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MS Portable Not A Game Player?
Though Microsoft's 'Argo' (now known to be bearing the name 'Zune') is most assuredly a shot at the iPod, it may not be going after the handheld gaming market. Gamespot explores rumours stating that the 'Zune' is simply a first step on Microsoft's road into that particular sector of the games industry. From the article: "The Zune could also just be the first step towards something bigger. People are already speculating about Xbox 360 integration with the device, beginning with streaming audio, like the iPod currently does. But add a few buttons, a thumbstick, and a little more horsepower, and the Zune could soon be singing gamers' tunes." I'd imagine we'll see some simple Xbox Live Arcade style games, which will impact your Xbox gamertag via Live Anywhere. With Vista pushed out to January, they've got to have something to show this Christmas.
Haven't you heard? Ridiculous system names are the new In. Except Sony to rename their new console to the Playstation Wii ..
microsoft has this problem, see. too much hard cash laying around, not enough to do with it. so they invent ways to blow it. except they don't invent at all - they merely copy what everyone else is doing, only throw a huge budget at it the first and often the 2nd generation, just to play catch-up with the originators.
this poses the problem of market saturation - too many devices from too many companies. consumer dollars are spread too thin, and even the originators have a tough time justifying throwing money at surprising and untried ideas. result of course is a slower rate of innovation. the technology improves, but the application of it doesn't keep pace. i'm sure there are a wealth of new devices or integrated multifunctions that could come about if companies felt less concern that they would simply be copied and the market flooded, vastly reducing the returns on the creator's original product.
then again, isn't that the point of capitalism? to balance the economic power of companies by discouraging monopoly, and fostering competition? and in the process, building a social meritocracy, where the most deserving and useful members of society are aptly rewarded. as a firm capitalist, i find it almost amusing that microsoft was prosecuted for monopoly abuse, but is a company which most firmly represents the capitalist ideal of active competitiveness, and proper incentive provided to the employee.
i must qualify the above statements by saying that i work in an all-windows noc with a vpn that spans north america, india, and soon asia and north africa. and surprisingly, most things work decently. we do have 9 sun machines and the 5 linux phone switches (eOns n such), but am not personally a microsoft user.
What we're looking at is the beginning of a new product line. We all know how Microsoft does things -- piece by piece.
This round it's more likely than not that we'll get a very high profile, seriously marketed, media player with a few minor games and the potential for expandability within their overall product line and future focus.
Microsoft really wants focus to be on the 360 this year. They have a major battle to win, and diluting their own market would be a serious mistake. I expect it will be mid-way through this console generation that we'll see them making serious portable gaming moves.
Many of us drew the same conclusions as this article, days ago.
I think part of it might be the inherent connectivity between a Game System and a Handheld finally kicking in.
:D )
Until now, the only popular Game Systems that could interact with a handheld came from Nintendo (yes there were others but Nintendo has dominated the handheld market for a while now).
Fast forward to the 'new' generation.
The Wii can connect with the DS (and/or GBA?).
The PS3 can connect with the PSP.
The XBox 360 can connect with the?
I know a few Nintendo and Playstation titles have started exploring this in the generation thats ending (Gamecube/PS2), but this crossover play is something that really hasn't been explored much (although ironically, in Japan, cell phones are being hooked into the equation as well).
If you are expecting to see this sort of thing as a "wave of the future" then of course [sarcasm] MS must be developing their own handheld, or else be ready to give up that advantage to their competitors [/sarcasm]
I don't expect MS to tackle the handheld market just yet, competing with the iPod seems an easier target (the content already exists, you don't have to develop/publish it).
It also seems a harder target (most people love their iPod more than their handheld, of course a good device that did both would ROCK
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As the old saying goes, hire one boy to mow they lawn, you get one boy. Hire two boys, and you get half a boy. Hire three boys and you get none.
Why: because it's work dealing with colleagues. Or maybe play, but either way your get less productive time per person because of interaction overhead.
Similarly, if ten engineers can finish a project in a year, it's almost certainly the case that 120 engineers won't be able to finish the project in a month. Some problems can't be cleanly decomposed, which means the limiting factor is going to be a sequence of such prblems that require a irreducible quantity of time on a lead engineer's brain. In fact, in a less than perfectly administered project, 120 engineers might take longer than a year, as your most experienced engineers find more and more of their time eaten up with supervisory issues and meetings. A perfectly managed project that could be done in a year by ten engineers, but had 120 at its disposal, might take a hundred of the surplus engineers and put them in a different building, occasionally sending them a problem to work on but not seeing them on a day to day basis. Or maybe it would break the 120 enginers up into six or more teams and let them work independently, and see who succeeds first.
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I'll still use my old trusty Tapwave Zodiac II for my combo music/gaming handheld. Even if there aren't going to be any new games for it anymore, it still plays music great, I can surf the web with it, IM, play games, and whatever else I feel like doing with it without having to hack the crap out of it to do so.