Would You Buy This Portable 360?

From the same guys who brought you the awful "2010" Wii comes a conceptual pipe-dream a little more...sensible. This unnamed Microsoft product takes a 360, shrinks it to handheld size, adds a Zune to it, smooshes their interfaces together then throws a phone in as well. Just for good measure. Looks nice, looks slim, but whoever thought it'd be a good idea to bring the 360's despicable d-pad along for the ride needs a short, sharp slap to the teeth.

Portable XBox 360/Zune Phone Fantasy is Exactly What Microsoft Should Make [Gizmodo]

No Zune for You at Gamestop

Microsoft Confirms XNA Zune CTP For May

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

At GDC, we had the opportunity to demo a Zune running an XNA game. And it looked pretty good. So what has been Microsoft's Zune team been thinking about in the several months since then? XNA commander and chief Chris Satchell fills us in:

One of the things we talked about was the network play, and we've had people doing prototypes internally of multiplayer shoot-'em-ups both in versus and co-op.

Zune XNA Gaming Is Surprisingly Fluid

We had a few minutes yesterday to play a bit of shoot-em-up Zauri, that fast little game shown during the Microsoft keynote. The game plays surprisingly well. The ship constantly fires and you move it around with the Zune's touch pad. To fire off bombs you click the pad. Unfortunately, the game was developed specifically for the keynote, so it's not clear if it will ever actually see the light of day.

XNA Game Studio Games Come To Zune

Can't say we didn't see it coming, but Microsoft officially announced today that XNA Game Studio games would soon be supported by the Zune. The portable media player is expected to get simpler fare like the vertical space shooter Zauri and puzzle staple Hexic, the former of which was shown to feature MP3 support.

The Zune's touchpad will hopefully make for a decent controller, but we haven't gone hands on with it yet. Graphically, Zauri, the only game demoed via video, was simple in nature, but the addition of music library support could make for interesting shooter gameplay.

Xbox Division Is Back In Black

Microsoft revealed its own financial results for the previous quarter today, showing that the company's Xbox division—better known as the Entertainment & Devices Division, which also includes the Zune and more—was profitable. Again! That makes two quarters in a row that the division succeeded in not losing money, something that should please Master Gates, J Allard and investors. The group pulled in $357 million in operating income for the final quarter of calendar year 2007, much better than the loss of $302 million in 2006.

That puts Microsoft's E&DD team up over a half-billion for fiscal year 2008, which, if they continue to perform positively, will go a long to proving Robbie Bach right about profitability. Hey, they might not be Nintendo numbers, but it's a step in the right direction. After losing billions upon billions since the creation of the Xbox business, two quarters of profit is good news for Microsoft.

Do I hear some of you chanting three-peat(TM)?

Microsoft Reports Record Second Quarter Results [Microsoft]

More On Zune Meeting/Hooking Up With Xbox 360

J Allard Returns, Wishes Xbox Live A Happy 5th Birthday

We miss J. Since moving on to the Zune side of things, we've hardly seen hoodie nor hair of the Microsoft exec. His signature "chillax" moves and online foresight added much needed spice to the Xbox brand—and we felt better for his presence. For those who miss the man who has been described as "the father of the Xbox"—at left, enjoying a massive slice of cake during the Japanese launch of Xbox—he sat in on Larry Hryb's latest podcast to talk about the origins and future of the Xbox family.

Allard discusses topics such as the "billion dollar decision" to include a hard drive as standard with the original Xbox, pushing voice chat features via Xbox Live, and the beating of acceptance expectations for Live. He also touches on future Zune and Xbox 360 integration, including theoretical Xbox Live Marketplace to Zune transfers, plus the online enabled evolution of games.

I found J's thoughts on the Wachowski brothers attempts to expand The Matrix franchise to as many mediums as possible. Something tells me we'll see more of that kind of brand extension in games sooner rather than later.

Live is 5: J Allard [Xbox]

J Allard Talks Zune Gaming, We Talk Zune Improvement

I love games and maybe for someone with a 40-minute commute, it might be an interesting scenario. Thus far, the market really hasn't proven out that it is a great scenario. Customer satisfaction with what has been done isn't that high.

Halo Zune Hands-On

A Music Player For Master Chief

Rumor: Music Downloads Coming to Xbox 360

Xbox Biz Still Losing Money For MS

Former EA Worldwide President Joins Microsoft

Apparently, Moore and Mattrick had been in talks ever since he left EA, exploring a number of opportunities for the two to work together, and this is the arrangement that they came up with.

Allard, We're Calling You Out

Apple's Steve Jobs "Trash-Talks" PSP

Msoft: Zune Gets Games in 2008