For years when asked if Microsoft was going to enter the Portable gaming market, Microsoft has firmly denied rumors and any desire of ever entering. But it seems Zune HD may be making a subtle emergence as Microsoft's Portable gaming console with Microsoft Gaming Studios announcing a Zune HD port of the highly acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series.

For the past three years, Microsoft's Zune has chased Apple's iPod. It has been a hopeless race in which the Zune, despite an attractive design, aggressive pricing, and a decent music service, has never won more than a minuscule share of the market. Microsoft, nothing if not persistent, is hoping to change the game with its newest Zune by exploiting links to the one big success story from its Mobile & Entertainment Devices group: the Xbox. You share downloaded movies and TV shows between the Zune and the Xbox, but more important, the new Zune HD could be a game machine. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for Microsoft and its partners to provide some actual games and other applications before we can judge the potential of the excellent hardware.

DragoniteBallZ via businessweek.com »