Looks like Windows Phone’s big brother Windows 8 has coughed up some interesting details on allowing games to be paused, resumed across various platforms. The Xbox Live games, Minesweeper, Solitaire and Mahjong all seem to indicate we’ll finally experience the dream of picking up one device and resuming play on with another.
Early on in Windows Phones lifecycle, we saw a demo of the continuous client principle with the arcade shooter The Harvest, but so far, this kind of interaction has all but eluded us. Whilst these games are essentially turn-based, this could be the start of great interactive experiences coming to Windows Phone.
It’s not clear at this stage if these features will be applicable to existing WP 7.5 and WP 8.0 devices at this point since nothing has been announced officially. What we do know is that Windows Phone 8 is going to pack some serious gaming credentials. As well as being a much closer stable buddy to Windows 8 on a core level, it’s also going to get full Direct X games too.
The hope being that now WP8 will be able to deliver knock out Xbox live experiences as either a standalone device or conjunction with Microsoft’s other rich gaming properties like the Xbox 360 and of course PCs. Windows Phone has so far only touched the surface of what is possible for companion experiences.
Later in the year we’ll see much tighter integration with Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and the Xbox 360 with the introduction of SmartGlass. SmartGlass will be ysamet another piece in the puzzle, ensuring these great devices work harmoniously together to form one cohesive platform.
The complexities of engineering games to do more than allow pausing and resuming on a mobile platform are well known. This could be a sign that Microsoft intends, finally to bring the current multi-player goodness from Xbox Live fully to Windows Phone. We would only hope that the current generation of Xbox Live games on Windows Phone 7 get in on the action too.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: wpdownunder
