Advice to Microsoft on Mobile Gaming

[Saljen]

Microsoft has been hesitant to join the mobile gaming field. They've made an attempt on their Windows Phone platform by offering the Xbox Live service, but lets be honest; they're just leveraging the name and not really providing any sort of gaming service that isn't available on any other mobile device.

My idea isn't much of a stretch and should be achievable with currently available high end hardware, IE: the stuff that you see on flagship Android devices. Adding an emulator for the original Xbox and branding their highest end devices as Xbox compatible (or some other menial name, they have an advertising department for these things) would add an extreme amount of value to Windows Phone and Windows 8 both, and would really put Microsoft ahead as the number one in the mobile gaming world.

To go even further with this idea, and to make the idea of turning both Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone devices in to real gaming machines, Microsoft should release a universal game pad that would work with all of their "Xbox Compatible" devices, whether tablet or phone. Now I'll be straight forward with you guys... I'm absolutely terrible with MS Paint, but I'm still going to give you an idea of what something like this could look like. A picture is worth a thousand words after all.




Now again, I'm going to state my obvious lack of skill in "Photoshop" (MS Paint), but you get the idea. A universal peripheral that will work on Windows 8 tablets as well as Windows Phones. This will also solve the issue that is bound to crop up involving the existing massive library of games for Windows. As it is currently, Windows 8 tablets (even the x86 based ones) are going to be incompatible with almost all of Windows' massive library of games, simply because they were not designed for touch input. Most games that are available for Windows have some sort of optional joystick control for those who prefer that method of input instead of keyboard/mouse, this peripheral would work seamlessly with those games.

Another possibility for the use of such a peripheral would be with what Microsoft just announced at E3, SmartGlass. SmartGlass faces an issue because it wants to be an "in addition" to device. This will work well for video because you can use it to gain extra content about the movie or show that you're watching, just like they demoed at E3. However, this becomes an issue with gaming because unless your game is only using Kinect as an input device, you're hands are full with the Xbox controller. This peripheral could serve as a replacement for the Xbox controller, and you would basically have a full fledged Wii U controller, but one that would be significantly more powerful because of the SmartGlass platform.

So with simply adding emulation for the original Xbox into their Win8/WP8 devices, and releasing a peripheral that would make high end mobile gaming not only feasible, but enjoyable, Microsoft could go from being non-existent in the mobile gaming space to being the king over night.

 

[massifheed]

Dedicated mobile phone gaming consoles just don't work. You only have to look back at the N-Gage and N-Gage QD, and recently with Sony's Experia Play (or whatever is was called). That thing had Playstation certification, but in the end it was just a poor phone and a poor console.

MS do well not to get too involved with mobile gaming. Their current offering on WP is good enough for me (and the majority of others I would guess). Casual gaming is the way forward on mobile phones/tablets. I think the direction MS are heading in with the WP handsets providing more functionality with the Xbox console is the right idea.

People who want more of a hardcore portable gaming experience should - and do - buy a PSP, PS Vita or a DS/3DS. But given the lukewarm sales of both Vita and 3DS, it would look like even your average console gamer doesn't place too much importance on dedicated mobile gaming.

 

[Saljen]

Dedicated mobile phone gaming consoles just don't work. You only have to look back at the N-Gage and N-Gage QD, and recently with Sony's Experia Play (or whatever is was called). That thing had Playstation certification, but in the end it was just a poor phone and a poor console.

MS do well not to get too involved with mobile gaming. Their current offering on WP is good enough for me (and the majority of others I would guess). Casual gaming is the way forward on mobile phones/tablets. I think the direction MS are heading in with the WP handsets providing more functionality with the Xbox console is the right idea.

People who want more of a hardcore portable gaming experience should - and do - buy a PSP, PS Vita or a DS/3DS. But given the lukewarm sales of both Vita and 3DS, it would look like even your average console gamer doesn't place too much importance on dedicated mobile gaming.

I'm not saying that Microsoft should release a console. I'm saying they should build on top of what they already have created with Xbox Live and Smart Glass. Users can still use their current Windows Phone or Windows 8 tablet as their main device, and can use it for casual touchscreen gaming. However if they want to do some real gaming, they can pull out a universal peripheral that attaches to their existing device (tablet or smartphone) and use that. In addition to being able to use this device as a standalone, it can be used in conjunction with SmartGlass on the Xbox 360 to replace the Xbox controller and still have the same functionality with the touchscreen added from your smart device (tablet/smartphone).