Xbox replaces Zune brand in Windows 8 (report)
With Windows 8, Microsoft will be replacing its Zune music and video service brand with the "Xbox Live for Windows" name, while its Windows Live applications will become part of a bundle of "Windows Communications" preinstalled apps and "Windows Live ID" will renamed "Microsoft Account,", according to a report in The Verge.
According to The Verge (which says that Zune Pass functionality remains):
Microsoft's Xbox team is handling the creation and management of the Metro style Video and Music applications within Windows 8, and we previously heard that Windows 8 will move to "Xbox Live for Windows" as the entertainment brand for Windows 8 Music, Video and Games shortly before its release.
The beginning of this re-branding of Zune services apparently begins with the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8, which is scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday in Barcelona.
Microsoft had already killed off the Zune music player -- the hardware device -- last year, although Zune services such as the Music Pass remained, as did Zune software via Windows Phone and on PCs.
The rebranding would mean the name Zune -- not associated with one of Microsoft's great successes -- would be taken over by a Microsoft brand that is going gangbusters: Xbox.
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