Microsoft has made it quite clear – it doesn’t see any long term market for standalone handheld gaming devices, instead they have been positioning Windows Phone with Xbox sLive integration as the more viable solution. This is of course in contrast to both Sony and Nintendo that both believe that their dedicated handhelds offer a much more robust experience when it comes to mobile gaming.

In an interview with Industry Gamers Microsoft’s COO of the Xbox brand Dennis Durkin had this to say:

“I’m not sure I would want to be launching a dedicated portable device right now into that market. I think the DS – if you look at the 3DS, certainly versus people’s expectation’s it’s not been as successful as people would have thought. So that’s a very crowded market and a very, very red ocean right now with a lot of change happening. So I’m not sure it’s [a good idea],” he told Industry Gamers. “You only have a certain number of bets you can make as a company and you have to decide what you want to put your wood behind and I’m just not sure that that’s a place that I would put mine.”

What do you think? Is Microsoft correct in continuing with its Windows Phone Xbox Live integration or should the Zune become a dedicated gaming handheld?

[Cross-posted at Winextra]