In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft Game Studios VP Shane Kim says he's "happy" the company never got into the handheld market, explaining the division has plenty on its plate with the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. He goes pretty deep into the issue, almost shutting down the idea of the Xboy entirely by expressing Microsoft is happy to let Sony and Nintendo fight it out.

Kim believes mobile is more important for MS and Windows Mobile is a really "compelling opportunity" for the company. He explains that it's a way for the company to get into the arena without having to worry about creating more hardware. Microsoft has certainly learned that making good hardware isn't easy and can be hazardous.

A recent Ziff-Davis survey – distributed amongst subscribers to their 1UP, EGM, and Games for Windows Magazine brands – asked "If Microsoft came out with a portable gaming device (similar to PSP, Nintendo DS/Lite, etc.), how likely are you to purchase the device?" Answers are comprised of the typical survey stuff, Very Likely to Not at All Likely with a Don't Know thrown in for the more indecisive gamers out there.

While rumblings concerning the long-rumored Xboy have been plenty scarce of late, Shane Kim did address it during a Q&A at the D.I.C.E. seminar held earlier this month. As reported by Gamasutra, he said, "Never say never ... Launching a portable device is like launching a Zune, launching another Xbox 360... we have a ways to go [to compete effectively in the music space]... Zune is not just about the device, it's about the service as well."

Considering that he sure didn't seem eager to say "enn oh" the idea that Redmond is soliciting consumer interest in such a device is far from surprising. However, if they're still at the whole "Does anyone want this thing?" phase, it would be quite some time before any of us got our mitts on an honest-ta-gawd Xboy.



[Thanks, Matt & Jonas]

In a lengthy and comprehensive Q&A conducted by New York Time's games journo Seth Schiesel with Microsoft Game Studios' veep Shane Kim at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, the two go a couple rounds hitting on everything from big AAA titles like Halo, to ActiBlizzion, to the departure of the Bs (Bungie, Bizarre, BioWare), all the way over to the long-rumored (and so far totally fictitious) Xboy.

Gamasutra was there to detail all the good bits in a lengthy writeup that we'd be doing you a total disservice by trying to condense. Check it: digital downloads, Vista-only PC games, console war winners, third-party sales, mass-market appeal, Grand Theft Auto IV, console lifespan, PS3 growth in Europe ...

... phew. See? Comprehensive.

In the continuing effort to sling a rock straight into the iPod's forehead, Microsoft has revealed plans to bring games to their Zune series of portable music players. How Zune? According to a Bloomberg.com report, you can expect pleasant beeps and boops to emanate from the player by July 2008. You might recall that Apple also recently embraced gaming on their somewhat popular iPod range.

No specific games have been mentioned yet, though recent CES developments might give you a fairly strong clue. Expect arcade games like Geometry Wars and Uno to make the jump, complete with wireless play and Live Anywhere integration. Popular franchises (hello Halo) may give Microsoft more traction in their struggle against the iPod, at least where portable games are concerned. As New York analyst Michael Gartenburg puts it, "It's not like the music enthusiasts have been flocking to Zune, and they need to really answer Apple in terms of feature parity."

With the battle between audio players now spilling into the gaming arena, winners and losers become more and more difficult to spot in the cloud of dust. Can music lovers be swayed by other diversions? And what do the PSP and DS have to say in the matter?

See also: All things Xboy

Microsoft's Xbox-team-created, would be iPod killer, the awkwardly named Zune, will supposedly share the Live Anywhere architecture with cell phones and Vista boxen, extending the Xbox experience to your music playing handheld (not Xboy). Digital Music News reports:

"Part of the plan to attract [iPod] users involves a 'Live Anywhere' architecture, which includes WiFi-based sharing, a 'we not me' community approach, and 'connected entertainment'. Driving the project will be the Xbox team and philosophy, which confirms earlier reports. According to recent sources, the player will be spearheaded by 'the team that designed and launched Xbox,' and the 'intention is the use the Xbox and the Xbox community as an entry point' for the upcoming release."

Sounds really swell, all right. Problem is, with a rumored $399 price point (that's the same price as an Xbox 360!) for a 30GB Zune, Microsoft's going to try their hand at the luxury pricing model that's been working well for some while resulting in a lot of flak for others. We know J is cooler than a ship full of tattooed ninja pirates (his stylist told us as much), but will his stewardship coupled with the Xbox "philosophy" really sell MP3 players. Go ahead and color us skeptical ... but be gentle.

[Via Engadget]

If Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times is to be believed (he seems like a nice enough fellow), Microsoft is not only poised to release an Xboy this Christmas, but will have it interacting with Xgirl, Xuncle and Xred-headed step-child, the latter of which will probably prove a formidable challenge to market. All part of Project Argo -- the name of the warship that carried Greek Mythology's Jason around -- the project jokingly dubbed Xboy seems to be a full attack on that popular, more fruitful music player and it is likely to be waged on multiple fronts. As Mr. Dudley writes, the project "being developed is actually a complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products, including a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service."

Under the leadership of General J. Allard, the branded media players will go to war with the iPod, the DS and the PSP with Wi-Fi at their disposal, as well as the backing of music companies, online media services and presumably, blitzkrieg marketing tactics. The article also mentions the support of the touted XNA platform, no doubt paving the way for easy support for existing Microsoft platform games.

What you can take from the Seattle Times article is this: Microsoft is pushing hard to release a killer portable device this Christmas, one complete with Wi-Fi capabilities and an online X-tunes service which may very well be home to familiar games and properties. We can only pray that the inevitable portable version of Halo isn't dubbed Hago.

Previously:

• Xbox-alum all over iPod killer; Xboy next?
• Microsoft's portable system out this year?

It's getting increasingly plain to see that the boys in Redmond have something up their sleeve. We've been hearing rumors about a portable Xbox (lovingly dubbed the Xboy) for a while, and now they've been coupled with rumors of another piece of Microsoft-manufactured hardware: the long-awaited iPod killer.

Last time Microsoft decided to skip the software-licensing route (read: Dreamcast) and go straight to making the whole thing themselves, they tapped Robbie Bach to lead the charge and his team gave us the Xbox. Now, according to Reuters, they've tapped Bach again (thanks to a promotion and some shuffling around in Microsoft's Entertainment division) to create a "music and video device" to compete with Apple's iPod. Does this lend any more credence to the Xboy rumors? And does it remove the "need" for the Xboy to be the all-singing, all-dancing jack of all trades of portable entertainment devices?

[Via Blogging Stocks; image: Playbomb]

Until Microsoft unveils its (rumored) contribution to mobile gaming, we'll have to settle for its (much bigger) daddy. Dave over at portablesystems.net has posted a bunch of photos from his portable Xbox hack which features a decent sized LCD, battery power and a surprisingly authentic green paint job. You've got to marvel at the effort that must have gone into this project, although you'll excuse us for being equally excited at the prospect of seeing the Xman's offspring.

[Via Engadget]

Ubi fumus, ibi ignis. When there's smoke, there's fire. And there's a ton of smoke pouring out of the Xboy rumor, so how far behind can the fire be? According to a new report (available here for the princely sum of $2490) released on Tuesday by analyst firm The Diffusion Group, Microsoft is planning to join the portable gaming market by 2008, giving the 360 some time to pick up steam. TechWeb lists several key reasons why MS would want to enter another gaming market when they're still relative newcomers to the one they're in:

1. All the other kids are doing it: both Sony and Nintendo are doing quite well for themselves in the handheld gaming space.
   
2. More platforms for software means more potential software sales which means more royalties and more outlets for their recent in-game ad buy.
3. Oh yeah, the iPod. Educated guessers everywhere are saying the Xboy ain't gonna be just for games; expect a PSP-styled iPod killer. Good luck with that, fellas.

Of course this represents a significant investment on Microsoft's part, but the successes thus far of the Xbox project have proven this team's ability to get stuff done (unlike other Redmond teams). So either we could be seeing another handheld in 2008 or we'll chalk it up to rumor. Rumores volant. Rumors fly.

Smoke:
The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Peter Moore
Takahashi: Microsoft portable coming halfway through 360's lifespan
Xbox vets behind MSFT's portable game device
Microsoft working on plans for portable gaming device
Xbox portable: fall 2007, spring 2010, somewhere in between, or never?
Portable Xbox mockups

[Thanks, cringer8]

This morning, Vlad Cole and I had an opportunity to chat with Microsoft's Peter Moore, the man responsible for marketing the Xbox 360. When we last pinned him down at CES, there were still so many unanswered questions about the competition. After Sony and Nintendo's keynotes at E3, not to mention their own, the time was ripe to ask him about a portable Xbox, the Nintendo Wii complementing the Xbox 360, the Sony Dual Shake controller, and where he got that ink on his arm.

Forgive me if I interrupt you, if I hear something that I already heard at the press briefing, I might cut your answer short a little bit. Congratulations on Gears of War. Everyone is saying it looks and plays awesome. It actually appears to be head and shoulders above everything we're seeing on the show floor. Is that a conscious choice to keep it off the floor itself, so that the comparison gap doesn't pop?

No, not really. I think the idea is that the game deserves hands-on. We're trying to show it to as many people as we can up here. The team at Epic is really so conscious of the quality of what they're doing and presenting that bringing them up here, we'll get thousands of people through in the end, they churn people through pretty quickly, there was no conscious effort, no.

So where are the rest of the games that look this good?

Here? That depends on your ... you tell me. What is it that you think is missing?

There does appear to be a gap in quality between that and everything else. It's just head and shoulders above. We're wondering if there are other titles that will match that by the time they come out.

Quality of gameplay, graphics, depth, immersion? It's all subjective. I'm biased on all of them. Games like Crackdown: different visual style, different genre. But, it's coming together really well. Mass Effect. I was on some blogs last night where people are spending some time on it and are really impressed with it. Dave Perry and a few other people wrote some really strong stories about Mass Effect. That's a weird question ... I mean, which of my children do I love more?

According to Dean Takahashi's new book, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, the Xbox 360's hardware team have been divided in two: half to work on reducing production costs for the Xbox 360, and the other half is at work on making a portable console (we've blogged about this before). The portable, we've learned, is meant to launch halfway through the life span of the Xbox 360, when sales usually start to decline due to announcements about next-generation home consoles (Xbox 720?).

Will we see any announcements at E3? Highly doubtful, but we would suspect an unveiling at E3 2007.

[update 1: fixed typo, time]

Dean Takahashi of The Mercury News breaks news this morning that Microsoft is working on a portable gaming device that--like the PSP--does video, music, and games too. This news confirms numerous rumors that such a device was in the works.

J Allard is leading the team, with Greg Gibson (system designer for Xbox 360) and Bryan Lee (finance chief for Xbox business), according to the report.

The device is still in its early stages and may not hit store shelves until 2007, writes Takahashi. That's just about enough time for Sony's redesigned PSP and Nintendo's re-re-redesigned DS to be right there with it.

[Thanks, Karsten]

In a very timely article (considering the recent news concerning Nintendo) BusinessWeek online brings us some insider information on a possible Microsoft branded portable digital media device. Sources inside the company suggest that Microsoft has put together a team that's considering the business end of an initiative to unseat Apple's iPod. Based on previous commentary by Xbox boss Peter Moore, the device would play games alongside music and videos, in an attempt to differentiate it from the multitude of "iPod beaters" (and failers).

If Microsoft goes ahead with such a device, it'll have to ask itself whether or not it wants to include it as part of the Xbox family. As BusinessWeek puts it, "If the new device comes with the Xbox brand, most consumers will view it as a game player, like Sony's PlayStation Portable. That might limit its appeal, since the portable gaming market is much smaller than the one for digital media." In the past Sony have confused us over the intended purpose of the PSP, so it's likely an Xbox-to-go would suffer similarly. Trying to simultaneously master the portable music and video player market alongside the portable gaming market is not an easy task.

If Microsoft decides to go ahead with a portable games machine (we mused about this possibility a couple of months ago) the next few years will be very interesting indeed for portable gaming.

[Image credit goes to Playbomb]

Here's a fun question to chew on for the weekend. If Microsoft were to launch a handheld device, when would they attempt to do so, and what preconditions would need to be satisfied first?

To be clear: Microsoft has repeatedly noted that they've got no interest in launching a handheld gaming device at this time and that they're wholly focused on the Xbox 360. However, if they were to establish a solid position for the Xbox 360, might they turn their attention to growing the empire?

Seeing as how we'll know soon what the Revolution controller is going to look like, wannabe hardware designers need a new outlet for their creative talents. May we suggest mocking up your very own portable Xbox system?

Sure, Gates has declared no interest in creating a portable Xbox device, but we all know it's inevitable. With the Xbox 360 safely launched this Giftmas season, what will Microsoft announce at E3 2006? Maybe the Xbox Portable? Hmmm?

What do you reckon they'll call it? And what do you wanna bet it attaches to the Xbox 360 via the optional docking slot?

[Via Aeropause]