Microsoft was eerily quiet on their plans for Windows Phone 7 gaming yesterday during their E3 press conference, but that doesn’t mean that news wasn’t bound to leak out somewhere. The new smartphone OS, set to launch by holiday 2010, has a good deal of already announced potential for gaming. And if recent rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is willing to pay to see that potential realized.
Microsoft was eerily quiet on their plans for Windows Phone 7 gaming yesterday during their E3 press conference, but that doesn’t mean that news wasn’t bound to leak out somewhere. The new smartphone OS, set to launch by holiday 2010, has a good deal of already announced potential for gaming. And if recent rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is willing to pay to see that potential realized.
“One developer has told PocketGamer.biz that Microsoft is contacting successful iPhone developers, offering them upfront cash to port their games to the new platform,” says PocketGamer.biz’s Jon Jordan. “Amounts are said to be substantial, although not enough to tempt the developer in question. Because Windows Phone 7 is limited to Silverlight or XNA Framework (C#) development, the cost of reworking its games from C++ remains too high. Interestingly though, our source still reckoned there was the possibility Microsoft could tweak the development environment to make porting from C++ easier, and hence tip the balance to make the deal commercially viable.”
Despite seeing tremendous success in other avenues of the gaming market, Microsoft has never really tried to establish itself in the portable arena. They dabbled their toes in mobile gaming with Zune, but beyond that the company has never made a full-fledged effort to conquer the world of portable gaming. It should be interesting to see how this unfolds when their new mobile OS hits the market later this year.
[via PocketGamer.biz]
