claire de zune

here’s the two step plan to make the zune more than an ipod. it’s incredibly simple and requires a lot of work but would definately succeed in making the device more attractive on the next product generation, which will probably be in a year or two.

a — add two buttons above the screen. thus, when holding the thing sideways, the d-pad is on the left, and two action buttons are on the right. make the device ambidextrous so if people prefer to switch it around, they can do that.
b — make a contra style sidescroller based on gears of war.

bam. you’ve just turned the zune’s widescreen video mode into a gamepad, and developed a killer app to take advantage of the built-in wifi and impending live support. co-op 2d gears of war? sold.

you could do 3d, but then you have to add two joysticks to your mp3 player, and you’re starting to design a different device. the idea is to make a simple improvement to an existing product, not make a tiny 360 that can also play music.

the zune already has the power and memory to render video and graphics, so it wouldn’t take more than a few more buttons to make it game ready. add a zune category on live arcade, and you’re set.

i can’t wait to play worms on my zune 2.