I have just read an interesting article from Andre Vrignaud, @Ozymandias, who has worked on the Xbox Live integration for Windows Phone 7. The article addresses how the Windows Phone 7 and Xbox team have thought about what it is to game on a device that is with you all the time and came up with three key pillars for the mobile gaming experience summed up by Simplicity Matters, Everything Counts and Let Friends Play Together.
Simplicity Matters focuses on keeping Xbox Live simple and familiar for both current Xbox Live gamers and first time users alike. Everything Counts looks at how gaming anywhere and on any supported platforms needs to count for something or else what’s the point. The final pillar shows how Microsoft want to keep the Xbox Live service personal through the customisable avatars and the social network aspect of Xbox Live.
However it is in the last pillar that the most interesting news lies as Microsoft acknowledge that there are many more people on other social networks than there are on its own Xbox Live service but that they don’t want to stop people from being able to play and share information with their friends because they are on a different network.
Though Xbox LIVE now has over 23 million members, it’s important to recognize that Xbox LIVE isn’t the only social network with a gaming audience. Games can connect with other social networks such as Facebook or Twitter and make it easy for players to share gaming experiences with friends (such as game invites or leaderboards) who might not have an Xbox LIVE account. Friends may be located in multiple social networks, and gamers should be able to play with them all.
The second sentence suggests users will easily be able to share unlocked achievements etc with their friends on social networks, nothing too major. But in the last sentence I believe what is being said is that Xbox Live games can be played by people who aren’t necessarily on Xbox Live. At the very least it sounds to me like users wont have to have an Xbox Live account to be able to invite friends to play a game against them. At the most it could mean that games that feature some kind of Xbox Live integration could be played in other social networks too, maybe something along the lines of Farmville on Facebook but with achievements and other bonuses for Xbox Live users.
It’s certainly an interesting thought that Xbox Live might be playable on all three screens (Xbox, Games for Windows – Live and on Windows Phone 7) and in the cloud in the browser.
