The Zune Gaming System

Remember XNA from the Xbox team? It's the tools for hobbyist and pro game developers to make games for XBLA. Well Microsoft's, Chris Satchell, demoed how XNA will work across GFW, Xbox 360, and also your Zune. Major Nelson has an audio version of the announcement as well as some specs for the XNA games.

Now Zune owners will be allowed to play some of the XNA games on their Zune multimedia player at no cost. Some restrictions include:

• Not available in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan
• Xbox 360 HDD Required
• You'll Need a Zune

There has been no announcement as to whether or not this will be opened up to other MP3 players, but I'm pretty sure it won't be. Also I'm not sure what quality of games we'll see from this free community, but I'm pretty sure there will be a couple of hits in the pile of crap that will emerge. I know Jeff is pretty excited about this update.

Bungie Podcast Now on iTunes

Bungie announced yesterday that their newly revived podcast is now on iTunes and has an RSS feed separate from their news feed. The first podcast was released on 09.22.06, the second one came 9 months later on 07.11.07 with the help of Luke Smith. After a couple of weeks of working on the podcast it now has it's own feed and seems to be coming out weekly with news about Halo 3 release and other Bungie happenings.

I've enjoyed each episode, but unfortunately they haven't been that long and Luke Smith, from 1upyours, is not as lively as he was on that show. Other than that it's a great podcast to subscribe to.

This is great news, but I do recall that Microsoft and Bungie got together and made a Halo 3 Zune. There's no mention if the podcast is in the Zune Store. That would make more sense and help get more users using that service. But since iTunes has a larger audience I guess it makes more sense to just say iTunes. Guess who else is on iTunes? We are.

"Future Proof" Zune 2.0 on the Way

Microsoft has stolen Eric's phrase of "future proof" and applied it to their next generation of the Zune. With the Zune reaching 1.2 million units sold, Microsoft has confirmed a new Zune on the way.

Microsoft's future proof quote was "And one thing about Zune that’s really great for consumers is that the device is future-proofed. Consumers can buy without fear of their device becoming obsolete. Zune’s software (firmware) can be updated so their device gets automatically updated with new features when the new software is launched.”

It is predicted that the new version of the Zune will feature new sizes and styles, be out by Christmas and available in more countries. It should also feature podcasting support and expanded video support. Some are speculating that the next Zune will also expand its use of wi-fi.

And in more Halo 3 related news..

For all you Halo fanboys (looking at you Josh), if you really want to prove your loyalty head on down to your local video game store monopoly (Gamestop) and pre-order your very own Halo themed Zune!. That's right kiddies, not only do you get a pretty sweet media player (f' those lame ass Apple lovers) but it comes pre loaded with a metric shit ton of Halo related media, songs, videos, images, and a real live version of Cortana, the artificial intelligence female program, well... maybe I made that last part up. Anyhow I actually have regular old Zune, and it really is a good media player, but I don't think having a Halo design on it will help it pass up Apple's stranglehold on the mp3 market. Still very nice fan service on Microsoft's part. Good job uncle Bill.