Windows Phone 7 Will Be a Platform for Video Games
Microsoft will have Windows Phone 7 users rockin' and rollin' by integrating 50 video games into the mobile platform. The Windows Phone 7 games will interact with Microsoft's Xbox Live universe. Microsoft's Kevin Unangst said the software maker is approaching Windows Phone 7 "as we would a console" to ensure success.
If people chatting or texting on their smartphones on the railroad get you annoyed, wait until you see them rocking out to Guitar Hero 5 during the morning commute. Betting big on mobile Relevant Products/Services gaming to stand apart from rival operating systems, Microsoft on Tuesday announced 50 games it will integrate into its Windows Phone 7 Series devices in time for this year's holiday season.
The games run the gamut from family-style fare like Bejeweled and Uno to Xbox classics like Rocket Riot, which will make its mobile debut with Windows 7. The phone-based games will interact with Microsoft's Xbox Live universe so users can update their avatars, keep track of their game score, and add achievements to their profiles. They can also access Halo:Waypoint, a Live hub where they can watch videos and interact with other players, though the hot game itself apparently isn't going mobile.
Pushing the Envelope
"We're really approaching this as we would a console, so we have to deliver the breadth of games and the quality people expect from Xbox," said Kevin Unangst, Microsoft's senior director of PC and mobile gaming, in a posting on the Microsoft News Center site. "To have this quantity and quality of games committed this far ahead of launch, with even more to come, is a statement of support that says Windows Phone 7 will be a big success."
Other notable games announced at this year's GameCon in Cologne, Germany, include Digital Chocolate's 3D Brick Breaker Revolution, Protégé Games' Armor Valley, i-Play's Fast & Furious 7, Konami's Frogger, Gameloft's Assassins Creed, and Arkedo's O.M.G. Additional titles will be named before the Windows 7 launch in October, with more titles to be added every week, Microsoft said.
"Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform Relevant Products/Services for Microsoft," said Matt Booty, general manager of mobile gaming for MGS. "Just like we've done with Xbox 360, our charter is to push the envelope and deliver definitive games that maximize the platform."
Strongest Play
Consumer-devices specialist Avi Greengart of Current Analysis says that while Windows 7 allows Microsoft to utilize all its diverse assets, including the Bing search Relevant Products/Services engine, SharePoint, Outlook, Office and Zune Marketplace, "Xbox Live is arguably Microsoft's strongest play -- if you'll pardon the pun. [It] has performed extremely well in the living room, and mobile gaming is an area where Microsoft can differentiate itself from other mobile operating systems with a rich, connected experience."
Also, Greengart added, the competition is weak. "Android and RIM badly lag in games, HP/Palm does have some 3-D games but doesn't have much of an installed base, and Nokia's n-Gage never took off. Apple dominates 99-cent casual games, but it hasn't rolled out its game network Relevant Products/Services yet and has no ties to the living room."
Greengart said the Windows 7 gaming emphasis is a smarter pitch for the younger demographic than its earlier, disastrous line of Kin phones, geared heavily toward the social-media obsessed. The low-selling phones, powered by the Windows CE operating system, were distributed by Verizon Wireless but pulled off the market in July just a few months after their release in April.
"It's hard to argue whether Microsoft did or didn't understand younger consumers with the Kin, given how lousy the Kin was," Greengart said. "It failed in its most basic social-networking tasks, it lacked apps, and it was priced like a smartphone."
Source: http://worlds-tech-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/windows-phone-7-will-be-platform-for.html
