Topic: Microsoft demos same game across ALL their platforms - X360, PC, Win Mobile 7

[MysterD]

Just check this out.

At the moment, when a game is released on multiple platforms you expect to buy one of those games and have an experience limited to that hardware. Microsoft is attempting to change that by allowing you to play the same game across different devices.

This isn’t a case of some data from a game on Xbox 360 affecting your experience on a PC version. Microsoft want you to be able to take your game from platform to platform, and is implementing developer support to allow for this.

As the video above demonstrates, if you are playing game X on a PC and need to go out, you can continue playing that same game on your Windows Mobile 7 handset. When you get home, just switch back to the PC and carry on from the save point you reached on your smartphone.

The new technology was shown at the recent TechEd Middle East 2010 conference held in Dubai. It relies on save files being stored in the cloud and developers implementing the code to support this cross-platform gameplay. Microsoft is offering support for this in its latest version of Visual Studio.

As the main focus is on the save data, it doesn’t matter if your games differ greatly on different platforms. For example, a 3D FPS on the Xbox 360 may be the same game on a PC, but on a smartphone it would have the same levels, but in a 2D platformer setup. You choose which platform to play on, switch when you want to, and play wherever you like.