This may be a record, two articles with the word “Microsoft” in the title here on MacTrast. On the heels of Wednesday’s “Project xCloud” demonstration comes word that Microsoft will be opening up Xbox Live to developers of other platforms, including iOS.
The new SDK will allow developers to take advantage of the Xbox Live gaming platform’s major features on iOS and Android devices. Developers can use the SDK to add features such as Gamerscore, achievements, friend lists, clubs and other social elements from the Xbox Live platform to their games. Developers can pick and choose which features they’d like to add, instead of being required to include all of them.
The launch of the SDK – along with “Project xCloud” which was shown off yesterday and allows users to play Xbox One games directly on their mobile devices – are both part of a wider initiative by Microsoft. “Microsoft Game Stack” is a program combining the Redmond firm’s various gaming elements for developers under one umbrella.
Game Stack brings together all of our game-development platforms, tools, and services—such as Azure, PlayFab, DirectX, Visual Studio, Xbox Live, App Center, and Havok—into a robust ecosystem that any game developer can use. The goal of Game Stack is to help you easily discover the tools and services you need to create and operate your game.
The cloud plays a critical role in Game Stack, and Azure fills this vital need. Azure provides the building blocks like compute and storage, as well as cloud-native services from machine learning and AI, to push notifications and mixed reality spatial anchors. Azure is already available in 54 regions globally, including China, and continues to invest in building highly secure and sustainable cloud infrastructure and additional services for game developers. Azure’s global scale is what will give Project xCloud streaming technology the scale to deliver a great gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their device and location.
The one-stop shop for developers combines elements like Direct X, Azure PlayFab, Mixer, Virtual Studio, and more to offer assistance for developers at varying scales.