14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's plans to enhance the gaming capabilities of its mobile operating system are known to most users around the world already, especially since the company announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week that we're to see Xbox LIVE integration with the OS, yet the exact details on the matter still lack. And while most expect for the necessary pieces of information to be unveiled at the MIX10 conference in mid-March, is seems that Microsoft might do that a little sooner, namely at the Games Developers Conference on March 10.
Among the sessions put in place for the event, there is one meant specifically for the matter in question, highlighted by WMPoweruser:
Bringing the Best of Xbox LIVE to Windows Phone 7 Series Speaker: Adam Schaeffer Time: 4:00pm-5:00pm
The Xbox LIVE service is going mobile! With Windows Phone 7 Series, core features such as Achievements, Leaderboards, and game invites will be available to games on Windows Phone 7 Series devices. This talk covers the basics of the services available and how they can be used to enable core Xbox LIVE functionality in games. In addition, this talk will present best practices for connecting Windows Phone 7 Series games to back-end servers.
Until the event, we are still left in the dark regarding the gaming capabilities of Windows Phone 7, though we can draw some more details from the write up for the day, including the fact that there will be support for 3D games, and that developers can come up with high-performance games for the platform. However, it still remains to be seen what exact characteristics Windows Phone 7 Series devices will come to the market with, and this Conference is the place to learn them, since Microsoft will detail this area at the event, and will also discuss the necessary tools needed for the development process.
Additional details on the matter have also emerged from the Redmond-based company’s mobile communications chief Andy Lees, who said during a recent analyst conference that developers would be able to deliver “multiplayer, multiscreen games” for the new Windows Phone 7 OS. Back at the MWC show in Barcelona, Microsoft stated that some Xbox games would come to Windows Phone 7, but hasn't detailed too much on the matter. Take a look at what Lees revealed at the aforementioned conference (via techflash) to make an idea of what the software giant might be preparing for users in the gaming features area of Windows Phone 7.
“We are very excited about the way in which the platform works across screens, so we have commonality of platform across the PC, the Xbox, and the web and the phone. We provide a new set of tools that makes it easy and very fast for people to develop applications for the phone but also in a way that works across screens, and we'll announce details of that at MIX. You're also right to point out that a marketplace is included, and the marketplace will work for applications but also for games, so the gaming marketplace for the first time will utilize Xbox Live, and that enables you to create multiplayer, multiscreen games, and the marketplace will facilitate that, so that it will actually work across screens.”