Gizmodo: zune games

Zune HD Gets Its First 3D Games (And They're All Free)

John Herrman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:53:34 EST

The last Zune HD firmware update apparently had one more trick up its sleeve: 3D gaming, finally. And while the new games might be late in coming to the Zune Marketplace, they look worthwhile. And more importantly, they're free.

Anyone with Zune HD 4.3 should be able to mosey on over to the Zune Marketplace, where they'll find a few new surprises. Or what would have been surprises, if I wasn't about to totally ruin them right here:

• PGR: Ferrari Edition
• Lucky Lane Bowling
• Vans Sk8
• Piano (it's a piano toy, not strictly a game)
• Audio Surf: Tilt
• Checkers

It's not quite the same as having an open marketplace with a full SDK—presumably Microsoft's actively helping push these things along to keep Zune HD users interested—but it's a start. [HelloFromEurope—Thanks, Korneel!]

Video: Zune Multiplayer Games In Action

Adrian Covert — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:32:13 EDT

There's a Zune event going on up at the Microsoft event today and the Zune team showed off a few demos of games. Two cool aspects are that Zune XNA games supports 8-player ad-hoc wireless game play, and while there is no 3D hardware acceleration, it can use software rendering for 3D. The demo for the first-person shooter, Potato Chase, put these features on display.

Potato Chase controls pretty smoothly with the Zune Pad. You push slightly on any edge and it moves you forward, backward, left or right. Click the middle, or any of the edges, and it fires a bomb toward your adversary. You can host a game, or join a game wirelessly with up to eight other players. While it is a primative demo, there was a minimal amount of slowdown while playing with two other people. There's also an API feature that uses album art to build the walls of the battle arena, however it wasn't functional on the demo units. Pretty cool stuff from the XNA team.

Video Tour and Details of Zune Games and SDK

Adrian Covert — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:40:15 EST

I got a chance to see first hand what the newly announced Zune gaming platform could look like. It's important to keep in mind that this announcement is still in the early stages of development, and we won't see any finished products, on the business or creative side, anytime soon. But this quick video walkthrough gives us an idea of what to expect in terms of development, API integration and wireless gaming.

Microsoft isn't trying to compete against the Sony and Nintendo with the Zune games. The demo they showed us, a Galaga style arcade game, was closer to an iPod game or a highly polished cellphone game. Games requiring the Zune Pad on 2nd Gen Zunes won't be able to work on Zune 1, and Microsoft is still working out how to approach this discrepancy between the two models.

Also touched on was the possiblilty or API integration, where stored media on the Zune could be used in games, and wireless gaming, opening the possibility for internet or ad-hoc connectivity. While no commercial distribution model is in place, the early SDK will be available to anyone with a XNA Creators Club membership and created games can be shared amongst members. [Zune Games on Giz]

Xbox 360 XNA Arcade Games to Come to Zune

Jason Chen — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:28:13 EST

Microsoft just announced that the XNA Game Studio, the user-created games program for the Xbox 360 is coming for the Zune. The demo shown at Game Developer's Conference shows a person controlling the game with the Zune pad, pausing the game, going out and switching music on the Zune, then going back into the game. Very neat.

In addition, since the Zune has Wi-Fi, you can also do multiplayer games as well! You'll be able to multiplay from Windows to Xbox to Zune, which means that you might be able to develop one game for three platforms (with slight tweaks for each) that people can play with each other. Definitely cool. Check out Kotaku for more GDC coverage. [Kotaku and Kotaku]