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Xbox Live Will Soon Connect Players on Android, iOS and Switch (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Microsoft is getting ready to release an important software development kit (SDK) that will allow game developers to integrate Xbox Live into any titles that run across PC, Xbox, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch. From a report: A Microsoft session at the upcoming Game Developers Conference mentions that Xbox Live will soon have a cross-platform developer kit that integrates the service into Android, iOS and Switch games. You'd have your achievements, clubs, friends list and "more" while on the move, and could pick up on some experiences where you left off. The session will provide a "first look" at the kit. You shouldn't expect titles to support Xbox Live for a while, even if the software toolbox is complete by the time GDC starts.

47 comments

  1. Microsoft being Microsoft by WCMI92 · · Score: 0

    It will connect people whether they want to be or not. And don't forget the massive ad load.

    --
    Corporatism != Free Market
    1. Re:Microsoft being Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will connect people whether they want to be or not.

      How does it do that?

    2. Re:Microsoft being Microsoft by dryriver · · Score: 2

      Using the ether, as Nikola Tesla described it. By building Wardenclyffe-like electrical towers on multiple continents and using the ether, Microsoft will be able to push Windows 10-like forced updates and reboots anywhere in the world. The device doesn't matter - even your smart TV and smart fridge will now get Windows 10 updates. As the technology matures, Microsoft will even be able to update and reboot human brains, and also push ads into those brains at will. (Runs off to download the new SDK)

      --
      Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    3. Re:Microsoft being Microsoft by bob4u2c · · Score: 1

      I want what ever medication your on!

    4. Re:Microsoft being Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By building Wardenclyffe-like electrical towers on multiple continents and using the ether, Microsoft will be able to push Windows 10-like forced updates and reboots anywhere in the world.

      Still better than the barren wasteland of Android updates.

    5. Re: Microsoft being Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They do give US a load

      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+AnonymousCoward+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      _______________Ascii Re-Turd

  2. No Playstation port? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    While not a big fan of Microsoft, it would be nice to buy a game for what ever platform I have/want and be able to play it with other players even though they are not using my platform of choice.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blame sony. They want to stay number one by forcing everyone to buy their console.

    2. Re:No Playstation port? by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 1

      And have maybe 2 or 3 games worth buying for it.

      --
      http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    3. Re: No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Blame Sony for resisting cross platform initiatives. Youâ(TM)ll note Nintendo *is* onboard with this.

    4. Re:No Playstation port? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Except for the fact I don't know anyone personally who has a Play Station. That and looking at the Titles available, I cannot find anything that really sparks my interest.
      To be fair, I have a Wii-U and usually just me and my wife play monopoly on it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    5. Re:No Playstation port? by Dan+East · · Score: 2

      We're pretty much to the point where only Microsoft and Sony are competing against each other in the console market. Nintendo's hardware and software titles are so different than either MS or Sony that you would own a Switch or DS because you want that specific type of gaming. Then in addition to the Nintendo you would get an XBox, PS, or even a gaming PC, for that kind of more traditional console gaming. Sure, there is some overlap and there are titles that are available for Switch that are also available for XBox and PS4, but that is more of a "bonus" to the Switch than its bread and butter.

      So having said all that, MS isn't afraid of Nintendo, because the average XBox gamer wouldn't be totally drawn away from that brand to Nintendo (nor would they to iOS or Android). However they do have Sony in their sights, and by offering this ability (where Sony does not) they are adding value and distinction to their product compared to their competitor.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    6. Re: No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, may I play too? I can drop by on Thursday and see if you are playing

    7. Re: No Playstation port? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Well Nintendo, seems to be always dropping it personal community network system and making a new one for every hardware upgrade, then turning it off after a year or so.

      Wii No longer can play Mario Cart Wii online.
      Wii-U I am now welcomed by the default connection, and real traffic.

      I don't think Nintendo neally gets online game communities. And I bet they would be happy to get Microsoft to do it for them. Perhaps Nintendo, can use the extra resources to boost the specs in their gaming consoles to be closer to what the others have.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    8. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://au.ign.com/articles/2018/09/04/sony-is-blocking-cross-play-because-playstation-is-the-best-place-to-play

      Blame sony, not msft

    9. Re:No Playstation port? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      While not a big fan of Microsoft, it would be nice to buy a game for what ever platform I have/want and be able to play it with other players even though they are not using my platform of choice.

      Blame Sony. They're the ones blocking cross play. Only after a huge outcry did they "consider" allowing it for Fortnite, after people discovered that if they played Fortnite on a PS4 locked them out of Fortnite on other platforms.

      Microsoft's not even going ot try to offer something Sony is actively rejecting. They only caved on Fortnite, but only a little.

      So as long as Sony is going to prevent Sony players from cross play, well, if you're choosing PS4 or PS5, you'll be playing against other PS4 or PS5 users. Microsoft and Nintendo have long agreed to support cross play and even with PC and mobile platforms too.

    10. Re: No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its not that it nintendo doesn't get online game communities, its that they just don't really like them. They'd prefer everybody in the same room and makes games for this objective. Hence a lot of the original wave of wii and switch games and the advertising about them showing people on the couch playing wii bowling or setting down the switch on a table and handing a stranger one controller and taking the other.

    11. Re: No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tit for tat, MS and Sony both pull that shit when it suits them. MS wants to corner the "Interconnected gaming" ecosystem and eventually force Sony out. Extend, Embrace, Extinguish.
      They see the Apple and Google stores, they want to do something similar with consoles and PC gaming. This is just one piece of their strategy since they aren't able to beat Sony at the hardware.

    12. Re:No Playstation port? by Yosho · · Score: 1

      Except for the fact I don't know anyone personally who has a Play Station.

      I'm really skeptical of that; I suspect you don't interview everybody you know and tally up what game consoles they have.

      That and looking at the Titles available, I cannot find anything that really sparks my interest. To be fair, I have a Wii-U and usually just me and my wife play monopoly on it.

      It sounds like you're simply not part of the video game market at all. That's fine, but I don't think you know enough about the market to speak about it with any authority.

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    13. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So wheres msft supporting linux to windows crossplay? oh it doesnt happen because windows is winning. xbox losing to sony is the only reason why msft is so in favor of crossplay and crossplay between nintendo and msft exists. If it wasnt losing, msft would not be pushing for it. stop providing free pr for that convicted monopolist.

    14. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you talking about. You're completely daft if you think games that fun on Linux can't be played against people that run the same game on Windows. They can. I've done it. That's not really up to Microsoft anyway. If you're saying that Microsoft should compete against its own operating system by making games for Linux, then you're a moron.

    15. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So wheres msft supporting linux to windows crossplay?

      They don't have to, there's no limitation which is why games like DOTA, Team Fortress, Borderlands, L4D etc can all be played multiplayer by players on Windows, Linux or even Mac (for the games that run on Mac).

      You're getting all upset about a problem you don't have, which is weird in itself, but even weirder because the problem you're getting all angry about doesn't even exist.

    16. Re:No Playstation port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, youre okay with microsoft not competing with itself yet you demonize sony for not doing something to help its competition. And at the same time you play it off like msft are the good guys. Lets get back to the point of what I wrote. The ONLY reason why msft is playing the good guy card now is because they are losing to sony. If they were in the lead they would be acting the same way they are on the pc desktop where they dominate.

      My point stands. Msft arent the angels you paint them to be. Trying to drive people away from the PS5 makes you the moron because we all know what msft is like when they arent losing.

      And I'll end off with this. Learn from the past, idiot.

      "As cool as this sneak peek was, Trion can't let the finished Xbox 360 game connect to the PS3. "Microsoft won't let Sony players play against them," Rodberg said, before suggesting we change the topic to something less sensitive. Presumably the barrier is a corporate and/or technical incompatibility between the Xbox 360's Xbox Live and Sony's PS3/PSP PlayStation Network. Those services are separate enough that people who play, say, Call of Duty on one, can't play that game against owners of the other, rival console. "
      https://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/06/i-saw-the-ps3-wired-to-play-against-an-xbox-360-but-you-wont/

  3. Very thankful by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    During the recent global Xbox One outage, I felt sad because I could still make use of all the gaming devices I owned. Now I'll be able to participate in global Microsoft server outages along with everyone else!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Very thankful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow are you stupid! Thanks for nothing buddy!

  4. Translation : by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Shitty DLC games with loot box inducements for children's dopamine will now be tracked and mined for profiling regardless of which platform your child chooses to march into bondage on."

    1. Re:Translation : by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you people get tired of years of parroting the same depressing hyperbolic nonsense? From hiking to offroading to online gaming to jetskiing you sad sacks always invent some narrative to turn it into the enslavement of people to government/corporate overlords.

      "You're a slave and an underling because you rode a jetski that had proprietary software in its ECU!" ... figuring out why you're so depressed and have no friends yet?

  5. cracked? by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a hackers paradise.

  6. "words" in "quotation marks" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what a weirdly written "summary" with random "words" in "quotation marks" and I was going to look at the "article" but there are ten "sites" that noscript blocks, and it's just a "white page" unless you enable "tracking" and "scripting"....

  7. Embrace, extend.. by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

    And all you old people know what comes next

    Classic 90's Microsoft

    1. Re:Embrace, extend.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ya rememeber when Bill Gates said 64k was enough memory and then Clippy came out and DOS was on 3 floppies!!!!!!!!!!!

      Thanks for contributing to slash dot where we discuss up to the minute tech news!

    2. Re:Embrace, extend.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And all you old people know what comes next

      Make extremely popular? Last I checked Java was still one of the top programming languages and the open web was one of the dominant platforms for content and application development.

    3. Re:Embrace, extend.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posts like this really do explain why Slashdot in general is so dimwitted when it comes to technology. It's just a bunch of old people complaining about everything and relating it to the state of things 20 years ago when you actually had a clue what was going on.

      iPhone? pfft...remember the Pippin? Classic 90s Apple.

      This year will be the year of the linux desktop!

    4. Re: Embrace, extend.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are going to extinguish XBox?

  8. About time, quite happy about this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the kind of thing (consumer facing) that MS should have been doing decades ago. Bringing people together instead of just goading for more bloody cash.

    Helping people is far more rewarding, as they are likely to use more of your stuff. Google more or less got this from the start, now others are starting to cotton on too

    Except Sony. Jesus H. Just let it happen already, nobody will think any less of you. Come 'awn!

  9. Native SDK or .Net? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm guessing being able to accomplish cross-platform things like this was one of the reasons Xamarin was worth $400+ million to Microsoft.

    The SDK is probably based around .Net and being brought to other platforms via the Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS run-times. If that is the case, it should integrate well with the Unity game engine which also makes use of .Net and the mono runtime.

    If my belief is true that it is in .Net, then the downside will be that every game that uses the SDK will also have to bundle the .Net/mono runtime into the game package.

  10. Stupid question by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Don't players on boxes with REAL controllers have a huge advantage in PvP combat versus players using a touchscreen?

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Stupid question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PvP != FPS, that depends on the game. Who the fuck uses a touchscreen lol? It'd be a greasy indecipherable mess in seconds. Probably Ken Doll.

    2. Re:Stupid question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't about cross platform play it's more about sharing your friends list, achievements, etc, across platforms.

    3. Re: Stupid question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably just like players with keyboard and mouse usually have an advantage over controllers in some games, but fortunately both android and iOS support controllers last time I checked.

      I wouldnâ(TM)t enter competitive matches with just your phone, that would be retarded

  11. Funny what being on the back foot can do for custo by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    MS are really offering good deals, features, support for the system, especially the backwards compatibility stuff.

    Think we'd get this if they were dominating?

    Thank goodness they're around too, keeping Sony on their toes.

    Now, who will do this to Amazon?

  12. Probably Vaporware by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

    Microsoft announces things that they never intend to release all the time. We will probably never see it.

    It was perhaps announced to put pressure on Steam and other non-hardware-tethered gaming-software makers. To make them waste their money. Or perhaps another reason

  13. Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In my eyes this is just MS trying to look like the good guys. They would love to be in the opposite position and happily block access to competing platforms.

  14. Task Request by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Update Destiny 2 for cross platform clans

  15. Re:Funny what being on the back foot can do for cu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well theyre are dominating the pc desktop so by your logic they dont offer those things you listed there.