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Microsoft Handheld Gaming in 2007? 48

Posted by Zonk from the x-parcel dept.
1up is reporting on speculation from analysts 'The Diffusion Group', who have forecast a handheld gaming device from Microsoft sometime in the next two years. From the article: "It's an analyst group's speculation and should be taken as such, but simultaneously one has to wonder what is the likelihood of Microsoft bringing a PGC to its platform library. A portable entry seemed like the next logical step for Microsoft before E3 -- and that logic was confirmed by the announcement of Live Anywhere at E3 -- a handheld platform would certainly make a solid launching pad for the mobile arm of Live Anywhere, wouldn't it?"
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Microsoft Handheld Gaming in 2007? More

Microsoft Handheld Gaming in 2007?

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  • Origami? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Brunellus ( 875635 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @12:36PM (#15437109) Homepage

    ...so those totally-unfounded rumors of someone playing Halo on an Origami prototype start seeming a bit more substantial.

  • How many analysts need to predict an MS handheld before MS either admits they're working on it or the analysts get bored and give up. Seriously if it's already been predicted by someone else is it even still a prediction, or just agreement with a previous prediction?

    Besides I don't think MS will be going after a handheld of their own so much as pushing a new universal gaming software. Some form of windows/direct X that they can push to PDA and Cell phone makers. I think they'd want this more from the sof
    • The thing is that gaming "platforms" don't work. Look at the problem with cellphones and gaming. Even if they all had the same Java implementation, which they don't, the devices would have different capabilities, different processors, blah blah blah. It worked with 3DO, but the units were too expensive for something without hardware 3D acceleration (making the name particularly questionable) and they died. However, they mandated the same core hardware, with only the peripheral parts of the puzzle to be deve

    • Re:How may Predictions? (Score:4, Informative)

      by PhoenixOne ( 674466 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @03:03PM (#15438480)
      Yes, Microsoft has already said exactly that. See XNA [wikipedia.org] and Live Anywhere [wikipedia.org].
  • I would love to see this. have games similar to those from www.addictinggames.com downloadable for a couple bucks onto a handheld.

    Have microsoft charge little or give a simple "flash games-esk" SDK and make money as a publisher/distributer of cheap and simple timewasting games.
  • Isn't the Origami just a small tablet PC running a variation of Windows XP? I have a Sony Vaio U70 from a couple of years ago that's essentially the same thing as these Origami computers and that thing has Halo installed on it. It runs quite well, I might add, except for the fact it doesn't run with some of the more advanced visual effects.

    Maybe you were making a joke and I completely missed it.

  • Oblig (Score:1)

    by Kesch ( 943326 )
    What we all want to know is, "Can I put Linux on it?"
    • What? You haven't gotten marked as a troll yet?

      Shame on the /. gestapo!

      THIS POSTER IS OBVIOUSLY A TROLL!

      (When you do get Linux on the MS handheld let me know. I'd love to try it myself.)

      TROLL, I SAY!
    • Actually, my question is "I wonder how hard I have to throw it at the wall to break it".

  • History of failures ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @12:51PM (#15437263)
    Sega Game Gear
    Atari Linx
    Neo Geo Pocket
    Wonderswan Color
    N-Gage
    (potentially) PSP
    and many more ...

    Every company that has ever thought of entering the gaming market has decided to produce a handheld device, which is (almost) always assumed to be the end to Nintendo's dominance. Every last one of them has had all success limited to a region and been eventually knocked out of the market by Nintendo.

    Essentially, if Microsoft wanted to lose another billion dollars a year with limited success in the gaming market I would advise them to produce a handheld gaming device ... if they ever want to trun a profit though ...
    • Mod parent up.

      His post captures the situation beautifully. There's simply no profit in challenging Nintendo's dominance in the handheld market.

      If I were to point to a single factor as key to the demise of all the above handhelds, it would be that they tried to use technology far in excess of the battery technology, pricing models, and media formats that consumers would accept. Yet they almost have to make that tradeoff to compete.

      If a new handheld device positions itself behind the technology curve (like th
      • "There's simply no profit in challenging Nintendo's dominance in the handheld market."

        Although I've traditionally sided with Nintendo, I must say that I don't agree with this statement. Competition is always encouraged. What I've noticed is that Nintendo has seen no benefit from going into a hardware "Arms war" in the primary console market and they've learned from that, hence the DS and the Wii. The benefit to them is an expanding consumer base, and the benefit to us is less of the "same old, same o

    • PSP's sales have kept exceedingly high, and it has done quite well. It is not a potentially failure, it's already succeded in offering gamers a new way to play handheld games, and has brought much needed competition to a virtual monopoly. Just because it's not dominating the handheld scene, doesn't mean it's not a success. I point you to XBox and the GameCube.
      • Oh of course! I say competition is a good thing, and I get modded down for trolling. Only on slashdot
      • I point you to XBox and the GameCube.

        Which were both also failures, as admitted even by Nintendo. But at least they had more than two or three worthwhile games, unlike the PSP.

        The PSP is a failure already (especially judged by the expectations people and Sony had for it), and if Sony can't get a few more good, new PSP games out, it'll be dead by this time next year.

  • And it will run Microsoft Vista Pocket Gaming Edition Premium Platinum 20ought8.
  • Maybe it's just me here but does anyone really care? Sony and Microsoft don't want to make a games console. They want to sell more crap which also play games (Media centres and such). Nintendo have more or less bitch slapped the PSP and gone "And stay down n00b" with the DS. I really doubt MS can do any better, and even if they do the DS is already so big that it won't matter. People are saving for the next gen console set (360, PS3 and Wii), so won't buy another handheld for another year or two at least.

    Pl
    • "Plus lets be honest here, WTF does the Xbox have that will work on a small scale?"

      Xbox Live Arcade, of course. Imagine that, instead of hauling around UMDs, cartridges, or whatever, that your handheld had a micro drive, or flash storage (flash RAM has been dropping like a stone these days). You'd buy games from Live Arcade, and they'd work on your your Xbox 360 or your Xbox 180 (as I like to call the theoretical handheld). Maybe they could be combined with Live Anywhere and sold on PCs and mobile phones, i
    • I agree, not so much with the "not having killer apps", my friends with XBoxen are quite happy with them, and say that there are quite a few great games for the system. But what's going to be a problem is that MS never had experience with "simple games", in fact, any developers who seem to be working on any kind of simple games (ie: 2D) are usually put out to pasture. Nintendo had years of experience with the NES and SNES. They have a huge back catalog to grab onto to support a portable system. While a few

      • NOONE is more entrenched in the portable market than Nintendo, in fact, noone else has ever succeeded with a handheld.

        I didn't know Peter Noone was in on the Palm platform.

  • AFAIK, Xbox/Xbox360 are just bleeding money on this business unit.
    Why would MS rush into a secondary market when they haven't even made money on the primary market?
    It makes sense to do some R&D, but a 2007 release is unlikely.
    But... with Zillions in cash reserves and not being apologetic about their operating costs, anything is possible.
  • Quick, trademark P-Box and Pbox...and pbox360

    I can see it now, going into a store: "Can I have one Mega P Box Bundle, you know, the one that comes with the free cleaning brush"

  • This "analyst speculation" flies in the face of what Microsoft is actually doing in the handheld realm - namely, giving fairly strong support to the DS. There's a version of Mechassault on its way, and Rare is doing up a new version of Diddy Kong Racing with some fairly nice extras (better graphics and a touchscreen-based track editor). If these rumors were true, I'd bet they wouldn't be using their licenses or developers for the benefit of a semi-direct competitor.
  • Lets face it ( I have ) Nintendo dominates in hand held gaming. Like the iPod and digital music players, the Gameboy is iconic for this market.

    The PSP is an utter failure. Sony tried to make a portable game console that uses the same gaming concepts that makes its PS and PS2 popular, but they ignored that portable gaming is not about sports games, or even complicated RPGs or First person shooters. Portable gaming is about 20 - 60 minutes of diversion while sitting on a bus or riding a plane or putting yo
    • I don't know/ For one thing, there are a (small) handful of good traditional-handheld games on the PSP...Lumines, Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2, Hot Shots Golf, Katamari, etc. And frankly, the other games you discuss are, by and large, well done. The market that the PSP is trying to corner has been more or less untapped to date (the DS has tried, but for the most part can't do it) and it's not for lack of desire. I -want- the type of games the PSP does.

      That said, there are some problems.

      The first, and I think

    • There isn't even a tetris game out for the PSP.

      That's because Nintendo probably bought an exclusive license from The Tetris Company LLC.

  • MS had several reasons to launch the x-box. First MS is always looking at a way to make itself less depended on its two cash cows windows and office. To achieve this they tried to get into internet, content, web-tv, mobile phones, high performance computing etc etc.

    Either they fear something happening to their cash generators or they are just on the quest for more money.

    So far perfectly normal business.

    But another reason is that they went into consoles to stop Sony. MS fundamentlly believes that the PC o

  • a handheld platform would certainly make a solid launching pad for the mobile arm of Live Anywhere, wouldn't it?

    No. Get over it. Microsoft is not going to launch a handheld, they're crazy not stupid.

  • My Dell Axim X51v came with Bubble Breaker & Solitaire!

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