Windows Phone Mango is supposed to have over 500 new features and Microsoft continues to slowly detail what all of these will entail. The company showed off some of the new features in the gaming hub and mobile gamers should start to get excited.
I’ve always felt that one of the biggest advantages Windows Phone has is that it has Xbox Live built in. Hardcore gamers swear by this service and Windows Phone Mango will improve the mobile integration. From the Windows blog:
- Improved Xbox LIVE messaging: Read and reply to Xbox Live messages sent from another Windows Phone, a PC, or an Xbox console. We’ve also added more avatar delighters here. If a message contains certain emoticons (e.g. , ), you’ll notice your avatar’s expression change to reflect that emotion! (If a sender overloads a message with conflicting emoticons, your avatar will look bewildered.)
- Connect with Xbox Live friends: Find out if your Xbox LIVE friends are currently online through the friend status view. You can also search, browse, initiate, and respond to friend requests right from your Windows Phone 7.
- Integrated achievements and new comparison views: See the recent games your friends have been playing, and compare gamerscores and achievements for all Xbox LIVE games played on the phone, console, or PC.
- Edit your profile: Moved to a new city? Have a new motto in life? Now you can update your name, bio, motto, and location right from the phone.
Improved Spotlight content: We’ve improved the news and info delivered to you via Spotlight in the Games Hub. Your window to the Xbox LIVE community will now be complemented with rich and vibrant images!- Improved game request notifications: In Mango, you’ll receive notifications for multiplayer game or turn requests and can track them in the Requests section of the Games Hub.
That’s quite a good list of improvements but I’m really hoping we’ll see developers push the bar on what we can do on mobile gaming with Windows Phone Mango. There are some other improvements as well, so hit the via link to get all the details.
[Via Windows blog]