New Games Released for the Zune HD

[Jason Dunn]

<p>This morning six new games (well, five games and one app) were added to the Zune Marketplace for Zune HD owners:</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1257962563.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Audiosurf Tilt</strong>: Audiosurf creates a rollercoaster ride from any song. Choose any song from your music collection and watch Audiosurf turn it into a unique roller coaster track for you to ride. The song you choose determines the shape, the speed, and the mood of each track. Tilt your Zune like a steering wheel to collect colored blocks and avoid speedbumps. Unlock more than 30 designs, each with its own special theme and color palette.</em></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Checkers</strong>: Enjoy the classic game of Checkers in a beautiful outdoor park setting. Play against the computer or against a friend.</em></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Lucky Lanes Bowling</strong>: Bowl in different game modes: exhibition, blackjack, golf. Play in five different bowling alleys with unique themes, all with the swipe of a finger. Choose from twenty different bowlers and twenty two different ball styles. You can play against the computer or play with up to four friends. </em></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Piano</strong>: Play your own tune, or play along with your favorite music on this electronic piano.</em></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Project Gotham Racing</strong>: Ferrari Edition: Tear through the streets of London, Tokyo, and New York in the Ferrari of your choice using multi touch controls and the built in accelerometer.</em></p><p><em>&bull; <strong>Vans Sk8</strong>: Pool Service: From the Admiral to the old abandoned rec center pool, Bucky Lasek and Omar Hassan know a good bowl to skate. Hit the pools and put these Vans skaters to the test with all the tricks in their bag and achieve hero status once you unlock their pro model skateboards.</em></p><p>The games still have those silly ads in front of them - I can't imagine Microsoft is making any significant money off of the ads, so I have to wonder why they exist in the first place. The app story on the Zune HD isn't a good one, so every barrier Microsoft puts in front of Zune HD customers (or reviewers) makes a bad story worse. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see these apps released, but there's still no open marketplace for developers to sell and give away their creations. The Zune HD isn't going to take off as an app platform until that happens. Microsoft is planning to release a Facebook and Twitter application, so that will please some people, but until they really allow the Zune HD to blossom as an application platform, this luke-warm app experience isn't going to lure people away from the iPod Touch. And the whole "12 seconds to start the calculator" thing has got to get fixed as well - I don't want to show apps to anyone on my Zune HD because that's just embarrassing.</p>

[bwest11]

As long as the apps and games continue to be free, I can take the 12 second ads. Just keep 'em coming!

[Phillip Dyson]

Interesting. They will license Exchange Activesync to a smartphone competitor saying that every product should compete on their own. But then stifle the Zune by not opening it up for development for fear of cannibalizing Windows Mobile.

[Jason Dunn]

But then stifle the Zune by not opening it up for development for fear of cannibalizing Windows Mobile.

I don't know if that's the case - how would it cannibalize Windows Mobile? It's not a phone. I think the real story is more that the Zune team is unsure of the direction they want to go - and they don't want to have an app store that's different than the Windows Mobile app store. I think the idea is to make them one and the same...and that takes time.

[Phillip Dyson]

I don't know if that's the case - how would it cannibalize Windows Mobile? It's not a phone.

It could cannibalize WM by potentially creating another platform and divide the developer community. Not saying its likely but they could be thinking about it.

I think the real story is more that the Zune team is unsure of the direction they want to go

I guess I don't get this part. Is there anyone in the world that doesn't understand that Apps are imperative to success? If Redmond doesn't understand that then someone needs to put in a phone call to Steve.

The Zune HD would have been a much bigger success if they came on strong with apps. That could have been:
1. come out strong with good apps
2. Contract someone like SPB to make some apps
3. Open up the SDK to the community.

and they don't want to have an app store that's different than the Windows Mobile app store. I think the idea is to make them one and the same...and that takes time.

If by one store, you mean a common platform, then that probably means we'll have to wait for WM7 before we get any momentum on Zune. Perhaps by then they will based off of the same version of Windows CE.

All speculation of course. I don't really know. But hey what forums for. :D

[Sven Johannsen]

Actually I'm not sure I need apps on my media player. I'm not much of a gamer, so those really don't excite me at all, though I understand their importance for a platform. The calculator is kind of nice, though the speed of loading is an issue. The weather app could be useful if had more than just the one screen for a city. A nice clock with maybe a wake up alarm and sleep timer would be welcome. Maybe they could add a calendar that I could sync with my desktop or a web calendar. Would be nice if I could review some documents, powerpoints, spreadsheets, while I am listening to tunes on the cummuter train. I suppose some might like an e-mail app since the thing does have web access. You know, once you put all that stuff in you almost have a little computer in your pocket...a Pocket PC if you will. Hmm I think they had something like that. Maybe they could just have put a decent media player and UI on one of those, on their own hardware. Who knows, maybe they could add phone features to it too.

[Jason Dunn]

It could cannibalize WM by potentially creating another platform and divide the developer community. Not saying its likely but they could be thinking about it.

The Zune team is very tight-lipped about exactly what is under the hood on the Zune, but the NVIDIA Tegra is an ARM processor, the same type of CPU as what's on Windows Phones/Windows Mobile devices. So they have a lot in common in terms of a development platform...it's less about dividing the platform and more about both of them coming together as a single development platform.