Right, by now, everyone must have guessed that I’m dead excited about Windows Phone 7 Series. Like, really excited. Like, more excited than a human should ever get about technology, but then, my name is Technical Markus, so what do you expect? Given the sudden appearance of Xbox games in our Famous Phones section, you may have also guessed that I switched allegiances from Sony, to join the cult of Xbox about, ooh, a year ago.
Honestly, Transformers: War For Cybertron (out in June) may well make me reach nerdvana, and if it doesn’t, Mass Effect 3 certainly will.
So, given those two facts, you could probably guess what central feature of Windows Phone 7 Series is getting me the most breathlessly excited. It’s Xbox Live integration, because no other phone OS in existence does that.
I’ve mentioned before that the significance of Xbox Live integration is massively greater than a lot of people have said. Sure, I see people who say “I only want my phone to be a phone, I care not for Xbox stuff”. And that’s fine, but it begs the question of why, if they don’t care about anything beyond basic phones, they’re even commenting on a smartphone OS, but that’s by the by. I, for one, am dead excited about Xbox coming to mobile phones, and I’ll tell you why. Y’see, it’s not things like Live avatar customisation that get me excited. One of my ideas was making Xbox games where certain bits (for example, the mineral resource mining in Mass Effect 2) could be done on the phone as well as on the Xbox itself, in your downtime, so that if you’ve got a Windows Phone, you can focus your console experience on the actual alien laser face melty death bits.
In essence, what I wished for was multi-platform gaming, where you could play the game (either the whole game, or just bits of it) on multiple devices, say the phone, your desktop PC and your Xbox.
Now imagine my excitement, because, as we see in the following video, THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT MICROSOFT HAVE IN MIND!
Woo, and indeed, hoo. Okay, fair enough, the game itself is only a 2D Indiana Jones platformer, but even so, the most apt words I can think of are ‘massive potential’. The idea of starting a game on your Xbox, saving the game, then picking up your phone on the bus in to work, and having the same game pick up the action at the exact point you left off at, is just mind-blowing for someone like me, who first got into gaming with the Commodore 64.
So, I say again, that I think Xbox Live integration is much more crucial and important than some people have given credit for. Yes, fine, 7 Series has got a lovely new interface, and it’s all sleek, and everything, but Xbox Live is its killer app. No other phone platform can replicate that, with the possible exception being Sony, if they ever get their act together and release a PSP Phone. Even then, though, I’d argue the whole Xbox Live infrastructure ecosystem thingy is biggerer and strongerer than the PlayStation Network.
Oh, and of course, let’s not forget, Xbox Live integration is the key thing that’s made me hold off on committing to get an HTC HD2. That’s how much Windows Phone 7 Series has got me hooked…
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