MS working on phone-to-console gaming

By Oli Welsh Published 25 August, 2010

Windows Phone 7 will have it after launch.

Microsoft hopes to deliver real-time multiplayer gameplay between Windows Phone 7 devices and Xbox 360 over wi-fi.

Confirmation comes from a recent event in Canada covered by rgbFilter (via Joystiq).

At launch, Windows Phone 7 will only support turn-based multiplayer between phones, or phones and PCs. Its Xbox Live integration will also allow achievements and other rewards to be unlocked in 360 games by playing mini-games on the phone.

But mobility solutions manager Greg Milligan revealed that real-time synchronous multiplayer was being worked on.

"So initially, we're turn by turn-based," Milligan said. "We are working on real-time phone-to-console, likely initially through Wi-Fi - again, operator networks are sensitive to that.

"That's not on day one; day one will be turn-by-turn as well as companion-type gaming where you play a level on the phone and it may unlock a level or a weapon or some special achievement on the console game.

"But, yeah - absolutely working on phone-to-console real-time. That is something we're working on and expect to have in the near future."

The Windows Phone 7 operating system is planned for release towards the end of this year.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • riceNpea #1 2 years ago

    great. i can't wait for the day when not only my laptop freezes up and crashes but my phone too.

  • SHPanda #2 2 years ago

    Please don't.

    Turn based on something like Carcassonne would work, but I don't want to be connecting to multiplayer matches on LIVE in real time only to join a game with a phone that'll be slow and laggy, and will mean the other players movements, responses etc will be poor.

  • mcmonkeyplc #3 2 years ago

    Wifi hotspots are everywhere and it doesn't have to be a public place, say you're at a family do and you're bored shitless, fireup a game of letsplaysomecrap and off you go.

    I'm pretty sure every place I regularly visit has wifi.

    People love picking holes in everything. Yes it's not as great as having it 3G and wifi but that's too prevent lag and network overload for the carriers. THINK about it.

  • DazzeL190 #4 2 years ago

    I agree.

    It's all about the feasible over the possible.

    I mean, look at the iPhone, Apple drip fed features to ensure each baby step maintained a rock solid stable OS. That's their real success.

  • Quint2020 #5 2 years ago

    MS need to wake up and realise why the 360 has had the success it's had so far.

    For the record it's not because of motion controls or cross compatibility with bloody phones.

  • mcmonkeyplc #6 2 years ago

    /facepalm

    What the hell are you talking about Quint? This is a story about Win 7 mobile playing nice with the 360. Not the 360 playing nice with Win 7 mobile.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #7 2 years ago

    MS in feature missing launch shocker ;o)

  • Quint2020 #8 2 years ago

    Well I did only read the title...

    Even so, I stick by my sweeping statement, in my opinion MS need to refocus on getting great games on the system, not pissing around with stuff like this.

  • rotmm #9 2 years ago

    Why are Sony promising x-play between phone and console? Haven't they learned anything from the same promises by Sony and the PSP/PS3?

  • The-Bodybuilder #10 2 years ago

    Quint, you're so stupid. LOL.

  • Quint2020 #11 2 years ago

    I'm merely expressing my concern with Microsoft's apparent change in focus with the 360, in my opinion they appear to be losing sight of what made the system such a success in the first place.

    This "XBL on Win 7 mobile!" just seems a pointless place to be pouring resources in to when it could instead be used, for example to secure some great exclusives.

    Apologies though as my opinion differs from yours I'm clearly and idiot. LOL.

  • tancredo #12 2 years ago

    Interconectivity of all home devices is the future. Phone-music-movies-games-achievements, anytime, anywhere, correlated among all your entertainment devices is a logical strategy.

  • SilentNinja92 #13 2 years ago

    Id love to see more connectivity with consoles and handheld devices.

    The psp did a good job accessing all your media on your ps3 anywhere you had wifi. Things like that would be really good. Thats one of the things i like about ms. Theyre good at making all their different products just work toghether flawlessly. Listening to my laptops music on the 360 whilst playing a game is easy and fast. Just listening to the same music on the ps3 without a game on is so unresponsive.

  • Lexx87 #14 2 years ago

    If these bonuses for 360 games are exclusive to using the phone (as in extra items or levels) then that is a horrible idea.

  • Bahumet #15 2 years ago

    And just how long is your phone battery going to last while you're connected to wifi and playing an online game at the same time?

  • Gastrian #16 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Dave52 #17 2 years ago

    If the Xbox players are using Kinect, the phone lag won't seem so bad...

  • orangpelupa #18 2 years ago

    <strong>great. i can't wait for the day when not only my laptop freezes up and crashes but my phone too. </strong>

    its already happened years ago. Remember "smart phone" with multitaskting, Nokia 7650 using Symbian OS 0.9 S60 (or is it Symbian 1, s60v0.9 i cant remembrr)

    Crash, restart, freeze, out of ram. is common

  • The-Bodybuilder #19 2 years ago

    Apologies though as my opinion differs from yours I'm clearly and idiot. LOL

    Apology accepted.
    Whilst you're at it, would you like MS to sell off Windows and use the money to build even greater AAA games? Or sell off all heir other successful businesses to plunge into more games?
    This is called a business, and a business has many markets, and a company like MS need to fight on all fronts. WM7 takes nothing, NOTHING away from the entertainment division.

  • RodHull #20 2 years ago

    Blah blah blah, Apple are great, blah blah blah, Microsoft are rubbish etc etc

  • Bander #21 2 years ago

    N-Gage had realtime phone-to-phone multiplayer at launch (2003) via Bluetooth. Online was turn-by-turn, but GPRS is laggier than a dial-up modem so that couldn't be helped.

    Windows Phone 7 isn't going to end up with some useless crippled version of Bluetooth like iPhones is it?

  • Gromit #22 2 years ago

    @SilentNinja92

    I use Winamp Remote (orb) for streaming music from my pc, and it works flawlessly. The MS connection is no good in my experience. I believe you can use Orb through a browser as well.

  • ronuds #23 2 years ago

    @Rodhull

    +1

    I'll add my own: Obligatory I hate MS and this sucks for no reason whatsoever, other than the fact I'm an angry nob-end.

  • Amblin #24 2 years ago

    1st step towards patent infringement of OnLive. Soon after this they'll have ip casting and blammo Ms adds the cloud to it's many strings of gaming platforms it like to service.

    Turn-based is bollocks anyways, who the hell would bother when real-time is already possible?

  • orangpelupa #25 2 years ago

    ^^ actually turn based is not bad if the game is designed from start, for great turn based experience.

    Playing Worms on N-GAGE (ancient smart phone, capable of multiplayer gaming) is fun, is great. and it is turn based.

  • immateriaux #26 2 years ago

    Seeing and reading previews of the Win7 phones, I don't think people are going to be buying them, they just don't seem to be very good and are rolling out tech that's sort of two years old already. They need to come up with something more innovative, a niche phone to console gaming development is a bit pointless.

  • Bander #27 2 years ago

    I recall Catan (developed by Capcom) and Pocket Kingdom being pretty good turn-based N-Gage games as well.

    For action games where a time-attack mode is appropriate, often N-Gage titles had an option to send compressed replay data so you could compete with a ghost of another player. I wonder if MS is allowing that?