Ad Viewing Required For Free Zune HD Games

UnknowingFool writes "In releasing the Zune HD, Microsoft decided not to open up software development on the new Zune to third parties yet. Today, Microsoft released a handful of free games for the Zune HD: Texas hold 'em, Sudoku, Space Battle 3, Shell Game, Of the Future, Hexic, Goo Splat and Chess, as well as calculator and weather apps. Users, however, are required to view an ad (up to 30 seconds in length) while the game starts up. While ad-supported free games are also on other platforms, like the iPhone, the difference here is that those iPhone games are from third parties and not from Apple." Reader Rock3t notes related news that the Zune HD will be getting 3D games.

MS going same way as Sun?

[AnonymousX]

Anyone remember when Sun suddenly added Yahoo toolbar, on by default btw, to the main installers and later even the upgrade installers of Java? When I first saw that, I had a suspicious that either someone at Sun made a very bad marketing decision, or things were not going well on the Sun balance sheets. Turned out to be the latter. Could Microsoft be showing the first signs of financial desperation with this stunt, or is this just someone's stupid move?

Re:Genious Marketing

[CharlyFoxtrot]

"We don't believe in coming to market like Apple - high margin, high quality, high price. We believe in high volume and low price." - Steve Ballmer speaking to TechRadar UK [techradar.com]

Personally, I prefer the Apple way but if you want to be a cheapskate and be forced to sit through ads to use a device you bought like in some cyberpunk B-movie be my guest.