Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold - Kotaku Comments

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

biznatch — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:07:23 MDT

I say it's time for Microsoft to attempt a full-fledged portable game system, that would compete with the DS and the PSP. Maybe make a system that combines both systems' strengths(touch technology from the DS, good specs plus multimedia compatibility from the PSP). If they spend enough time and effort into this, I think it could turn out to be something pretty successful.

biznatch

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Sinnbox — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:17:29 MDT

I have a ZUNE, hopefully the games are easyer to play then on the original iPOD

Sinnbox

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

flubbity — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:32:10 MDT

No offense, but the Zune is first and foremost a music player. Microsoft is throwing in the XNA thing as a perk. Comparing it to a DS or a PSP is irrelevant since they primary target for the devices is different. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft releases a Zune Game or Xbox Portable; however, right now they are just giving current Zune owners the ability to play games on their Zune. The wireless feature just takes it one step farther than what the Ipod Classic offers, but not far enough to directly compete with a PSP or DS.

flubbity

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

joncoffee — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:16:41 MDT

@fadecy: its coming next year as they announced months ago.

joncoffee

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

fadecy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:14:50 MDT

I would have a zune...IF IT HAD BE RELEASED IN GOD DAMN EUROPE ALREADY.

But microsoft are screwing over europe so I screwed them over and got a macbook and an ipod ^_^

fadecy

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Shinryoma — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:33:06 MDT

That XNA thing helped me decide to get a Zune. After some research it seems owning a Zune is not a smooth experience especially since it's officially released in few areas of the world.

Shinryoma

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

CaptCaveman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:27:53 MDT

@Sailorcancer: Even better. Since the Zune and the Wi-Fi adapter for the 360 is almost the same price, just let me buy a Zune and plug it into a USB slot on the 360 to make it wireless...

CaptCaveman

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Promethean — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:54:05 MDT

Peer-to-peer games are extremely common-- the mulit-player options using ad-hoc networking on the DS and PSP are peer-to-peer. It works well because marketplace for portable gaming is largely dominated by those two devices.

The marketplace for MP3 players, however, is balkanized, with one market leader (Apple, like it or not) and the emerging dominance of converging mp3 functionality on cell phones. In two more years, the concept of a separate MP3 player & cell phone will seem ancient. To some of us, it already is.

With all of that said, given the low penetration of the zune into te consumer electronics market, I'm not optimistic about multiplayer modes that rely on finding other people with a zune in close proximity. For that matter, I'm not optimistic about the prospect of widespread multi-player gaming on the zune at all. I'd be happy to be wrong though.

Promethean

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ResetSmith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:23:43 MDT

@neoraul20: Yeah. I'm sure that's it. Because when you have something so superior, the rational thought process is to tear down what isn't as superior as you think your little product is.

ResetSmith

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

copyboy — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:44:19 MDT

From what I remember of a previous article about zune games, is it's up to the developer whether or not the game will run on first gen zunes. As they would need to program in non-touch controls.

copyboy

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

neoraul20 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:32:25 MDT

@ResetSmith: that's because Mac users are satisfied with their product and know what is good and what is crap. On the other side M$ people bash Macs because they are jelous. I don't care, I don't support neither of them.

* I love the Zune haters. True Mac fanatics at work! Odd that you hear more Mac users bashing M$ then you hear M$ people bashing Macs.

neoraul20

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Jac21 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:30:49 MDT

@kentmx25: @AgainstOne: @Hellicus:

It will. Finally, though. More stuff to fill it with, I have way too much room.

Jac21

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

evulmonkee — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:45:52 MDT

will my 30 gig orig zune work?

evulmonkee

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ResetSmith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:54:05 MDT

@Thoas: LMFAOOOOO So original!

ResetSmith

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Mandes — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:45:49 MDT

The games are said to work with the Gen.1 Zunes which is good because I didn't bother upgrading... even though I don't have exact statistics, I would like to point out to anyone saying that nobody owns the Zune... that the Zune 2.0s were among the top selling devices this past holiday season... what that says for Zune gamers... maybe nothing but I am sure everyone will love the novelty of games on their zunes...

Mandes

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

LittleBigPlaneteer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:44:23 MDT

@Oyn:

The screen is bigger than like 90% of cell phones. Your point is?

LittleBigPlaneteer

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Playstation3 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:36:49 MDT

They should have made it hologrammed. Now I'd buy Zune for that.

Playstation3

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Allen750 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:30:36 MDT

I want achievements.

Allen750

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Thoas — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:18:55 MDT

LMFAOOOOO Only like 46 people own zunes.

Thoas

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

RomeoDude — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:11:04 MDT

The concept of XBox Live Anywhere would be great on the Zune. It's got to happen sometime... hopefully soon.

RomeoDude

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Paladin58 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:42:30 MDT

@Oyn: That's the smaller (4 and 8 GB) Zune that is being shown off in that picture. The HDD-based one is a lot larger in screen space, around the size of a screen on a DS I'd say.

Paladin58

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Ehardergardens — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:36:49 MDT

how are the graphics and the controls?...

The market is pretty crowded here and the ds, psp, and itouch/iphone all have wifi and all of them have supperior controls.

It's nice they have this finally going, as I wanted this to occur some time ago in response to both the ipod and the psp, but it seems like the ngage with more money and marketing might. I don't think it adds anything to the market to get me interested yet.

Free mini game tie ins to games (GTA Halo) might be cool to have and spark initial interest.

I have a 30 gb ZUNE, but since I got an Iphone I just don't touch it anymore. "The social" idea is nice but I never bother with it as there's never anybody around using it. The social should be tied into XBL (is it?) to get at least some legs under it.

The 8gbs (iphone) just forces me to be more selective with what I put on it and keep my podcasting up to date. My old 60 gb ipod enabled me to be horribly in 'media debt' and have tons of music I wasn't interested in anymore and was too lazy to remove.

Ehardergardens

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Oyn — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:29:45 MDT

But the screen is so tiny, what's the point?

Oyn

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

sugardeath — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:22:44 MDT

@nephroth:
I love the heft of the Zune. It is a brick. It actually feels like a device. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to break others' iPods.

@PissedPS3Fan:
Don't get a flash-based Zune then, go for the bigger, harddrive-based Zunes. I have a first gen Zune 30 that has an amazingly huge screen and I would love to play games on this thing.

sugardeath

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

PissedPS3Fan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:12:58 MDT

That screen looks abso-friggin-lutely tiny. I don't think I'd want to use that to play games on. I think I'll stick to my PSP and DS for my portable gaming, thanks.

PissedPS3Fan

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

nephroth — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:02:08 MDT

This isn't entirely on topic, but I want to speak up for my little slate grey player.

I had a rather nice little Lyra that I'd been using for years, but its buttons stopped working, and its hard drive started clicking and it was time for a replacement. I deliberated for a while on what iPod to get, before finally deciding not to.

It's not that I have anything against the iPod per se, it's just not what I wanted. See, they are all very tiny and thin, and they weigh virtually nothing and that's a good thing right?

Not in my case. For some reason I was attracted to the weight and boxiness of the Zune. It's not as pretty as an iPod, but it does what I want (plays music) and it has a nice big bright screen to boot. It may not have the sexiness an Apple product (and believe me, I love Apple as much as any of you--but mostly for OSX) but it does its job well, and just feels... durable.

(I've always been rather partial to Volvo as well. I guess I'm predisposed to rectangles)

nephroth

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

CasualGeek — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:01:48 MDT

For the questions above:
If you have an original Zune (30G) it will play games as long as you have the lastest version.
It is supposed to be available sometime in the late spring.
For more info go to [forums.xna.com]

CasualGeek

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Sentientv2 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:59:15 MDT

This will come to fruition in at least a years time if not more. They touted XNA in 2006 with the Torque Game Builder and then a year later they touted the same thing acting as if it was new and they had never mentioned it before (a year ago at the same conference). The only thing different was they didn't openly tell people this time around they were not going to charge people $100 to make games that other people could play (Creator's Club).

I guess the fact that Visual C# express edition being free has a whole new light after typing the previous paragraph. It all makes sense now. They still get theirs.

Sentientv2

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

wcnghj — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:56:37 MDT

@AgainstOne: Yes

wcnghj

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

joncoffee — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:55:33 MDT

Kinda sad how people hate for the sake of it and how many more dont bother to read or research on the subject at hand.
The article author has set the mood, and thus the lazy reader will stay at that.

Oh well!

joncoffee

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

bdcrews — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:50:48 MDT

@Lazlo: What you did, I see it.

bdcrews

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

bdcrews — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:50:11 MDT

@Lazlo: I see what you did there Lazlo.

bdcrews

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

rkalajian — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:49:31 MDT

I don't buy electronics that come in poop brown.

rkalajian

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

octoSink — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:46:05 MDT

Daddy, what's a Zune?

octoSink

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

shizknight — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:46:04 MDT

I'd have likely kept my Zune if the damn thing just had Solitaire on it. I went back to iPod after trying to switch. Sometimes you just don't realize how much of a gamer your are until you're sitting on a toilet and cursing your mp3 player for only being an mp3 player.

shizknight

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

PhoenixSS — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:44:51 MDT

This sounds interesting and somewhat promising for those who have friend's with Zunes. And friends with Zunes that work.

I can hardly wait to get my repaired (read: refurbished) zune back from the repair shop so I can not play XNA games with my friends who all don't have a Zune.

I need some Zune friends... :(

PhoenixSS

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ResetSmith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:43:15 MDT

I love the Zune haters. True Mac fanatics at work! Odd that you hear more Mac users bashing M$ then you hear M$ people bashing Macs.

ResetSmith

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

SofaKingHI — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:35:49 MDT

Cool but gonna have to do a lot more if they want to compete with things like spore on Iphone/touch

SofaKingHI

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Hellicus — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:34:05 MDT

Im just wondering if I can play XNA games on my 1G Zune (30 Gb)...

Hellicus

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

zoesch — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:16:27 MDT

Dunno if I want to play squircle controlled games, games on the clickwheel iPods were very annoying.

zoesch

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Hubert Humphrey Methadone — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:12:31 MDT

Hell to the yes, I'm getting a ZUNE!

/blatant sarcasm

Hubert Humphrey Methadone

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Sphinx — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:11:39 MDT

Bleh. I thought I heard the Zune pronounced dead a long time ago.

Sphinx

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

CitizenInsane27 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:11:03 MDT

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple will probably have a feature like this (p2p gaming over wifi) out on the iPod touch before MS has the chance to utilize it?

Oh well, either way, the XNA games should make it worthwhile.

CitizenInsane27

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Megan Fox Iz Hot! ^-^ - ph15h — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:10:31 MDT

My Zune will Continue to collect dust... :(

Megan Fox Iz Hot! ^-^ - ph15h

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

AgainstOne — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:05:02 MDT

is this going to work on 1st gen Zunes that are running 2.0 firmware?

AgainstOne

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Guizzy — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:49:43 MDT

I agree. This is all very good, but they really need to start talking about WHEN this will be available.

Guizzy

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

kentmx25 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:49:36 MDT

This is great for zune but hopefully it will be able to play on gen. 1 players

kentmx25

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Cruithne — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:47:55 MDT

I'd be looking forward to this, if the fricking Zune were available in Europe...

Cruithne

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

emag — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:47:25 MDT

So when are we actually going to be able to put XNA games on our Zunes?

emag

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ErskinPig — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:45:27 MDT

NS have stained gaming enough for my liking; I'll pass.

ErskinPig

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Sailorcancer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:44:37 MDT

Zune has WiFi, why can't 360 have it without me shoving $100 down M$ pie hole.

Sailorcancer

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Kyle81 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:42:26 MDT

what a waste of time.

Kyle81

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Detre — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:41:43 MDT

@Lazlo: if theres one thing m$ has a crapload of its money.

Detre

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Darthearl — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:41:29 MDT

yay! finally some games for my zune! about time...hopefully

Darthearl

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Lazlo — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:41:07 MDT

It seems like a lot money to invest in something very few people use. It's like Wireless Music Sharing. Great idea, except not a lot of people have a Zune to utilize that function.

Lazlo

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

Lazlo — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:39:17 MDT

It seems like quite the R&D cost to support this style of gaming for a product not many people own. It's a lot like Wireless Music Sharing. Great idea if there were more people out there to share with.

Lazlo

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ZetaCrossfire — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:37:35 MDT

My zune will be even more awesome then it already is

ZetaCrossfire

Zune Demonstrating Tasty Multiplayer That's Getting Cold

ZetaCrossfire — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:37:09 MDT

my zune will be more awsome

ZetaCrossfire