Microsoft provides new Windows 7 phone game and app details
I left GDC this year with a lot of uneasiness about
the state of gaming on Windows 7 phones. The selling point for me was the
synergy the phones would share with Xbox Live, though the sessions and
conversations about Windows phones as a development platform worried me, as it
became obvious that gaming experiences would not be identical between platforms
despite the services sharing a Live backend. On one hand, you've got to develop
to each platform's strengths, but if I earn Achievements, I want it to be for
things that I can do on my Xbox 360.
The news coming out of Microsoft's MIX10 is starting
to win back my favor for the development platform. The company announced today
that it would be making a development suite available to interested creators as
a free download, giving game creators easy access to tools like the XNA Game
Studio. If the platform can build an development community with 1/10th the
creativity an ingenuity of the iPhone app creation scene and tie it into the
Xbox Live service in a non-sacrilegious manner, the platform could find footing
amongst the hardcore gaming crowd.
MIX10 has also provided an opportunity for Microsoft
to expand upon Windows 7 phone details that fall outside the realm of gaming. One
such category is Netflix streaming, which has been a major boon to all three
current consoles expanding their media suites. It seems as though the
movie-rental company is once again providing a killer app for Microsoft first,
as a prototype of the company's "Watch Instantly" streaming service
was shown at the conference. We'll undoubtedly learn more about the various
games and services coming to Windows phones as MIX10 continues and the mobile
platform approaches its holiday 2010 launch.
Source: gamepro.com