Zune XNA games preview release aimed for May
By Ryan Block 
posted May 5th 2008 1:33PM
posted May 5th 2008 1:33PM
posted May 5th 2008 1:33PM
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@Arnob
What a disgusting way to make a point. A wrong point at best. You need help.
yea...because showing the idiocy of racial stereotypes is really disgusting, and the idea that a message is just as important, if not more so, than how it is said is truly an insane point to make. of course i'm sure you will read what you want, and then call me out on protecting racism or something. whatever, can't say i didn't try... meh
Can someone go get that- Arnob's point just flew straight over Jubei's head.
This is great news because my Ti 86 broke and i've felt a strong absence of awkward-platform games in my life recently.
STOP F*CKING COMPARING THE ZUNE TO THE IPHONE OR TOUCH!
Who cares that it doesn't have a touch screen..... last time i checked the ipod classic that the zune competes against doesnt have a touchscreen either.
Compared to the iPod Classic, the games for the zune are awesome.... lets not forget microsofts keeping to their promise, things for zunes are backwards compatible ... just like this... games will be for the Zune 30 and the new models... thats just awesome.
Check out this video from channel9. Its demo about developing games for the zune, has a video of some new games and hints for a new firmware upgrade before the XNA game studio release.
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=400948
This is going to be freaking awesome... I hope they get the Xbox live anywhere service up and running before this is officially released to the public... Just imagine playing against your friends over wifi from a starbucks while one of your friends is sitting on the couch with his xbox and another on his pc with his keyboard... and another with their windows mobile phone playing from the bus... that's going to be sweet! I wonder what these games will be like and if they will be cheap... like maybe they'll be mobile versions of xbox live arcade games... Geometry Wars for Zune anyone???
I'm pretty sure the games are going to be made by users (as well as having some from the current XBLA), so I'm sure many of them will be free.
Lets put this in a better perspective. I have an iPhone and a Zune 80. I did not buy the iPhone to play games or listen to music even though i do have a small selection on there. I bought the Zune for the music. I bought the PSP for the portable gaming. Games for the iPhone and Zune will not compare to the PSP/DS handhelds. iPhone will never be used to listen to music primarily. If you did buy the iPhone for that reason you wasted your money. Zune will never be compared to a device that was made to be a phone to out-do RIM and Palm. None of these devices should be compared against each other. So stop comparing devices that are not in competition with each other and start comparing devices that are (i.e. Zune vs iPod)
Now that thats said, these games look pretty good for something to spend 5-10 min to waste time on.
Very well said. If people don't get it through their head with that, they never will.
What you said is true, but you're overlooking one key fact. When I leave the house only one device is guaranteed to be coming with, and that's my phone. I'm not going to take a Zune, a phone, and a PSP at the same time. (I'm not toting a man-purse.)
Because of that fact, I prefer to use my phone for all of the things you mentioned when I'm out and about. Some phones are able to fill this multi-use quite nicely AND play better games than the Zune.
And if I'm at home playing a game, I'll play a real console/PC game on a large screen, not some tiny 2" screen.
@ Scott--> When I leave the house I have my iPhone, PSP, and MBP that I carry in my shoulder-bag. Sorry you're too much of a man to carry one. Just because you apparently don't like to use your Zune out of the house (?) doesn't mean there are others among use who like to use our portable devices as, you know, portable devices.
Scott, he's not overlooking anything- he's making his point, and he's making it clear. Nothing else matters- these products are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less, and they are not meant to compete with other products that are in an entirely different class. That means comparing any Zune (for the time being) with the iPhone or iPod Touch is not only unfair, but illogical.
I agree with Zeus.:God.
When I leave the house, I bring my phone and my Zune. I would like an iPhone but as JakeB says, it would never be used primarily for music. If I had an iPhone I would still use my Zune for music, movies, and podcasts.
I use my Zune 80 to listen to music and my iPhone to answer calls and play iCopter.
I would like to see you try and listen to at least 4 hours of music, use the GPS to avoid accidents on the freeways, use the phone, send and receive emails, check blogs, and play games on your iPhone without having to charge it once before the day is over.
That's true, and you shouldn't really compare the iPhone and the Zune or the Zune and the DS. But these products do compete with each other.
Like many people, I'd like to have 1. a phone 2. a music player and 3. wireless internet with me at all times. For me, portable gaming loses its appeal if I have 3G/WiFi internet. I might buy a music phone and an Eee PC or I might buy an iPhone or a Zune and a Centro or whatever.
Arguing that these products are somehow not competing with each other is an oversimplification.
I think it's smart to make the Swiss Army Phone because phones are so ubiquitous. If you can cover all your bases with a phone (wireless voice, internet, gaming, media playback, camera, etc.), you might not have to, you know, buy 8 portable devices.
Anyway, if I wasn't set on coving my portable music needs with a phone, good (and cheap as free) games would make me more likely to buy a Zune.
Granted they compete indirectly, but to compare the devices to each other like others are doing is not how people should compare. I dont look for an all-in-one device that puts all my electronice together because the only one that can is my laptop. I dont think there is ever going to be one device that htis all our needs for mobile media the size of a phone that is pratical. Mostly becuase our technology in batteries are horrible. Until there is something that can keep a lot of power into a small battery we will never have a pratical all-in-one device. To me thats the only thing I see hindering technology these days.
My iPhone needs to be charged EVERY night. All I do is play games on it lol
I like how the picture shows 16Mb - as in megabits, not megabytes (MB).
Foodle said:
>It's somewhat concerning that whoever made the slide doesn't know the difference between Mb and MB ...
Actually, I made the slide and I do know the difference between Mb and MB. Unfortunately, it was a boo-boo on my part. You can either blame it on human error, or the fact that I'm a computer science guy that now works in Marketing :-)
David "LetsKillDave" Weller
Awesome! I can't wait...
to make fun of someone actually playing a game on their Zune. With an audience of approximately 17-18 people, these games should not suck at all.
Wow- I can't wait for the social!
Microsoft- give up. Seriously. It's getting embarrassing.
Yeah, you should be embarrassed; you sound like a total jackass. Are you a lonely person or do you hang out with other loud jackasses, because I seriously can't fathom how any sane person could put up with your inane ranting.
Wait for it.
A year or two Zune will be popping out on every corner like mushrooms. Zune bashers, admit it or not Zune is gaining popularity. With MS improving its features and relentlessly promoting it, a point will come that one would barely remember Zune as the ugly-duckling of PMP.
So scream-to-death as much as you want. Because that's the only thing you can do.
Why do we need to have a Zune Touch? Its impractical and too expensive. The iPod touch may be the worst device i have ever seen, it uses a battery wasting touch screen so you can smudge your fingers on it to surf the web or change picture sizes. The only things that are nice are the web browser and tilt sensor.
The iPhone is just an expensive phone with an imaginary status attached to it. The iPod Touch is just a less expensive version of the iPhone without the only useful part. 8 and 16 gb is not enough for movies and music.
The Zune and the classic can be compared because they are similar devices and attempt to tackle portable music in different ways. I prefer the Zune mostly because its not an Apple product and it isn't a pretentious object of status. The Zune 80 is far from perfect, but it has done everything right so far in my opinion. I wouldn't buy a touchscreen device because there is no need and it only makes the device cost more and last a shorter amount of time. The Zune Pad is perfect for scrolling through music and it looks intuitive for gaming.
Done with my rant.
It's somewhat concerning that whoever made the slide doesn't know the difference between Mb and MB ...
What I wanna know is if the games will work on TV out ;)
With the remote? lol!
W00t! Crysis anyone, this is great news.
shouldn't you wait for the Alienware phone for that? :-)
Maybe you should do more research. Grante Apple has the largest share and most likely they always will. But Microsoft has the second largest marketshare in portable music devices. So really, Microsoft is doing very well for only being out a couple of years and having to compete with the giant Apple. No doubt Apple will dominate. I look at is as this, Microsoft dominates the computers while Apple is second; Apple dominates the protable music devices while Microsoft is second. Interesting how it all balances out doesnt it?
this was supposed to be in response to iansilv comment
@ jhaks:
No way- you should meet me- I am actually really cool- and I have a hot wife, so I'm not lonely.
I did not mean to insult you or the remaining 16-17 Zune owners in the world. I just think that the Zune sucks, that's all.
I also think that making games for a crappy sub-par rip off of the ipod is a waste of resources that could be better focused on making windows Vista not suck, play games faster, not crash, bring better stability to the pc platform, or do any of the other major advertised selling points that were used to sell the product to consumers.
See, I hated macs, ipods, and the whole smug apple thing. Then my friend bought me an iphone, and I bought a mac. It's the craziest thing- it works like a computer should.
I just wish macs had the social...
Anyway- will all 18 of you zune guys beta test every game, or will your switch off 9 on one game, nine the next so every other one is a surprise when it hits the social, or whatever the place is where you download these nuclear-powered zune games?
You can say the Zune sucks thats fine, that's your opinion. But to say the the Zune is a rip off of the iPod, well, iPod is a rip off of the Compaq Jukebox and the Rio that were released 3 years before the iPod was.
As far as everything else you said, you are in the wrong forum to talk about PC vs. Mac. But I will say each have their advantages.
I really don't like these media/phone devices that decide they want to play games later. The games look great, nice color, smooth playback, but I just couldn't do it for more than a couple minutes without it getting awkward. I'm looking forward to Pandora give you all the media playback, web browsing and game playback I need. I think they will get it right.
Thank you, I agree with you except the iPhone part. I dont have it for status, I actually use all the functions attached to it and am looking forward to Microsoft Exchange being on there, all it needs is a good multiple IM chat program.
XNA + APX2500 + Microsoft acquiring Danger = Xbox phone/handheld
@EMForce first of all the way you have worded your comment has angered me " has zune firmware even been hacked?" well this is only due to the fact that microsoft has a superiour codeing for the zune to were the firmware is locked and if you knew jack shit about the zune why would they feel the need to release a touch screen device to feel like a follower or caddy boy to your beloved steve jobs you know what take your fanboy ass and gtfo you earn nor my respect nor do you anything else plz due the world a favor and slit your wrists remember DOWNWARDS beacuse you wanna make it count you fucking idiot
@ Abuzar:
The iPod Classic doesn't have wifi or radio (unless you have the radio remote) capability. The Zune has this built in.
are you serious? the video is just someone playing a sideways video to look like hes playing a game. How is he shooting? he very carefully didn't show his finger the whole time because he wasn't doing anything on the touch pad.
Anyways, I agree with that one other user, I'd love to have games on my zune80, but i don't know how well the 'track pad' will preform. When i use it, it seems like it just senses your finger passing over a certain point, I don't think it is fully touchable like the iphone's screen. It seems to me that microsoft would have implemented the whole trackpad in the beginning, if it was fully functional. They could have made switching photos in the slide show more like the iphone's intuitive scrolling, along with other things.
But then again, its microsoft, and their zune software is very restrictive and unstable. It uses so much memory as well.
So this was planned for May? Where is it?