We keep learning more about Windows Phone 7 Series everyday, as Microsoft previewed some of the features for XNA 4.0, which is a development tool that will hopefully enable creators to make games for a PC, XBox 360, and Windows Phone 7 Series phone without much hassle.
Michael Klucher, lead program manager for the XNA development platform, detailed some of the features in XNA 4.0 on his blog. He confirms that WP7S phones will have 3D graphics as well as robust Xbox Live integration including gamer tags, achievements and more.
“Yes, We have hardware accelerated 3D API’s on Windows Phone 7 Series. Yes, We have Visual Studio 2010 integration with our toolset. We’ve even added buffered audio support to the Audio API’s that many of you have asked for.”
“The other key component of XNA Game Studio 4.0 that we’ve enabled exclusively for Xbox partners is Xbox LIVE and a premium gaming experience on Windows Phone 7 Series. Through the Gamer Services API’s you can pull in a user’s Gamertag and 2D Avatar as part of the game experience, unlock achievements on the platform, and leverage notifications for asynchronous turn based gaming.”
“Yes, We have hardware accelerated 3D API’s on WP7S. Yes, We have Visual Studio 2010 integration with our toolset. We’ve even added buffered audio support to the Audio API’s that many of you have asked for … The other key component of XNA Game Studio 4.0 that we’ve enabled exclusively for Xbox partners is Xbox LIVE and a premium gaming experience on Windows Phone 7 Series. Through the Gamer Services API’s you can pull in a user’s Gamertag and 2D Avatar as part of the game experience, unlock achievements on the platform, and leverage notifications for asynchronous turn based gaming.”
We’ll know some more details later this week at the Game Developer’s Conference, where Microsoft will be speaking more about XNA 4.0 and hopefully showing off some games. We should definitely have all the details on developing for WP7S at next week’s Mix conference.
[Via Michael Klucher’s blog]