Microsoft is rumoured to be bringing its Xbox Live platform to iOS and Android.
Currently, you can obtain Xbox Live achievements and access your Xbox Live account through select Windows Phone games, just as you would on an Xbox One. But Microsoft wants to take this capability cross-platform.
That’s the suggestion made by The Verge, which cites sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans.
Interestingly, Microsoft itself has already confirmed it is working on such a project. One recent job posting on the company’s careers website spoke of creating "a modern framework that is open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android."
The intention here is to said to be to "win back" game developers from iOS and Android. Mobile is currently the hottest area of gaming, but the irony is that Windows Phone with its pure Xbox branding does not figure in most mobile game developers’ plans. It’s a bit of a barren wasteland compared to its rivals.
Xbox Live currently requires a tight certification process to develop for, but it’s claimed that Microsoft will ease these requirements in future. It will also improve its tools for integrating Xbox Live functionality into games.
The report claims that Microsoft will position Xbox Live as an alternative to Apple’s Game Center and Google’s Play Games as a means for attaining achievements and monitoring friends’ gaming activity. It could also conceivably provide something these two platforms cannot - cross-platform multiplayer.
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