Zune via XNA Studio
By Ryan Block 
posted February 20th 2008 2:03PM
posted February 20th 2008 2:03PM
Update: Microsoft hasn't made any final decisions as to whether the specific hardware will be necessary, and has hinted that it would be up to the game developers to decide whether to make use of the Zunepad in second-gen models, or make controls work with first-gen Zunes as well. More on that here.
F*ckin fantastic. I knew Balmer wouldn't let us down. Now I'm waiting for the details. Got plenty of space left on my z80 for games.
LOL Too excited...
Z80 games? Now THAT brings back memories...
Fingers crossed for Phase on the Zune... I hope Ipod Didn't Pay too much for exclusivity rights.
Really, the Zune is so much better than everything else out there right now (aside from its looks, imo).
Who heads the Zune department at Microsoft? I have to send him a cookie.
Makes total sense now, if you didn't see it coming already... Who's the head of Zune? Xbox360-meister J. Allard.
The looks are pretty good. To most people that have seen mine, it looks bad ass to them, but I guess it's a personal thing.
....I sold my zune....why....why did i do that...
I seriously have no idea. I have never been happier with an MP3 player. Sell whatever you got instead and RE-BUY! eBay power.
Because it sucks ;)
Although, I'll be honest, using the wifi access for multiplayer games would be pretty cool.
@ greg
and outrightly contradicting urself in a statement is pretty dumb
Well, I still believe the Zune to be a sub par piece of equipment, but I like the idea of using the built in wifi for something more than their foolish sharing programs.
How is it sub-par? Give me a reason.
We'll start with bad support, Zune points, sharing bites, lack of additional apps or media on the zune store, it's fugly, and we'll go from there.
It's FUGLY? You have no sense of Style. It's one of the best looking MP3 players even made, certainly better looking than an iPod. Zune points are fine to deal with, and they have community games now. More additional apps will probably follow soon.
I have friends with Zunes so sharing works pretty well. At least it HAS the ABILITY to share songs.
because your zune was crap and you needed money to buy an ipod
Now just bring the Zune to the UK. I want a brown one please.
Buy one on Ebay. I live on London mate and I have a Zune 80.
I imported mine for £157. That includes shipping.
I am in India and i paid $250 for a zune originals piece, f*cking fantastic!
Three cheers!
wow thats pretty badass.... the only question will be how many games are made for them. this makes me even happier i got a zune for xmas.
XNA lets ANYONE create games. Which usually means, there will be plenty to go around.
My question is this: can it let you create non-games? It's worth a try...
I'm pissed off now - the Zune gets game support and a Dev Kit for making games, completely out of the blue
And my iPod touch just sits here, taking £12/$20 off me while I wait for the SDK which is supposed to arrive FEBRUARY 2008!!!!!!!!
Darn you Microsoft- sell the Zune in the UK!!!!!!!!
LOL it will probably suck, i mean c'mon games on a ZUNE! It's an MP3 player for gawd sake...
Ballmer i still protest, get your people working on windows none of this zune, xbox, and windows live crap.
I have a feeling its going to be better than games on the iPod though.
Wasn't one of the comments by the Apple Fan Boys that the Zune doesn't play games or have a clock?
Yes because you can just add 7000 people to work on one OS. If they do that, they'll end up running out of stuff for people to work on at a single time causing a case of "too many cooks in the kitchen" syndrome.
Just look at EA. They have like 2000 employees and their games are usually only about half as good as games that come from studios that have 40 people. I don't see an issue with them having different teams to work on different stuff. Plus, people like Zune and Xbox and it's nice to have support to go along with these quality products. You're not the center of the world and MS won't focus just on what you want.
that zune is running windows mobile, my windows mobile runs doom!
"that zune is running windows mobile, my windows mobile runs doom!"
It is running on top of Windows CE, not Windows Mobile. Both have CE at their core, but WM has its own shell and a great deal of other additions (like ACLs) running on top. You would likely need to do a bit of porting to get your WM copy of doom running on the zune (and just dropping a cab file on the device isn't going to do anything).
This is awesome. I can't wait for this to be released. One question though; what's up with that Zune being...a midget..? Anyone else think it looks odd?
It's kind of sad when a tech company projects a 4:3 image in a 16:9 ratio.
YAY! Nothing for 1st gen Zune owners, the faithful first adopters of Microsoft's foray in the world of PMP.
Ouch, Microsoft, ouch. Couldn't even hook us up with some PacMan lovin'?
Hey man, they threw you guys a huge bone with the Gen2 firmware. You got more than most early adopters get.
where does it say no zune30? and zune owners should be the last to complain about being early adopters. i don't recall paying $20 for the last major firmware update.
my apologies if that was sarcasm.
Of course I was kidding, I don't give a damn.
I really do only use my PMP for Music playing and Video watching.
You got the firmware update last year.
At least its not as bad as having bought a HD-DVD player and movies to go along with it...
From the FAQ at http://creators.xna.com
Q: Will this feature only work on newer Zune devices?
A: XNA Game Studio 3.0 currently will support Zune 4/8, Zune 30, and Zune 80 devices.
Opening your mouth before you even try to find out the facts is not a good idea.
One, that was merely a joke, again, I could careless if my Zune 30 plays games or not.
Second, "Details are sparse at this point, but it looks like it's going to be second gen Zunes only, since it was specifically mentioned that it'd take advantage of the touchpad controls."
I'm just reading the article here. Also, see point one.
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I sooooooo sorry that my rash comment offended you. Next time I'll do some serious research before posting. Which format do you prefer APA or MLA?
Tool.
One: Jokes should be funny.
Second: "Details are sparse at this point" should tell you to look for more information before making a statement like: "YAY! Nothing for 1st gen Zune owners, the faithful first adopters of Microsoft's foray in the world of PMP."
Im an asshole, i know.
I don't expect all games to work as well if at all on the 30 just because of the lack of touch support on the pad. But some games will be made for Zune30's too.
@ Mitch
Gameboy classic only had a 4 way d pad too. :)
While the "A" and "B" buttons might have an odd placement its definitely workable.
actually now that i think about it game boy had 8 way
oh well...
The Zune 30 is running the new firmware, so why couldn't games be made for that as well? Is it not powerful enough? I wouldn't mind playing games with just a d-pad.
Maybe it has to do with it's specs. I remember reading somewhere that the new Zunes had a faster processor. Still I doubt they're really THAT much faster. Also, keep in mind they never officially stated that this wouldnt come to the Zune 30. It is only speculated.
I think the 2g has the somewhat touch sensitive squircle too.
You haven't seem to have heard of the word obsoletism. Manufacturers often don't update old products with new feature in order to make people upgrade to the new products rather than picking up an old one for cheap.
The only reason why MS updated withe Z30 with the new firmware is because when the Z80 was launched there were a gazillion of unsold Z30s stocked up in stores around the US. Offering the new firmware to the z30 was the only way to get people to pick up all those unsold Z30s.
Zune - 1
iPod - 0
You know the ipod has had games for a LONG time right?