New Xbox Live Mobile Services Will Let Android and iOS Developers Introduce Achievements and More
Achievement Unlocked
Xbox Live services are coming to iOS and Android. That means mobile game developers can implement services like Achievements, Gamer Scores, family settings, and friend lists into their titles. So if you play a lot of Evoland 2, you could soon be picking up GamerScore as well (remember when GamerScore was a thing?)
Microsoft announced Xbox Live's arrival on mobile ahead of GDC 2019. Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Gaming Cloud, Kareem Choudhry, notes how the company wants to spread its services to as many platforms as possible, with the multiplatform distribution of Minecraft being a key example. It's speculated Xbox Live is even coming to the Switch, but if it's happening, Microsoft isn't ready to make an announcement yet.
"Our goal is to unite the two billion gamers," says Choudhry, "but we don't have any specific announcements as it relates to Switch today."
Microsoft also announced Game Stack, a service that brings together "all of [Microsoft's] game-development platforms, tools, and services—such as Azure, PlayFab, DirectX, Visual Studio, Xbox Live, App Center, and Havok—into a robust ecosystem that any game developer can use." While some of Game Stack's services have existed for a while, PlayFab (which Microsoft acquired a year ago) now offers new options like real time translation and transcription for improved game accessibility, insights that let developers measure their games' performance, the ability for players to create and share user generated content, and more. The PlayFab blog outlines what's new and cool.
Microsoft is serious about bringing its games and services to platforms outside Xbox. It's likely we'll see Xbox Live on Switch sooner than later (as well as PS4, if Sony allows it), and Microsoft's already made it known that it would like the Xbox Game Pass game subscription service to come to other consoles.
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