Microsoft announces games for Zune via XNA Studio
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 20th 2008 2:03PM
posted Feb 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.
-------------
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?
@Scott
Games that were available for at least a year on popcap.com
And you think that somehow XBL is going to be different?
@Scott
iPod has games with multiplayer support?
I just have to laugh at the iPod fanboys. ;)
Andir,
Yes, there are going to be community generated games. You know, the Youtube of games, only not only will they run on your xbox, but your zune as well. I would say that is substantially different.
@Scott
Can you give me the location where I, as a hobby game developer, can download the free SDK so I can develop games and play them on an iPod? I am not talking about games developed by companies that pay out $1000s of dollars for the SDK, but games generated by the community.
So great... instead of one version of Bejeweled, your going to have 50 different variations.
I've been reading some of the comments about this not coming on the Zune 30GB, and we don't know anything about that yet, details are very scarce, and I hope they do support the whole Zune lineup of devices. I have both the 8GB and 80GB, and my brother has a 30GB, along with many of my friends, I don't want them to be left out in the cold. Anyways, can't wait for these games to come out for Zune with the new firmware, and the games will most definitely be better than ipod games, as everyone knows apple doesn't know how to do games (look at Mac os vs. Windows from a gamer's aspect). I hope these games are pretty cheap also
It's right in the FAQ at XNA Creators Club:
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.
The Zune 30 is the old Zune and the others are the new ones. ALL Zunes are supported.
Multiplayer? That's really impressive, and something I actually thought the Zune was always capable of. I have this desire for IM, but that's the crazy part of me talking.
Zune - 1
iPod - 2 (1 for games in general, and one for Peggle, that deserves its own point)
Zune:
+ 1: Make your own games
+ 1: Multiplayer with other Zunes
+ 1: All Zunes supported (not just classic & nano)
+ 1: Potential for massive community of custom
games
+ 1: SDK applies to all their media players and
devices(not just iPhone and Touch)
Ruben, multiplayer only counts if you can find someone else with a Zune.
(yes, it was a joke)
Seven of my friends at school have Zunes, and all of the rest want one. You have to realize that it's much cooler than an iPod now, unless you get a touch. So more and more people get it, and it's functionality keeps on going up.
You know, you could probably write real apps with XNA studio as well, not just games. Someone would have to work on a real App UI framework to do things like list boxes, buttons, simulated keyboard, etc.
A messenger app would be really easy to write, with the ability to connect with Zunes (hopefully multiple).
What would have to be done is some intelligent way to use a keyboard with the touchpad/dpad.
What i want to find out is if theres a way to connect to a wifi point in some sort of adhoc way, which can be a server to retrieve things like RSS, email, etc.
A preview of XNA 3.0 is coming out in the spring. Ill be all over it.
"What would have to be done is some intelligent way to use a keyboard with the touchpad/dpad."
Handwriting recognition on the 80 would be awesome. It's a touch pad, so why not? It could even use something like Palm's old Grafiti.
hey. What do you know? Microsoft is giving away free products to students which includes thatr XNA software mentioned in this article!
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/19/microsoft-gives-away-free-developer-software-to-students/
Damn. Makes me want Windows again...
I can't wait to load up some Flight Simulator!
Hello Zune!
From http://forums.xna.com/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=46553 :
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.
Why can't they just say yes or no? I suppose most people in this thread will know what the answer meant, but these things should be made a little more accessible to people who don't stay knee-deep in the latest tech.
If your parents asked you this question, would you give them that answer?
@Joe
I think my parents are intelligent enough to know what the words "will support" mean.
YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
ZUNE HALO
All I want to know is when!
XNA 3.0 Preview will be released in Spring.
Official release of XNA 3.0 is holiday 08.
Hopefully, we will be able to deploy games to the Zune when the preview comes out.
Dude, this made my day! CUSTOM games for Zune? Plus, it DOES support my 30. (From FAQ: "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.")
And WIFI multiplayer... this is so great.
If people want video,music and real games why don't they look at the PSP?
Bigger Screen
Better Game quality.
Open source. (No Zunes or Itunes to tie it to.)
Equal media playback. (True it can not play back protected media, but why would you buy that?)
Replaceable and extended batteries. (No trips to a service station to get it swapped out.)
The downside:
It doesn't fit well in your pocket; very true.
Its a two hand device; I guess that means something.
Cost of memory. I would argue that. My basic PSP2000 and two 8GB memory sticks was less that an IPOD touch with 16 GB. But the price of memory sticks are WAY more than SD cards.
The Zune interface is more intuitive for playing back media. For almost the price of a PSP you get a 80GB HDD, and some of us need it, especially with movies.
NEVER saw this one coming...
Is the Zune powerful enough to run XNA? It seems like it would be lacking, especially if they put in similar safeguards to the 360.
Speaking of which, I'm surprised they aren't charging people to transfer content to their Zunes like with the 360.
Um, what? No "zunes to tie it to?" All of my music on my Zune is mp3 format, it works just fine. And BTW, i'd hardly call the PSP "open source", unless you want to be a pirate and play the firmware upgrade war.
This is made to be an MP3 player which can play games, not a Game system that also plays music. If I could take my Psp to work and listen to the Radio/mp3's on a single charge, i'd do it, but frankly, my zune works better for that.
You still have to use the Zune Software to get music, videos, ect on the Zune player. With the PSP, your machine sees it as a removable hard drive. That is what I mean by Open Source.
I agree that some could say that its a Game System that plays media as well.
I think its equal as the PSP can:
1. Read MP3 tags with album art.
2. Random and/or shuffle Playback.
3. Display Video Artwork to your videos. (You can create custom artwork or let the PSP do it for you.)
4. Control the media with simple folder organization.
The battery life on the PSP kicks the Zune. I get 5 plus hours on Video play back, 11 with the extended life battery and this is with H.264 video with bit rates between 1 and 4 Mbps. Have no idea how long with the MP3s. I can play for hours and the battery meter never drops.
Not trying to flame your Zune. If it works for you great. I'm just saying that the PSP can give a higher quality level as a PMP and Game Player.
@jntaylor:
If thats your definition of Open Source, your WAY off base buddy. Open Source means that I can see the source code, edit the source code, and redistribute it all. Just because the PSP doesn't need software to access it doesn't mean it's Open Source. Please stop flinging buzz words around. Open Source has a very specific meaning, there is no "Thats what I meant by Open Source", either it is or it isn't.
Whoa, you do NOT need to use the Zune software to put stuff on your Zune. I don't know why you would want to use anything else, but there's always zAlternator.
well this would be an ipod that can play games now wouldn't it? LOL
I consider it a Zune that will play any game I want it to play, whereas the iPod will play any game that Apple says is ok, and that you pay for. So no, it's not an iPod that plays games.
The Zune uses Windows CE as it's core OS and .Net as it's dev framework - so as long as some kind of connection tool is made, you should be able to run anything on it you can run in .Net CF.
Well, after all the nasty comments about the Zune...
I guess those of us who stood by it get to say "Haaa ha!".
BTW, comparing this to the games on the iPod misses the point... This isn't about games - this is about openly being able to WRITE games for the Zune - with free tools at that. Let's see you do that on your iPod.
And it's not just games - you get full access to all non-DRMed music and photos - so you'll be able to craft media apps as well, not to mention getting access to the ad-hoc peer-to-peer networking features.
This is going to be HOT!
you're right! imagine the cool apps you can write for the Zune now. i bet someone is gonna do that whole WiFi song purchase thing now. or even a web browser. heck you could even port opera to the zune!
... and that idea i had for a dj turntable style app...
touch pad ideas just keep on coming. i actually wouldn't mind there being an iPod version of that too. the interface would be a lot sharper...
Anyone know what their numbers are this quarter for sales? Serious question. It would be interesting if MS is still selling these at a loss at this point. Google searches yields no data regarding numbers for the Zune.
I never liked the Zune, and I still don't. I guess it's because I could really care less about games on an mp3 player. That's why I like my nano. Ease of a mac, blah blah blah. Now if there was a LINUX player... :D
If you want games on an mp3 player, just go buy a psp.
maybe I will when the psp comes with an 80 gig harddrive.
Hey... notice how all the comments praising Zune are highly rated, and all the ones supporting iPod, or bashing Zune are low rated? Just comes to show that the Zune is cool now. Zune FTW!
yep, this is awesome
i think that they should put a good 3d shooter with a mini controller you plug and you can play agains each other using wifi
I think this is going to be great! I have a Zune 30 and i can't wait for the games! The Zune is the best mp3 player i've seen or used. Sound quality is great. Psp people, this thread is about Zunes. If we wanted Psp's, which we don't want obviously, we wouldn't be on this thread. Go Zune! Watch, Zunes are going to surpass the ipod.