heh. does look nice and fluid

Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a Jedi yet!

...okay, I would hope it ran fluid, because if the zune couldn't run a simple game like that, i'd be real worried.

Now get me some Capcom games on there and music software that is ya know, mac and windows.

are those games free?

Will this work with the first gen Zunes (30 gigs)?

Pull my finger!

Now that is some cool shit.

Neat to bad i already got a MP3 player. Does anyone actually have a zune and not have problems with it? are they even worth buying anymore?

@Gambare: I bet they are free, it is cool and fluid, but how many games can you play with one finger though?

Honestly, I didn't even know Microsoft was still making Zunes.

The Zune is far superior to the iPod for games. Having tactile feedback is huge for starters. Playing pacman on my ipod was not a fun experience.

I'm hoping there will be some kind of add on device that can be plugged into the bottom of the Zune to give you more buttons.

As it stands, I can see the Zune pad being used to control the character/cursor, the center click used as a sort of button 1, and the pause button as button 2.

However, I can't really see playing an action oriented game using this control scheme. Particularly since you would need to move your finger off of the pad to push the pause button (unless you are left handed.)

@KnightOfElcar:
They have stated thus far that if developers want to make games that are compatible with the Zune 30, then they would have to create a different control scheme that does not rely on the Zune pad.

@MURDERFACE:
I own a Zune 80 and haven't had one problem with it. The newer Zunes are much better in almost every way than the first gen Zunes (AKA Zune 30). They are actually worth buying more so now than when the Zune 30 was the only model.

Yes, people have Zunes.
The new Zunes that came out Fall 2007 are LEAGUES better than the newer iPod Classic (which is awful). I have been and iPod owner for 3-4 years and got a new Zune and I love it.

Oh, and the new Zune80 is a fantastic device. But avoid the Zune Originals if at all possible... I've gone through two of them now because of dust and water spots under the glass.

@MURDERFACE:
I have the Zune 80. Works perfect and I'm very happy with it.

Nice. My sister got a zune. . . but she never uses it. Maybe this will give her a reason!

I got a zune for christmas and sent it right back, piece of crap never worked... they DESPERATELY need better software. D: who knows maybe they'll eventually get better after this.

@MURDERFACE: yea i have an 80 and dont have any problems with it, only thing that pisses me off is once the music is in the software you cant change the Artist's names, you can do the song titles, album art and album name thats not a problem but the Artist is a mess. other than that i love it.

fluid ... but "extremely" small portable games is not my thing

Good one Microsoft. Good one. I am happy, even with my dislike for Microsoft. Don't drop the ball on this one, please. Even the Zune users deserve respect, let then game good games :D

I demand an audiosurf port!

All this talk about fluid makes me hafta pee.

Bastardized and butchered version of Halo? It shall be called...Touch Halo! Hahaha..clever.

Ok, now I'm sold on the Zune. Just gonna wait for the Canada release...

but the important question is... do they have achievements????????

@aden.exe:
That would definitely be down right awesome.

If Audiosurf was ported to the Zune I would drop $250 in a heartbeat.

That game is such a freaking blast to play, and it's the perfect portable game too. But it wouldn't be worth to port to the DS or PSP due to limited song selection. But with 80 gigs of music it would be perfect on the zune. And it only uses two buttons.

BRING IT ON MS!!!

man if they put achievements on the zune that you could add to your 360 rank i think they would double the amount of zunes sold

the problem is that, the shooting is automatic.. its just moviing the ship out of the way of bullets and other ships. Its like playing a racing game with the accelerator already held down for you.

@Thomaticus:

Its not much of a difference though is it. On those kinds of games you do always hold the fire button down. On racing games less so, cause you've got corners you might need to slow down for or whatever. But on a shooter like that, you would have the fire buton held down all the time, or is that just the way I play?

Does anyone know the song they used in the keynote to demonstrate playing music while playing the game? Had a nice beat. Anyway, games look pretty good on the zune.

@MURDERFACE: I have a Zune 30 and it's pretty nice. The newer ones are a bit nicer, but the nice thing is, unlike the Ipod, they made the Zune to be upgradable, so most any feature added to the newer models, the old ones get to... at least anything that comes with a firmware upgrade, can't really add buttons or anything if they decide to do that. Just got around to upgrading my old one with the new software and firmware updates somewhat recently, and it's much better than it was before.

@fearing: maybe I should say "nice" one more time in those first couple sentances. UGH!

And Microsoft still pays record companies royalties and maintains a DRM deathgrip when possible...

This thing could play Xbox and Playstation games together in harmony and I still wouldn't purchase one.
NEXT.

Oh yes.I'm sure the Zune will be be the platform of choice for portable gaming now.Just like it is for music vs the ipod.Watch out DS and PSP you're about to lose 0.001% of you're market share.

ms, dont listen to the chodes hatin on the zune. i enjoy mine for what i payed for it (new). keep pleasing the fans with stuff like this. we really do appreciate it :\

@Arttemis:
All digital music sellers pay record comapnies royalties and there is no DRM deathgrip on the Zune (just don't buy from the Zune Marketplace - not that hard to figure out).

@coktoe:
They aren't trying to turn the Zune into a portable gaming device as of now anymore than an iPod is a portable gaming device - they are just matching features up against Apple, making the Zune more appealing to get more sales, and making the XNA platform more appealing to get more small developers using it.

@Lstormy10:
Actually, digital music sellers pay "record companies" royalties - my bad.

If only Microsoft lets me completely code in C++ and when I mean C++ I don't mean Visual C++ or working on a Windows environment.

@MURDERFACE: I have a Zune 80GB and have not had any troubles with it. Its a really nice player. Expensive though.

I'm just waiting to see the price point on these games. I love my Zune 80 and would like something to play while I'm on the bus. Something simple like this is perfect for my relatively short commute.

@Lstormy10.Yeah,I know.What I said was just an unnesessary cheap-shot.I was drunk on Ceasars and though I was funny.REPENT!

Would be amazing if MS put achievements in Zune games and allowed you to sync them to your gamertag. I'm not sure how many Zune owners know this (I just found out a few days ago), but you can link your Zune to your gamertag and save a list of the songs you've been listening to on both your zune and your Xbox and view them online (like last.fm). It's pretty cool, but just imagine if they could do achievements in a similar fashion. Zune sales would skyrocket with the achievement whores.

@Xaltmas:
What he said :P ((I'm truly fanboy giddy about this, just one step closer in Zune's quest for global MP3 player domination!))

I'm loving my Zune 80, so the fact that there could be some XNA/XBLA-quality games on it would be pretty impressive. It won't replace my DS, but it would give me more options. This looks great.