Zune to Play Games By July 2008

Microsoft confirms plans for games on its Zune media player.

Microsoft expects to introduce games to its Zune media player by July 2008, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division, confirmed the news, citing the large screen as a better way to play handheld games. Microsoft expects to sell one million units by June 2007.

Robert Bach, President of Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft, is happy with the Zune’s progress and told analysts, “We see a lot of positive traction and good customer feedback on the product. We are going to continue to invest for the foreseeable future.” Adding videogames is one of many ideas planned to be implemented with the Zune hardware. Planned system improvements include a move to flash memory from hard drives, wireless video sharing and a phone version.