Sorry, everybody who bought a Zune HD! You screwed up. It won’t be a part of the XNA Game Studio 4.0 party – meaning it won’t play those new mobile Xbox Live games for Windows Phone 7 – unlike the Zune HD2.
It’s through Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio 4.0 that developers get access to the Xbox Live goodness, using Gamer Services APIs. And that’s not in the cards for the plain old Zune HD, according to Microsoft’s Klucher:
“Development for the Zune and Zune HD will continue to exist in XNA Game Studio 3.1, however, in XNA Game Studio 4.0, we’re encouraging you to migrate your games over to the Windows Phone 7 Series platform.”
That’s where the Zune HD2 comes in, which Mary Jo Foley hears is in the pipe, and “will be similar to an iPod Touch”, and could ship as early as this year. In other words, it’ll presumably be a part of that “Windows Phone 7 Series platform” and run Windows Phone 7 apps.
Which is what Microsoft will need – as many devices as possible running WP7 apps to give the platform a running start, and a wide base of them that don’t require carrier contracts isn’t a bad idea. Like Steve Jobs once supposedly referred to the iPod touch as “training wheels for the iPhone”, devices running around with Xbox Live games and Zune music, getting people hooked on the platform early, the people who aren’t quite ready for a full phone (though maybe that’s where the mysterious Project Pink comes in), is almost a necessity, really.
But, uh, everybody who already bought a Zune HD. Um, yeah. Sorry? [ZDNet]
Jubbin Grewal
March 10, 2010 at 3:59 PM
Thats bull… what was the point of buying a Zune HD if the HD2 will have so much over its predecessor in just a year.
Report PermalinkThomas Hambleton
March 10, 2010 at 7:01 PM
It still does exactly what you paid your money for it to do. I don’t thik MS promised an unlimited lifetime for the ZuneHD. Do you complain to Ford every time they update a car demanding your old car be upgraded for free?
Lesson #1 in the tech world: Buy shit based on what it can currently do, not vague misty ideas of what it might do in the future perhaps maybe if the manufacturer feels like it.
Report PermalinkJarrard
March 10, 2010 at 4:52 PM
hence the sorry? lol
guessing 2011 will be the zune phone.
Report Permalinkmatt
March 10, 2010 at 5:53 PM
I guess thats why they only released it in the states, still, sucks for them.
that is shitty service Microsoft. I have absolutely 0 respect for you in the hand held market atm… honestly, I prefer Apple to MS when it comes to the hand-held market.
Report PermalinkStefan
March 10, 2010 at 9:47 PM
Well the big question is… Will it be available in every other bloody english speaking country apart from America!!!!
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