Thursday, February 21, 2008

Microsoft announces games for Zune(about time)


Not that I really care or waited for this future, but yes. Zune users now can get games on your Zunes and play them by flickering the Zune pads. It was announced at the Microsoft GDC keynote. Microsoft announced XNA Studio developers will be able to use the Zune as a multiplayer wireless mobile gaming platform. 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.


For starters, first-gen Zunes don't appear to be ruled out by any means, but it's going to be dependent on the game controls.

Zauri, the sample space shooter game demoed today, uses the Zunepad, thus wouldn't work (as well) on a Zune 30. Nothing has been decided as to whether games will universally require 2nd-gen Zunes, though.
Use of the Zunepad in Zauri was as a trackpad and omnidirectional -- it wasn't just up / down / left / right, as in the menus.
Right now the system partitions a mere 16MB for storing games, although this might change.
Right now there isn't a professional-grade SDK to announce; all titles should initially be done up in XNA Studio.
Means of distribution (i.e. games loaded through an installer, through the Zune desktop app, or through Zune Marketplace?) has not yet been decided.
The first beta development tools will be out this Spring.
There are no plans for Zune game sharing (yet), so to play with a friend wirelessly you both must have the game on your Zune.

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