Not only is the game itself playable on all three platforms, but the session is maintained when you move from device to device: if you’re playing on your Xbox and have to run out the door, you’ll be on the same level when you fire it up on your Windows Phone 7 Series phone. Basically, you’ll never have an excuse not to be gaming.
I’m sure this is very exciting to some of you and a little scary to others. Regardless of its potential for crippling your productivity and taking out your social life at the knees, it’s pretty amazing stuff. Presumably we will be seeing more cool tidbits like this in the next few weeks when MIX and CTIA roll around. [Engadget]
Craig Helensborough
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 8:49 AMThis is another attempt by Microsoft to tie users to its Windows desktop monopoly, by tethering it to the phone. But at the same time, Microsoft deliberately ignores industry standards.
For example, there is only one browser for its Windows Phone 7 Series platform, and that’s Internet Explorer, which does not adhere to W3C web standards. The rest of the mobile industry has unified around the standards-compliant WebKit browser.
Microsoft WP7S phones will come with a hard-wired Bing Button, one of the 3 buttons on the handset’s front panel, which carriers will be forbidden from changing to another search engine.
I think the strategy will fail, because Microsoft is a very very minor player in mobile, even more so since it trashed its previous Windows Mobile platform. You can’t behave like this when you are a minority player.
matt
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 10:56 AMadd to that that you can only develop for it in XNA and silverlight, two Microsoft developed programming interfaces, and you have a platform even more controlled than the iPhone. (honestly, congratulations MS, I didn’t think it was possible).
no c++ for ease of cross platform development? pass.
you will never see flash on this. epic fail, I will not buy.
Travis New
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 12:00 PMApple only has safari browser so whats your point about IE?
Apple on has 1 hardwired button on the front :O
If people don’t wanna program for IE browsers they don’t have to … just like you don’t be a moron but here we are.
ZOMG MSFT only want you to use their new multi-million dollar search engine they’ve made … SHHHHHHOCK HORROR!
They also didn’t trash the previous Mobile platform they are still programming for it and releasing more update.
Sandra K
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 12:41 PMAt least the Safari browser is based on the open-source WebKit. Same goes for the browsers on Android and Palm webOS. Also WebKit. BlackBerry will also soon release a new WebKit browser.
On Windows Phone 7 Series, there’s just Microsoft’s proprietary Internet Explorer browser.
Regarding the cross-platform games, for the past 3 years the technology was available to run Xbox games on PC, but there are very few games that did so. This is a good example of how Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series will fail.
James S
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 8:54 AMAll I can honestly say is that I haven’t doubted Microsoft one bit. They always wait till they are on their knees and dying and as they take their last breath they rise from the ashes like a pheonix. I own a little something called a iPhone 3GS 32GB, and I have been bleeding for a reason to pack away this little powerhouse. Please windows, blast these bast*rds out the water!!!!
Devz
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 11:18 AMSupport free development: Android
(or iPhone cydia..)