madison

The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller & Joel Evans
Home / News & Blogs / The Mobile Gadgeteer

Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile

By | August 16, 2010, 8:59pm PDT

Summary: Will Microsoft’s launch titles be enough to lure prospects to Windows Phone 7?

If you were wondering when Microsoft was going to make good on its promise to tie Xbox with its new Windows Phone 7, your wondering can now cease.

At the gamescom 2010 conference today Microsoft will announce that it will be bringing more than 50 Xbox LIVE titles to Windows Phone 7 this year. Titles include Halo: Waypoint, Crackdown 2, Bejeweled LIVE, Guitar Hero 5, The Harvest, Brain Challenge, Age of Zombies, Asphalt 5, Assassins Creed, and a whole lot more, from publishers including Gameloft, Konami, Namco Bandai, PopCap, THQ, and more. The company has also managed to secure Windows Phone 7 versions of many popular indie titles, too, as you’ll see in the list below.

As for what part of Xbox LIVE will be coming to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft plans to offer these unique mobile gaming experiences:

  • Avatars: Connect to your Xbox LIVE profile and Avatar, or create a new one if you don’t already have an Avatar or Xbox LIVE profile; take your 3-D Avatar and props with you on the phone with full closet access.
  • Friends: Bring your Xbox LIVE friends with you everywhere; compare Achievements, challenge rivals to your favorite game, and even see who’s online and what they’re doing on their consoles, PCs or phones.
  • Game access: Easily view and launch your full game library from a single location; find, try and buy new games either in the Marketplace or Games hub.
  • Achievements: Earn, view and track Achievements, view Xbox LIVE leaderboards and build your Gamerscore across Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 — every time you play an Xbox LIVE title.
  • Messaging: Communicate with all of your Xbox LIVE friends, any time you want, through Xbox LIVE messages.
  • Multiplayer: Invite, connect and play against friends on other Windows Phone 7 phones or the PC with turn-based (asynchronous) multiplayer gaming.
  • Spotlight: Access Xbox LIVE Spotlight feeds, including the latest game titles, breaking news from Xbox LIVE, game tips and tricks, and more.

It looks like Microsoft should have a decent roundup of launch titles. The company definitely needed a reason for customers to want a Windows Phone 7 device. Now they have great Exchange integration, the new Hub interface, and perfect syncing with their Windows machine. What’s missing, though, is an app store with tons of apps. Now at least there will be more than 50 well-known games to choose from, and the ability to interact with your Xbox LIVE experience.

So, will users get excited about having Xbox on their phone? My guess is YES, especially those people that are addicted to their Xbox games. The question is more about whether or not there are enough differentiators for Microsoft to win over users of BlackBerry, iPhone or Android. Perhaps Microsoft should rename the phone to the Xbox phone, just for the holidays? I would bet that would definitely drive sales.

Do you think that there’s enough coming in Windows Phone 7 to lure customers back to the Windows Mobile-ish platform?

By the way, if you’re not convinced that there are a bunch of games coming, just take a look at the launch portfolio below:

  • 3D Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
  • Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
  • Armor Valley (Protégé Games)
  • Asphalt 5 (Gameloft)
  • Assassins Creed (Gameloft)
  • Bejeweled™ LIVE (PopCap)
  • Bloons TD (Digital Goldfish)
  • Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
  • Bubble Town 2 (i-Play)
  • Butterfly (Press Start Studio)
  • CarneyVale Showtime (MGS)
  • Castlevania (Konami)
  • Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst (MGS)
  • De Blob Revolution (THQ)
  • Deal or No Deal 2010 (i-Play)
  • Earthworm Jim (Gameloft)
  • Fast & Furious 7 (i-Play)
  • Fight Game Rivals (Rough Cookie)
  • Finger Physics (Mobliss Inc.)
  • Flight Control (Namco Bandai)
  • Flowerz (Carbonated Games)
  • Frogger (Konami)
  • Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
  • Game Chest-Board (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Card (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Logic (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Solitaire (MGS)
  • GeoDefense (Critical Thought)
  • Ghostscape (Psionic)
  • Glow Artisan (Powerhead Games)
  • Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
  • Guitar Hero 5 (Glu Mobile)
  • Halo Waypoint (MGS)
  • Hexic Rush (Carbonated Games)
  • I Dig It (InMotion)
  • iBlast Moki (Godzilab)
  • ilomilo (MGS)
  • Implode XL” (IUGO)
  • Iquarium (Infinite Dreams)
  • Jet Car Stunts (True Axis)
  • Let’s Golf 2 (Gameloft)
  • Little Wheel (One click dog)
  • Loondon (Flip N Tale)
  • Max and the Magic Marker (PressPlay)
  • Mini Squadron (Supermono Limited)
  • More Brain Exercise (Namco Bandai)
  • O.M.G. (Arkedo)
  • Puzzle Quest 2 (Namco Bandai)
  • Real Soccer 2 (Gameloft)
  • The Revenants (Chaotic Moon)
  • Rise of Glory (Revo Solutions)
  • Rocket Riot (Codeglue)
  • Splinter Cell Conviction (Gameloft)
  • Star Wars: Battle for Hoth (THQ)
  • Star Wars: Cantina (THQ)
  • The Harvest (MGS)
  • The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)
  • Tower Bloxx NY (Digital Chocolate)
  • Twin Blades (Press Start Studio)
  • UNO (Gameloft)
  • Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet (i-Play)
  • Zombie Attack! (IUGO)
  • Zombies!!!! (Babaroga)

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “The Mobile Gadgeteer”

Topics

Mobile, Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Windows Phone, Microsoft Xbox Live, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox, Gameloft, MGS, Game Players, Games, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands and technologies into the mobile and wireless space.

Disclosure

Joel Evans

Joel is a serial entrepreneur with his most recent business, CronkSoftware (cronksoftware.com), focusing on consulting and building games and applications for mobile devices. Joel has consulted for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division and advises other companies on how to incorporate mobile into their existing brands and products. Joel purchases many of his devices and others are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the supplier. If any devices are provided as “keeper” Joel will clearly disclose this in his reviews.

Biography

Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands, technologies and services into the mobile and wireless space. Joel is currently serving as the Managing Director of Cronk Software, Inc., a company he founded to offer full-service, end-to-end mobile strategy, design and development services.

Joel is the former founder and "Chief Geek" of Geek.com, a website praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and others as one of world's best sources of information for technology professionals and enthusiasts.

Joel also serves as a technology expert for a number of well-known publications and regularly advises corporations, analysts, journalists and bloggers on what the future of technology will bring. He brings decades of relationships with leading game publishers, online communities and publishers, along with both hardware and software product management and delivery expertise. Joel can be found online as "JoelGeek" and you can follow him on Twitter @JoelGeek.

Talkback Most Recent of 17 Talkback(s)

  • Now, we need the fart applications, etc.
    ... and we will be set
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Roque Mocan
    16th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    Looks like lots of ports from the iPhone. Many of the games I've had for a while. I do wonder how many developers they needed to pay though?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    17th Aug 2010
  • 50.000 games
    so wait a minute? the blogosphere is excited because 50 games are coming to wp7? you gotta be kidding me.

    how about 50.000 games at the app store?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    banned from zdnet
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    @banned from zdnet

    I note how you posted something similar on another thread! lol - you're obviously an i-Clone.

    Anyway, it's simply a choice between Quality and Quantity.

    The point is, XBox is a well-established and highly regarded gamining platform and community - Apple has neither. That is why Microsoft are able to garner all the best games from the biggest game developers.

    If you're a fan of the latter, then go and enjoy your (apparent) 50,000 games - no doubt you'll find one or two mediocre and playable games amongst the dross! lol.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Poppets
    17th Aug 2010
  • .
    .
    ZDNet Gravatar
    banned from zdnet
    17th Aug 2010
  • news flash
    @Poppets
    most of the games listed above are already on iOS. these are ports from iOS games that microsoft actually paid developers for to port them.
    http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Windows+Phone+7/news.asp?c=21387

    in other words microsoft has to bribe developers, otherwise they wouldn't develope for this too little too late, unproven platform.

    of course no one here at zdnet would ever give some balanced view on ms' pr bs. they are excited: 50 games coming to wp7 sometime at the end of the year!!

    i can't believe it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    banned from zdnet
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    @Poppets

    You do understand that many of these games listed and developers (PopCap, Namco, Gameloft, Digital Chocolate...) have been enjoying success on the iPhone for years right? You're making it sound like because of the XBox, Microsoft were able to get these games and developers and Apple wasn't. No, Microsoft is paying many iPhone game developers just to port games over to WP7. You have it reverse.

    Also just because games are selling well on XBox that does not mean they will do well on WP7. These are separate gaming markets (hardc0re and casual). And last time I checked, XBox catered to hardc0re gammers.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    17th Aug 2010
  • You've GOT to be kidding me!
    This isn't intended to be critical of Joel Evans, but - does Microsoft REALLY think this is important?! We've waited 2+ years for a mobile OS that people can USE, and THIS is what they're touting?

    Microsoft must see their market as the kids now happily using iPhones. The're NEVER going to get those customers. Their target audience, IMO, are business users who need integration with their offices - apps, docs, emails. IOW, current Blackberry users and MAYBE some Android users. The ONLY thing Microsoft has going for them right now phone-wise is their ability to leverage Office and Exchange. Concentrate on that - build a mobile extension of the office - and people will come. NOT games! Sheesh!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Ira Seigel
    17th Aug 2010
  • Have you been ignoring all the other announcements?
    @Ira Seigel
    I don't understand why announcing support for games at a gaming conference would lead you to believe that games is the only thing WP7 will be able to do.

    We've waited 2+ years for a mobile OS that people can USE

    BTW, up until fairly recently, Apple thought that Windows Mobile was useful enough to enter sales at their Apple stores. happy
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NonZealot
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    @NonZealot
    >>BTW, up until fairly recently, Apple thought that Windows Mobile was useful enough to enter sales at their Apple stores. I don't understand why announcing support for games at a gaming conference would lead you to believe that games is the only thing WP7 will be able to do.

    My point being that spending lots of time and money touting WP7 at a gaming conference does not reach the audience that they SHOULD be going for, IMO, which is the RIM market. As noted earlier in this thread, most if not all of these games are available on iPhone or elsewhere. Just because they'll soon be available on WP7 doesn't mean that gamers are going to upgrade their phone to a WP7 phone. IMO, gamers won't be interested. Android and iPhone have the cachet to draw that crowd. MS doesn't.

    I'm a Microsoft stockholder. I have nothing against them, and no axe to grind. Just being realistic, as I see it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Ira Seigel
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    Sounds good to me, looking forward to the WP7 phones!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Loverock Davidson
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    @Ira Seigel

    You've probably got a few more years of MS dividends before the stock begins it's terminal decline to being totally worthless. Maybe 5 years, if you're lucky. In ten years the company will be broken up or dead.

    But Microsoft have a lot less time than that to get their act together, and start learning this new game. Owning a credible slice of the pie today isn't about owning any one sector, it's about offering products and services ordinary people actually want to use, and therefore buy... in all sectors.

    Microsoft's success to date has relied upon the majority of IT managers recommending their very average products in volume and then selling them bundled to the enterprise. That's not where the centre of gravity is in this new market.

    Desire plays a huge part, but the key elements are usability and trust. Microsoft have neither of these - except perhaps in gaming.

    I therefore disagree that they should concentrate on business markets. It's vital to their survival that they have a serious presence in all sectors. But to do so they have to offer credible products and services. They don't have enough credible products and services. The development lead-time is too long to create any before their main competitors gain the lion's share of all the key markets. So they won't survive.

    And it's very very clear why this has happened. Ballmer is an accountant with the personality and skill set of a used car salesman, who fancies himself as a tech maven - pretending to predict the future with his ludicrous statements about "3 screens and a cloud" and perpetually promising "many new products in the pipeline". Ballmer has pursued the most lamentably poor set of strategies, and committed some catastrophic errors over the past ten years. He's virtually guaranteed his company's failure all on his own.

    So, even though spending lots of time and money [they can obviously afford] touting WP7 at a gaming conference looks pathetic, and in truth it is [especially given MS had to bribe developers to port to WP7], if they want to maintain any credibility, it is actually what they should be doing. But of course they should first have ensured that WP7 was something that people wanted. There should also never have been a Project Pink/Kin. And if there was, it should have been kept secret - and obviously it shouldn't never have been released. But Microsoft have a pathetic need to boast about their projects - all of them, many well before they're ready for the market.

    But it's precisely because of all this utterly flawed thinking that they needed to be starting from a very different place if they wanted to win. So many things needed to have been done differently. But it's in the DNA of the entire company, from the founder down, to play the game this way. It was bound to be their undoing eventually.

    But please don't confuse me with someone who actually cares. I admire good brands. I forgive good brands when they make errors. But I don't forgive poor brands who's very foundations are as lamentably flawed as Microsoft's. And backing them is not something I would advise over the long term.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Graham Ellison
    18th Aug 2010
  • We won't confuse you with someone who cares
    @Graham Ellison
    After all, someone who cared wouldn't bother writing a 9 paragraph article about why he didn't care. happy
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NonZealot
    17th Aug 2010
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 to bring more than 50 Xbox LIVE games mobile
    @NonZealot

    It's an opinion-based piece, but all the evidence is there in plain sight, for all to see.

    I design and study business models. So my post was an academic treatise on why MS is where they are today, and an assessment of their future prospects, based on the case notes and my experience.

    What was yours based on? Oh yes, sarcasm - the lowest form of wit. Do enjoy being the jester in the pack. We do.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Graham Ellison
    18th Aug 2010
  • Double post (nt)
    .
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NonZealot
    17th Aug 2010
View More Comments

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources