You’ve been able to login to your Xbox account on both Mobile and even on the Nintendo Switch for some time now, however, this new announcement from Microsoft is a whole lot more than simply logging in – it’s fully integrating Xbox Live into your device, including achievements, friends, clubs, and game history etc.
This still might not mean anything to you, and you might be thinking “I can already see my achievements on my phone” and you’d be right, but can you earn achievements on your phone? No. But in the not-so-distant future you will be able to; this means that if you were playing Fortnite or Warframe on the Switch for instance, you’ll be able to earn Xbox Live achievements. It could also allow you to browse your Xbox Live friends list while playing a game on the Switch (which is cross-compatible with the Xbox) and invite them directly. How awesome is that?
In Microsoft’s own words, they say:
“Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger. Xbox Live is expanding from 400m gaming devices and a reach to over 68m active players to over 2bn devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK.”
“Get a first look at the SDK to enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.”
Now before you get too excited, it is up to the game developers to add in the ability to earn Xbox Live achievements and invite friends on other devices, but since the current gaming hype is all about cross-play we’re pretty sure that developers will be adding this in with almost all future releases.
Obviously, PS4 players aren’t included in this, as Sony likes to keep things locked down.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Microsoft, it’s a mammoth task with a lot of cogs that could go wrong, but if anyone can do it then Microsoft can. We’re not sure yet exactly how the technology will work, but our best guess is that it will be similar to the GameCentre on iOS or the Game Launcher on Samsung where they track game activity in the background, and no doubt they’re going to be working closely with Nintendo to get it all working smoothly on the Switch.
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