Allard: Gaming 'tricky' on Zune

Microsoft's entry into portable gaming has been long awaited, but it appears as if it will finally become a reality. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, then-Microsoft executive Peter Moore said the company's Zune media player would add gaming functionality sometime in the middle of 2008. Since then, several unsubstantiated rumors predicted a line of simplified Xbox Live Arcade games that could be transferred to the Zune.

With Microsoft introducing its revamped line of Zunes this week, Reuters blogger Daisuke Wakabayashi spoke with Zune project head J Allard to talk about the new hardware. Wakabayashi asked Allard about how his experience launching the original Xbox helped in establishing Microsoft in the media-player market. He also inquired about the Zune's gaming prospects, which Allard downplayed somewhat.

"I love games and maybe for someone with a 40-minute commute, it might be an interesting scenario," Allard said. "Thus far, the market really hasn't proven out that it is a great scenario. Customer satisfaction with what has been done isn't that high."

He also noted that the changing technology in media players is another hurdle.

"The rate of innovation, turnover, and variety of form factors makes it a tricky proposition," Allard said. "That said, we have a lot of flexibility and a lot of magical software. What we've done with XNA is an incredibly portable environment designed to abstract some of the hardware differences. We'll see where that takes us. We're always thinking, but the Zune isn't playing Halo 3 anytime soon."