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Some great news for Zune owners looking for mobile entertainment. Let's get right to the heart of the matter:
Who? Microsoft made an official announcement, no rumors or speculation.
What? XNA support for Zune along with XBOX and PC. XNA is a game development toolkit available to "do it yourself" enthusiasts for about $99 / year. You don't need to create your own games, simply take advantage of XNA games created by the user base.
When? The announcement came Feb. 20th 2008 but the exact timeline for availability is yet to be determined. The Zune team made statements in 2007 indicating gaming would be available in 2008. This is the first acknowledgment of XNA support however.
Which? The games will be available for all Zune models including the Zune 30. Touch sensitive features will be limited to the newer squircle endowed Zunes only.
How? The games will probably be available for in the Zune marketplace software for download rather than physical retail locations.
Why? The Zune brand was launched as a mobile entertainment platform rather than a strictly audio platform and will continue to evolve and expand.
From 2006:
"Judging by the capabilities that AMD claims for Imageon and by the screenshots on the Imageon site, you could instantly add quite a bit of functionality to Zune with the inclusion of one of those processors."
Zune Games
What are Zune Games?
The Zune brand is all about digital entertainment and you can't be entertained without games can you? So we are predicting there will be a zune version of the PSP that may or may not get the xbox brand. It will work and integrate with xbox live and compete against Gameboy and similar systems. Zune games with photos and reviews will be provided by Zune Scene.
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