Microsoft wants to bring its Xbox Live platform to a wider audience of mobile gamers, and the company might be looking to hire someone to help expand the platform to different mobile devices, as suggested by a listing at https://careers.microsoft.com - the listing has since been removed, but as reported on the Verge, the company seems keen to expand its presence in the mobile space.
The job listing reportedly read: "We will create a modern framework that is open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android." The company has already made one attempt at bringing achievements to other mobile platforms, through the game Wordament, which was launched on Windows Phone, but is now also available on the iPhone and Android, and uses Xbox Live achievements. These are all added to your gamer score, which others on Xbox Live can see.
But for Microsoft to succeed, they need support from third party developers, and that's why it's important to build a framework that's easy for others to use. The question that needs to be asked is what advantage Microsoft can provide to third party developers who could instead use native platforms such as Apple's Game Center or the Google Play Games service.
While it's unlikely that Microsoft will allow direct cross-platform gaming, they have strong relationships with the biggest publishers in the industry, and could use this to incentivise second screen applications that make use of a smart device with a game being played on an Xbox One, perhaps. And for users, having a single account with your entire gaming history and friends will certainly be appealing too.
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