Microsoft turns to Zune for mobile game edge
Xbox Live goes Web 2.0
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In the battle for gaming supremacy, Microsoft has finally deployed the big guns against the Playstation and Wii: Web 2.0 and the Zune.
Microsoft game developer group chief Chris Satchell told the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, his company is "democratising distribution" of Xbox Live games by giving developers the opportunity to punt their software through the Xbox Live network.
And, for an added, er, incentive, developers can port their software to the Zune mobile music player, which has struggled to compete against the iPod and other players, later this year. Version 3.0 of XNA Game Studio - that will work only with Visual Studio 2008 - will extend support to Microsoft's Zune player so developers will be able to build common code for Windows, Xbox and Zune.
If the idea of putting your hard-developed software on the Zune isn't sufficient incentive, Microsoft pointed to the fact the games market continues to thrive. The US market alone will be worth $18 billion this year. Its move to expand the Xbox Live "community" will, Microsoft said, help it keep up in an increasingly competitive market.
Microsoft laid the ground for "community" development of Xbox products two years ago when it launched the XNA framework. This .NET-based development platform made it possible for third-party developers to build Xbox games using XNA Game Studio - a game-building toolkit based on Microsoft's Visual Studio integrated development environment.
Under the new regime, planned for later this year, game developers will be able to load their games on the Xbox Live network for peer review and subsequent distribution to Xbox Live subscribers. Financial arrangements are yet to be finalized and are currently being worked out by Microsoft's lawyers.
The community and mobile gaming pledges came as Microsoft also renewed its commitment to the HD format used in the optional Xbox 360 DVD drive after Toshiba became the latest to abandon HD.®
COMMENTS
@Anonymous Coward
Well i do have an xbox, 360 in fact. Its a games machine, don't care if it pays blu-ray or hd, it plays gamed in HD. Treat it like that and its really good. I dont tend to think if it in terms of MS, nor do i ever have an diminished experience since i dont have the latest graphics card or whatever (PCs always need something for the latest game..).
..generally...
As for Zune, can you actually get them now? I have nothing specific against them, not having any handheld and not planning on getting one... but really the press coverage of them not actually getting released was everywhere in the IT press, but i didn't hear a thing about the fact it was available.. well done MS Marketing Division that was a job well done! [/sarcasm]
Hold on
Maybe MS could look at getting the Zune software working before they get too far ahead of themselves.
Stupidly upgraded my Zune software yesterday, because I figured it couldn't get any worse - now it is COMPLETELY, rather than mostly unusable
@Pascal
"Free Internet gaming is the founding cornerstone of multiplayer gaming nowadays, there is strictly no reason for me to go pay to play for an average, if interesting, RTS, when I can play Supreme Commander or a host of other good ones online for nothing.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot."
Presumably like they shot themselves in the foot with Halo 3 and all the money they get from the 100's of thousands who play that on-line every day for a fee
Paris because she knows all about on-line money
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