Confirmed: Zune HD Will Play Games

The Zune HD media player will also be a portable gaming device, with a handful of games available when the sleek gadget launches Tuesday, a Microsoft representative told Wired.com.

At this summer’s E3 videogame conference, Microsoft said only that the upcoming Zune HD would play nice with the Xbox 360. But a series of video ads prematurely released this weekend — then quickly yanked at Microsoft’s request — hinted that Zune HD would be a platform for portable gaming, putting it in direct competition with Apple’s iPhone, Sony’s PSP and the Nintendo DS.

The leaked clips, originally posted by Buy.com, quickly spread across the web after they were pulled from the site.

The brief glimpse of 3-D gaming functionality and the bit where the narrator says that the Zune HD will “play games” occurs 30 seconds into the clip, embedded right.

The rest of the Zune HD promos, touting features like HD radio and Xbox integration, can be found at Neowin.

The game seen in the yanked clip appears to be Forza Motorsport 3, an upcoming racing title published by Microsoft and due out for Xbox 360 this October. Microsoft promises more news soon regarding games on Zune HD.