An array of new XBL titles was announced by Microsoft this week at Games Com 2011 held in Cologne, Germany. German blog Giga.de got a chance to have a quick chat with Peter Orullian, Group Product Manager of Xbox division. Peter does a great job of rounding up most of the xbox live for Mango enhanced features previously announced in the official Windows Phone blog over the past months. Don't forget to check out our NoDo v/s Mango comparison video to see what's new in XBL Hub. Interview after the break.
GamesCon is underway at Cologne, Germany. Microsoft had a lot to offer at Games Con this year. @majornelson has a complete list of announcement here. Mobile gaming is a big business now and Microsoft knows it. They have announced a total of 14 Xbox Live titles for Windows Phone at Games Con. Here's a trailer showcasing em :
Steve Ballmer continued promoting Windows Phone and Microsoft's achievements at this years Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles. He said that Microsoft had no intentions of ditching their new operating system no matter what sales figures indicated. Ballmer admitted to the limited success “ We've gone from very small to very small but its been a heck of a year. On a more encouraging note “A year ago, Microsoft had no Windows Phone. In the last year we’ve sold millions of phones.” He pointed out a recent survey that showed that 9 out of 10 owners of a windows phone handset would recommend it to a friend. Faithful to my baby
He also stepped foot in the Nokia-Microsoft territory “Nokia, who had a choice this year to bet on themselves, to bet on Android or to bet on Windows Phone said for their bet, the company strategy, they’re going with Windows Phone. They saw our road maps, they saw what we’ve done, they saw what we’re planning on doing.” Ballmer also revealed that Nokia is pushing Microsoft to go broader geographically with Windows Phone and hit new price points for devices. “They believe, others believe too." Ballmer continued with the predictions by Gartner and IDC of Windows Phone reaching the no.2 spot by 2015 in the smart phone Market. Ballmer concluded his keynote by saying that Microsoft was 'all in for Windows Phone' and would work very hard to remain competitive in the smart-phone market “We know we’ve got a lot to do but like the Cloud, like NT many years back, we’re all in when it comes to mobile devices. And whether it’s phones or slates OR PCs or console devices, we’re certainly pushing extremely far and extremely fast.” So does this hint at the four devices interconnected and sharing a cloud? The future holds the answer and is not too far away.
Welcome back to another exciting comparison video between the features of Windows Phone 7 NoDo and the upcoming 7.5 Mango update. This video will be journeying into the adjustments and capabilities of the Xbox Live games hub.
Microsoft's E3 conference was held yesterday and they announced 8 new Xbox live games for Windows Phone. If you notice closely, like the guys at Windows Phone Daily did, stop at 0:42 of the trailer below and you'll notice a multiplayer tile possibly for XBL games.
I bet you have been hunting for a way to watch live streaming of Microsoft's E3 conference on your Windows Phone, fear not. To watch the live conference, simply navigate to:
xbox.mobi/e3
If you are on your PC, you can watch the live stream at Gamespot and IGN. I hope you are pumped up for E3, just half an hour left for the event to begin. Several new games will be showcased, including some exclusive Windows Phone 7 games too. So stay tuned and come back here for relevant Windows Phone related information. Happy E3.
How can you forget the ' Six Games in Six weeks ' program ? Yes, the one that got endless delays. Finally, in a blog post, Microsoft have revealed the date and pricing of all the six games. Sadly, Angry Birds has been delayed (again!) but fear not - it's coming.
List of the games, pricing and availability :
Hydro Thunder Go : May 25, for $4.99
Doodle Jump: June 1, for $2.99
geo Defense: June 8, for $2.99
Sonic The Hedgehog4 Episode 1: June 15, for $6.99
Plants v/s Zombies: June 22, for $4.99
Angry Birds: June 29, for $2.99
Well, the list is definitely worth looking forward to but anybody else besides me feel that the prices are relatively high when compared to other platforms like iOS and Android? Drop in your thoughts.
A twitter user ( @dsettinelli ) stumbled upon and shared this page titled 'Must Have Games for Windows Phone 7 ' via an email from Microsoft Australia. Before we begin, I have to say that after reading the line up of XBL titles - you will be pleasantly surprised.
Xbox.com has a special ' Must Have ' category for upcoming Windows Phone 7 games. They are releasing these games in a unique way called ' Six new games in six weeks '.
More on the ' Six new games in six weeks ' :
Delivering on the promise to bring a fresh catalog of fun, quality games on Windows Phone, we're proud to announce our exciting collection of Must Have Games -- six weeks of smash hit games you don't want to miss. No matter what kind of games you enjoy, the lineup of Must Have Games has something for you, delivering the biggest names in mobile games complete with Xbox LIVE Achievements, leaderboards, and more.
So what we have gathered at the moment is that these 6 games will be launched week by week. So a new XBL title will be launched every week. I am not sure if this is the correct order of release, because if it is - Angry birds fans will have to wait. Not a bad idea, this will create a lot of buzz before and after the launch of the above games.
Finally, we will have quality games from the powerhouses. Let me add to this, I have already played 3 of these games on my iOS device. WP7 is still waiting for that one exclusive that turns out to be a game changer for the platform, Microsoft studios - we are waiting.
Update : Looks like Microsoft isn't releasing it anytime soon, more on this on WPcentral
Update II : Xbox 's Youtube account recently uploaded a video of games in action. via enterconnected
