Xbox LIVE Going Mobile: Microsoft Announces 50 Games for Release on Windows Phone 7

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Imagine taking your favorite games with you wherever you wanted and being able to play whenever you wanted. That is the selling point behind Microsoft's latest move today at in Germany where they announced a massive line up of game titles to be released on Windows Phone 7 which is set to hit the market just in time for the Christmas shopping season this year.

Major game creators including industry giants like , Gameloft , and Namco Bandai have all joined the project to offer a large selection for users to choose from. The line up is packed with popular game titles including “Assassinssss Creed”, “Fast and Furious”,“Halo Waypoint”, “Castlevania”, “Guitar Hero 5”, and “Starwars: Battle for Hoth”. The line up will also offer an array of casual and classic gaming favorites such as “Bejeweled LIVE”, “Bubble Town 2”, and “Frogger” so there will be something for almost every type of gamer out there; however, Microsoft is hoping to make a major splash with this release to set a new industry standard for mobile gaming by offering more than a large selection of titles. ( .)

Windows Phone 7 will also include the same type of gaming features that players have come to expect on Xbox LIVE like a multiplayer feature that will allow you to connect to other Windows Phone 7 users and messaging capability for easy communication with fellow players. You will also have access to your Xbox LIVE avatars and be able to connect to your profile and friend's list while on the go. Another ambitious goal for the mobile gaming on Windows Phone 7 is the ability to track your achievements across platforms when you are playing one of the included titles, so if you break that Bejeweled record while on your lunch break it will still up date the leaderboard and your account just as if you were playing on your console at home, and visa versa.

Windows Phone 7, an operating system for mobile phones, was first announced in February of 2010 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and plans to lure customers in with a familiar interface, feature built platform, and mobile gaming experience that they hope will help them to take the mobile world by storm and over shadow the competition and not a moment to soon; with the battle between Microsoft and Google raging on, this move could be a big asset in Microsoft's arsenal.[youtube]MdDAeyy1H0A[/youtube]

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gave a good summary of the announcement; the notes below add practical context for anyone who lands on this thread later and wants to act on it—either to build for Windows Phone 7 or to evaluate titles as a buyer.

For developers: the official toolchain for WP7 game development centered on XNA Game Studio 4.0 (C# + the XNA content pipeline) integrated with Visual Studio 2010, and Microsoft consolidated developer access through App Hub (the submission/management portal). App Hub required a developer subscription and was the place to register, get the SDKs/emulators, and submit XAP packages to the Marketplace. ()

Platform constraints that really matter for design and performance: Windows Phone 7 enforced a tight hardware baseline and originally supported one primary resolution (WVGA 480x800), which simplifies UI/asset targeting but means you should optimize sprites/textures and layout for that canvas. Early devices also varied in GPU and RAM, so profiling on real handsets (not just the emulator) is essential. (blogs.windows.com)

Runtime and testing cautions: the original WP7 release used a tombstoning model (apps get deactivated and may be terminated), so save transient UI/state on Deactivated and restore on Activated; true multitasking and scheduled/background agents arrived later with the Mango update, so background behaviors differ by OS version. Plan for low-memory devices, keep draw calls and texture sizes small, and verify behavior across emulator, low-end hardware and Mango-updated devices. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick checklist

  • Implement robust save/restore (tombstoning) and test resume flows.
  • Optimize textures/atlas usage and reduce per-frame allocations.
  • Test on a 512MB (and if possible 256MB) device to catch memory issues.
  • Use App Hub to manage submission, trials/demos and distribution.

These practical steps bridge the announcement and a working game or buying decision.

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