Electronictheatre

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 brand has proven a strong competitor in the videogames market despite facing great competition. Now it seems that the platform holder is getting ready to utilise this success to leverage its products in other markets, with a universal gaming portal expected to rival OnLive upon its launch in 2012.

Designed to incorporate the industry-leading online videogames platform Xbox LIVE into all of Microsoft’s devices and software – including Windows Phone 7 and the forthcoming Windows 8 OS (tentative title) – the portal would allow videogames to be delivered across all formats in unison. Microsoft Studios has already seen minor success with regards to these types of application thanks to the likes of Full House Poker, an Xbox LIVE Arcade and Windows Phone 7 title that has proven to be a fertile testing ground, though things may be taken much further in the coming year.

Microsoft Studios intends to launch Xbox 360 games across all formats, allowing players to purchase the game once and continue playing on any device. This functionality was revealed prior to the launch of Windows Phone 7 with a handful of simple Xbox LIVE Arcade style games, however now it seems that Microsoft Studios intend to take things even further. Having recently announced cloud storage for Xbox 360 gamers, it seems likely that Microsoft Studios will make available a game streaming service, allowing Xbox 360 games to be played on console, smartphone, tablet or PC.

Microsoft Studios is promising a greater diversity in videogame software as developers are given a greater amount of options for the delivery of their products. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) recently announced a similar programme, PlayStation Certified, however this project is limited to mobile and tablet platforms, and initially SCE owned devices only. Should Microsoft’s plans for an ambiguous series of gaming devices come to fruition, it’s likely that SCE would have to rethink it’s strategy both with the PlayStation Certified programme and the independent development of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita software.

http://electronictheatre.co.uk/industry-news/11387/microsoft-launch-universal-gaming-portal-2012

this is what i have been waiting for. Its also one of the reason i wanted to get the word out about onlive  even though i thought it would fail. So other companies can take the idea and improve upon it and market it the right way.

keeping an eye out

That is great news, hopefully something comes out of this though!

Good luck but the market for cloud driven gaming is not there yet. not in a long time. And I dont want ti to be ever. I need physical copies and phisical hardware to run my games at home.

blah blah blah.... physical disc is the shittiest way to store anything..... and give me a break you don't need it you just feel like it because humans like most mamals is a creature of habit..... but anyway it won't be up to us.... and for any good point you can find for physical media there are 5 against and 5 in favor of cloud or other non optical solution.... beside video games I haven't bought a disk in 7 years... and I watch at least 7 movies a week and listen to a ton of music.... heck I have more VHS than DVDs left... I riped all my collection long ago.......

my real issue is not how it's stored because cloud, solid state or flash is a thousand time more reliable than an optical disk, cheaper by the gigabit in most cases more ecofriendly and way faster read speed.... but how DRMs will be handled since I won't be able to resell the game the same way.... but if the cut in cost of production and distribution is reflected on the price tag to the end customer I am fine with giving up that option since at the end of the day I'll pay less overall.... that's the only valid issue for that argument and there is plenty of good solutions out there....

Hmmm could be interesting.