Microsoft is bringing Xbox Live to iOS and Android. With the launch of a new cross-platform SDK, Microsoft is allowing developers to integrate Xbox Live functionality in their games. This will ensure that your scores, achievements, and other stats are synced with and to your Xbox One.
Developers will not be forced to integrate every single aspect of Xbox Live in their games. Instead, they can select the parts of Xbox Live they want to integrate into their games. The feature will be available through a single sign-in to a Microsoft account.
While some iOS games do have Xbox Live integration, they were released from Microsoft Studios itself.
“We believe so strongly in community, and Xbox Live really being at the heart of our gaming community,” explains Kareem Choudhry, Microsoft’s gaming cloud chief in a media briefing this week. “If you watch what we’ve done, especially with Minecraft, over the past few years we’ve taken Xbox Live to as many platforms as Minecraft is on as possible. Really uniting all those communities together with a consistent singular experience for those gamers.”
Microsoft is making this move as a part of its overall Game Stack initiative with which it is bringing all its various game development tools into a single platform.
With this move, Xbox Live is the only service that is available to developers on mobile as well as console. While Microsoft is interested in bringing Xbox Live integration to PS4 games as well, Sony is not really welcoming of this. The company did not have any announcements related to Nintendo Switch as well.
Our Take
As of now, I am not too optimistic of game developers rushing to integrate Xbox Live in their iOS games. For that to happen, we need to see cloud gaming becoming more popular as it would then allow users to continue playing a game on their iPhone which they initially started playing on their Xbox console.
[Via The Verge]
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