Microsoft has gone further into the details of Xbox on its Windows Phone 7 Series platform, and the way that its popular gaming service will be tied into its mobile OS.
Joe Belfiore – the vice president of Windows Phone – was the man who showed off the details of the Windows 7 and he saved the Xbox integration until last.
Windows Phone 7 Series handsets will have premium games and will make the Xbox Live experience central to the gaming on the mobile phone – adding gamer scores from the console, casual games that are tied to the Xbox profile and, presumably, an integration with Windows Games.
Of course, this may see PlayStaion users questioning whether this is the right handset for them, but for Xbox fans, the integration will be a major selling point for phones using Microsoft's latest mobile OS.
Explosion of applications
"I've got one more hub to show you," said Belfiore, "one topic I haven't talked about yet - games.
"If you look at the explosion of applications that are being created for phones, by far most popular category is games, and as I think about my gaming usage - I play games on my phone, I connect to games on my PC using casual services and I use my Xbox console as a member of Xbox Live
"Using these devices works fine but we wanted to bring those services together on the Windows Phones.
"Yes we are bringing the Xbox live service and Xbox live games to the Windows Phone as a built in part of the value proposition so the phones are not just effective and functional but really fun."
Big Xbox Live integration
Belfiore demonstrated the service, although it was not clear how people would go through the service if they did not have an existing Xbox Live profile.
"The spotlight…gives announcements about new games and new info available on the service…pan right and I can see gamer score, recent achievements either on console or on phone and I can see their avatar as well.
"There are requests because we see gaming fundamentally as a sociable experience.
"At the far right is the collection of games featuring premium titles authored to Xbox Live which on the phone will support achievements, letting you increase gamer score and letting you do multiplayer interaction with people on other phones but also on the PC and console as well.
"So when we look at Xbox live and the amount of fun and experience that more than 23 million people are having on the console we think it's going to be a terrific addition to the family of experience on these new Windows 7 series phones."
