Windows Phone 7 Gaming and Xbox Live

Engadget is running a preview of Microsoft's attempt to bring Xbox Live to upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices. Launch titles will include Guitar Hero, Castlevania, and Halo: Waypoint, and many of the features from the console version of Xbox Live will make the transition intact. Quoting: "Live on WP7 will allow for full avatar integration (we're talking fully rendered, interactive avatars) along with customization (clothes, accessories, and more). The company has even crafted an avatar-centric version of familiar phone utilities like flashlight apps and levels, adding some whimsy to what would normally be pretty staid affairs. Additionally, messaging, friend lists / status, achievements, and leaderboards (with friend comparisons) are all here as well, making for a pretty complete mobile Xbox Live experience. And also just like the console, every game will have a try-before-you buy demo to check out before spending your hard-earned cash."

Comments

Profit

[Danieljury3]

So they've taken avatars which serve hardly any purpose, created large numbers of useless items for these useless avatars, charges money for these useless items and then integrated them into applications and platforms where they will continue to serve no purpose. In summery they are going to succeed in charging money for what is effectively nothing. Not surprising from any company these days.

Re:Profit

[odies]

Eh, nowhere in the article it says it will cost something. Live is free on Windows too (though not so used besides a few titles).

Live is also a lot more than just some stupid avatars. Matchmaking, online games, friends, achievements and so on work great and the same way in every game. If something is good with Windows Mobile 7, it must be the inclusion of Live gaming.

Re:Profit

[UnknowingFool]

The confusion is that MS tends to use the same name for different things. Windows Live is free. Xbox Live is both free and subscription based. The article is talking about Xbox Live. Xbox Live Silver is free but does not include multi-player gaming among other features like Netflix. Xbox Live Gold is subscription based and includes said features. Most likely using some of the features only included in Xbox Live Gold. If you have an account you can access it through the phone; however, additional costs will be required for things like customizing your avatar.

Gaming on WP7

[janoc]

Umm, why not make the WP7 actually useful for being used on a phone first? It's cool to have a mobile gaming console in the pocket, but then I would probably buy a PSP and not Windows smartphone ...

Re:Gaming on WP7

[DrXym]

To be fair to Windows Mobile 7, a lot of the other commentators came away generally positive although they noted omissions such as video in HTML, lack of YouTube client, no copy & paste & no 3rd party multitasking.

My own view is that Microsoft recognized how mouldy Windows Mobile 6.5 had become, especially the UI and decided to bisect the OS with a rump Windows CE acting as the kernel and a new .NET front end. All well and good but they'd have to toss a lot of functionality out in the process. So they picked to implement a consumer phone first and build the rest of the features in later.

Windows Mobile 7 won't match Android or iPhone for features but if MS can make a decent consumer phone with gaming then they might create a platform they can build from. There is no doubt that Android is pretty poor for gaming and iPhone lacks things that XBL could bring like trophies etc. So if MS can pull off that part they might be in with a chance but they're really going to have work on the missing functionality and fast.

OMG Halo Waypoint on a mobile phone!

[Xest]

For those who don't know, Halo Waypoint is basically just a front end for the Halo series of games that lets you view all your achievements for the series and one or two bits of Halo news. It's not a game in itself, so calling it a "title" is probably giving it a bit too much credit, because it's largely dull and pointless.

Yes, the title of this post was meant in a sarcastic tone

On a different note though, I think XBox Live integration actually has the potential to be a killer feature for Windows 7- if Windows 7 phones are going to succede on anything it'll probably be this. It effectively means it's a gamer oriented phone and if it links into XBox live then there's a potential to harness the 27 million (or however many XBox Live has now) achievements whores and allow them to continue their achievement addiction even when they're not at their XBox.

I think Microsoft actually has a good vision in terms of XBox Live everywhere by linking XBox Live with Windows Games and mobile games, especially as it all integrates with MSN messenger and partially with Facebook too. Of course, the real test will be in the execution- having the right vision is only the start of it, pulling it off through Microsoft's layers upon layers of bureaucracy will be the real challenge.

Re:Thanks..

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you perhaps prefer having the next iPhone spec instead?

Re:Thanks..

[Anonymous Coward]

Who modded this idiot +5 insighful? If the next generation rival for iPhone and Android isn't "news for nerds", what is it then? Especially since it's linking to an engadget story. This is far from some shitty slashdot advertisement for some small firm. Get a clue.

WP7 Connect Program

[giuseppemag]

I have received a WP7 prototype device, being an XNA professional developer.

I have to admit I have always considered games on phones *much* beneath any interest from a self respecting developer.

The experience of developing for this platform though has completely changed my mind: it is powerful (I mean REALLY powerful, the kind of 3D scenes one does not expect to see on the phone) the dev tools are very good, the compatibility between Windows, XBox 360 and WP7 is exactly as compatibility should be. The standard phone functions work out of the box (the facebook/gmail contacts integration is pretty neat) and in general the experience feels pleasantly iPhonesque.

After seeing and testing the actual device I have quadrupled my company's development efforts for WP7: it might be a force to be reckoned with.

Maybe nobody cares, but here (http://cid-24c55844373f9e74.office.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public) are two videos of two of my games in action; the sudoku is unimpressive, but the 3D space battle is a completely different matter :)

Re:WP7 Connect Program

[Wizard Drongo]

Yes, but iPhone is the big elephant in the room Microsoft are trying not to talk about.
I know for fact they've been offering "inducements" to major iPhone game-devs to come and make a similar game or an outright port for WP7, and just paying them upfront.

Microsoft can do that, because they want the games and don't mind taking the financial hit. But in the long-term, it's not a good strategy.
iPhone is very similar to the WP7 (naturally; MS are trying very hard to copy it after all), but in addition to an easy-to-use SDK (that costs only $99 to put actual paid-games on, free otherwise), respectable graphics (particularly on the iPhone4, that thing is amazingly powerful for a handheld device!), it also has one thing the WP7 doesn't, and if past experiences hold true probably will never have: millions of sold devices.
On the other hand, there are coming close to 500,000 released apps for the iPhone, a literally staggering amount of apps. Probably more apps than exist for Windows, although that's just speculation. Now, a lot of those apps are crapware, like fart-apps and light-apps. But there are a lot of very good titles in there, so making your mark can be hard.
But if you hit it big, you're in there. No such thing exists on WP7 yet since it's not even shipped. So where's the inducement to go WP7 instead of iPhone? Aside from Microsoft bribing you with a large wad of upfront?

Re:WP7 Connect Program

[Xest]

"On the other hand, there are coming close to 500,000 released apps for the iPhone, a literally staggering amount of apps. Probably more apps than exist for Windows, although that's just speculation."

Did you really just say that?

Importantly, this is a negative, it means people have to find your app amongst those half a million others dependent entirely on Apple's interface with little ability yourself to control how much visibility it gets on that marketplace.

"But if you hit it big, you're in there. No such thing exists on WP7 yet since it's not even shipped. So where's the inducement to go WP7 instead of iPhone? Aside from Microsoft bribing you with a large wad of upfront?"

The fact that if you develop for XNA then you've written a game that can run on XBox 360, Windows, Windows Phone 7. In other words, writing for Windows phone 7 is simple because it uses the same tools and codebase as for Microsoft's other platforms. This means you can target hundreds of millions of devices out there with one codebase. In contrast with the iPhone, it's sold around 50 - 60 mill units to date, however many of those are replacements for previous generations so the actual market size is probably more in the 30mill - 40mill range. That's a much smaller market.

Or to cut a long story short, even if Windows Phone 7 doesn't take off, developing for XNA alone means you automatically are developing for a market that dwarfs that of every other mobile operating system out there.

Of course, there's also the point that there are countless XBLIG and .NET apps that already exist which can be moved directly to, or with minor porting to Windows 7 Phone from the outset. That is, the cost for existing XNA developers to produce for this additional platform is next to nothing, but the potential market is large.

Re:WP7 Connect Program

[nschubach]

I'm not talking about the iPhone. There are literally millions of Android development phones out there though. Every single one of them. There's less of a development cost. If you want to claim that development will skyrocket because of how many dev phones are out there all you have to do is look at how Android is doing.

There are just as many (if not more) hardware firms kicking out Android based devices (phones, tablets, remote controls, etc.) and several global telco's with Android as well... What's your point?

Re:Thanks..

[Anonymous Coward]

nerd rage about a pro-M$ article. Nothing to see here move along...to the macstore

Re:The $50 Monster Cable of Video Games

[AltairDusk]

Having both an Xbox 360 and a PS3 I still choose to pay the ~$30 a year for LIVE (if you're paying more keep an eye on the bargain sites for a 1 year card) over the free online found on the PS3. I tried both and found that overall Live was a better experience. If someone doesn't like it then they shouldn't use it but no reason to trash on it. Microsoft does try to bring exclusives to the service as well, there was a period of time where netflix streaming in HD was only available on the 360 through LIVE and they are rolling out ESPN soon (sadly the NFL won't allow their games to be watched through it).

Why not just play all my games on PC? Well I have two "crowds" of friends I play games online with, mostly split between 360 and PC with a few who use both. In addition I feel certain types of games work better on a tv with a controller while others work better on a PC with mouse and keyboard (or joystick).

Re:History repeats itself

[cptdondo]

You have obviously never used the TRS Model 100.

One day laptops may again aspire to 6 weeks runtime (yes, that's 6 weeks!) on a single set of AA batteries.

That was perfection in its day.

One day we'll have little hand held thingies that just.. make.. phone calls.