Microsoft could ease the mobile Xbox Live certification process, and why that needs to happen

A few days ago, nosotros reported that Microsoft is looking to create an open-source framework for bringing Xbox Alive features to games for all mobile platforms. An additional written report from The Verge has since added boosted fuel to the fire, giving us a slightly clearer picture of what that means for Xbox Alive on Windows Phone and other mobile devices.

Xbox Windows Phone has long been in dire need of a change. Read on to discover out what went wrong, and how probable it is that the upcoming open-source framework will set mobile Xbox Live games dorsum on track.

A system in demand of change

Fairway Solitaire

It's difficult to remember nowadays, but Xbox games were actually a selling betoken of Windows Telephone seven back when the platform launched in late 2022. That year, Microsoft reached out to numerous mobile developers beyond the globe and encouraged them to port their games to Windows Phone as Xbox Live titles. In some cases, the big MS actually paid the developers to exercise the porting, merely non always.

Of the 63 Xbox games announced for the Windows Phone 7 launch window, but 52 made it to market. A few, similar Existent Soccer and Cobblestone 5 showed up equally late as 2022 – well by the launch window. Many others were quietly cancelled without notice, making them vaporware. Bank check out our wait back at Loondon, ane of those vaporware titles.

In the early on days of Xbox Windows Phone, Microsoft allowed some developers and publishers to self-publish their games. Usually, a company must have self-published retail Xbox titles in order to become that privilege. Sadly, the days of allowing companies to publish their own Xbox games are over. Fairway Solitaire was planned equally an Xbox game but concluded up an indie title due to that woeful constraint.

These days, the only Xbox games that appear on Windows Phone are published by Microsoft, EA, or Ubisoft. Even if a smaller developer wanted to release an Xbox game for Windows Telephone, they would have to negotiate a publishing agreement with Microsoft thus losing an actress cut of the game's profits, as well every bit control over that title'south future. So nobody makes Xbox games whatever more.

A tortuous certification process

MiniSquadron

The other major malfunction in the mobile Xbox arrangement has long been the rigorous certification process. In order to be Xbox-enabled, games must exist submitted for certification. The actual testing is done by depression-wage contractors outside of Microsoft, who we've been told often provided vague or unhelpful feedback in the past.

One game, MiniSquadron really took longer to push through certification than information technology did to develop! And subsequently the game released with a few bugs unsquashed, the programmer actually chose to delist it rather than face another circular of certification. Another indie championship that launched with severe bugs is I Dig It from InMotion Software. The Xbox Live certification team refused to allow the I Dig It bug-fixing championship update to laissez passer for a whopping 8 months!

Just today, a former programmer of Xbox games for Windows Telephone and Windows eight told us:

"Doing anything with Microsoft and Xbox Live is such a drain on our resources, and the sales just yet aren't there on Microsoft'due south mobile platforms.  I believe it is best to launch without Xbox Live integration.  Then y'all have the freedom and flexibility to make your game the all-time it can be, not be hamstrung by Xbox Alive services."

Even Gameloft, a publisher that tin can better afford to pay for the wearisome and costly certification process chose to finish producing Xbox titles for Windows Phone last year. They still brand Windows Phone games, but without the Xbox features that many gamers crave.

We saw the writing on the wall long before Gameloft jumped send. In early on 2022 I wrote a series of seven lengthy editorials chronicling all the bug facing Xbox Live games on Windows Phone. Only one of my grievances has been addressed (the need for a mobile Halo game), though requests for contained volume control and support for installing games on SD cards will finally be met when Windows Telephone 8.1 rolls out.

Something different this way comes

Halo: Spartan Assault

Now that we've gotten the history lesson out of the way, let's look at The Verge's study. The website initially plant a Microsoft job posting (which has since been removed ) that reads:

"We will create a modern framework that is open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable beyond various platforms including Windows Shop, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android."

The Verge goes on to add together a bit of additional insight from its own source:

"Microsoft is aiming to "win back" game developers from its competitors by making Xbox Live a lot easier to integrate into apps and games. Xbox Live, in its current land, requires certification and permission from Microsoft, but in the hereafter the visitor is planning to have fewer restrictions and amend tools for game developers to integrate the functionality into titles."

The obvious skillful news there is that certification for mobile Xbox Live games will at long last be eased. The electric current, Draconian certification procedure is basically copy-and-pasted form the Xbox 360, without any special concessions for mobile or indie developers.

Although big publishers like EA, Gameloft, etc. produce a lot of acknowledged mobile titles, a significant portion of the nearly popular mobile games (including Flappy Bird) come from individual developers or very small-scale teams. Retrieve, Microsoft made a few special publishing deals and/or threw some funding around in the early days of Xbox Windows Phone, but that pretty much stopped in 2022. Even those indie developers fortunate enough to self-publish during 2022-2011 still had to contend with a certification process that is overly rigorous and yet inefficient. No wonder they left.

Attracting developers dorsum to Xbox Windows Phone is only part of Microsoft'southward goal here. The job posting stated that the new framework volition support Android and iOS likewise. I've argued earlier that Xbox features should be exclusive to Microsoft platforms, so Xbox support on Android and iOS is bad for Windows Phone. Simply the sad reality is that at that place are of import people inside Microsoft who utilize iPhones and Android phones and simply don't care about the Windows Phone department's success over their ain departments.

Call back back to Halo: Spartan Assault. If Microsoft couldn't accept also brought that game to Windows 8, Xbox One, and Xbox 360, the Windows Phone version never would have happened. Opening up Xbox Live to iOS and Android is a necessary evil in society to actually get the mobile Xbox Live certification procedure straightened up and revive Xbox Windows Telephone. Let'south get developers making Xbox games again before we worry about whether our friends on iOS and Android unlock Achievements.

Will Microsoft really ease mobile Xbox Alive certification to the indicate that lapsed developers who one time supported Xbox Windows Telephone will come back?

Maybe more Xbox Windows Telephone games will come later FIFA 14 afterward all.

The style the Verge tells things, yous'd recall Microsoft might be trying to position mobile Xbox Live every bit an equivalent to iOS'southward GameCenter and Android's Google Play services. That's what Windows Phone gamers have long been crying for: a mode for developers to add Achievements to their games without signing away command of the game or slowing down the procedure of getting games and updates to market.

It'south certainly possible that the recent leadership changes within Microsoft (including those that took place last week) have finally paved the way for revamping the mobile Xbox Live certification process. Although I fear there are few gamers making decisions like these that affect Xbox Windows Phone, the demand for adjustment has been patently to see since 2022.

Even without the framework that Microsoft plans to build, a recent development has opened up a new, easier way for games on Windows Phone and non-Microsoft platforms to incorporate Xbox Live features. All Xbox Live functionality is available as web calls now. In other words, features similar having an Achievement list and unlocking those Achievements can be washed by communicating with a web server without much actress piece of work from the programmer. Theoretically, any game for any platform with web access can have Xbox Live features. Microsoft but has to approve that game as an Xbox Live title.

Returning to the new cross-platform framework revealed by the job posting, our Xbox Live developer source tells us that Microsoft has non started discussing the framework with third-party developers yet. As such, the initiative could still be pretty far off. But GDC and Microsoft'southward BUILD conference are just effectually the corner. Peradventure the big MS will open up most the framework it's creating during one of those events.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-could-ease-mobile-xbox-certification

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