Leaked Microsoft video reveals cross-platform plans

Microsoft discussed cross-platform functionality between the 360, mobile phones, and Windows way back in 2005. However, a recently discovered internal video shows that the company is still working on breaking down barriers between gaming devices.

Dating from May 2010, the video showcases the plans of the team heading up a cross-platform project called the WGX (Windows Gaming eXperience.) It mainly focuses on casual games, but the final part of the video focuses on an Avatar-based game with a logo that looks suspiciously like Battlefield 2's.


Above: The Windows Gaming Experience video

Stephen Chapman atZDnet, who discovered the video, also dug up a WGX job ad on LinkedIn:

The Windows Gaming Experience (WGX) Team is a very passionate team embarking to create a new world-class gaming platform that comes alive in the presence of services and leverages the power of the PC to help define the next generation of Windows and Web gaming to 300 million potential customers. WGX team is realizing its strategy via the delivery of Windows and Web gaming solutions built upon existing available services (internal and external to Microsoft) as well as building as needed Azure-based services to enable this vision.

We are at the early stages of defining and architecting and developing excitement around gaming in Windows and the Web. We have a highly visible company-wide charter to promote gaming and empower game developers to create compelling, immersive, rich experiences in Windows and on the Web. We are on a mission to make games a first-class citizen in Windows through our efforts and in collaboration with other groups across the Interactive Entertainment & Devices (IEB) division.

The ad seems to indicate that a the debut of the WGX initiative is still a ways off, and will probably be unveiled shortly before the release of Windows 8 or the next 360.

Mar 22, 2011

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