Switching to Xbox Live provided a huge boost for Wordament, can help other games too

Microsoft themselves didn't take equally much of a presence at Casual Connect Seattle this year as we would've liked, but they did stage a fascinating presentation on the effects that switching to Xbox Live has had on pop free word game Wordament. We all know Xbox Live has helped Wordament become more than popular, but the specific benefits and results of the switch are extremely encouraging and could have wide-ranging effects on future Windows Phone games.

Windows Phone Central has the full presentation video to share, plus a detailed summary and anaylsis. Check it out after the pause.

Virtually the speaker

Alex Tarrand, Senior Production Planner at Microsoft delivered the presentation entitled 'Alive Enable Your Game: Wordament Example Study.' Alex is a mobile advertising specialist, who has worked for Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft on casual and freemium games.

Starting the presentation

Now we'll run downward the key points delivered during the panel, which naturally started off with an explanation of Wordament itself. Alex summed information technology up nicely equally "a worldwide tournament that's hosted again and over again every three minutes." We'll leave it at that for at present; check out our review for a more detailed analysis. Tarrand and then goes on to depict DiscoPigeon, the immature overachiever, I mean winner, of the Wordament tournament that took identify in the Bellevue, WA Microsoft shop back in April.

Xbox Live

Alex gain to introduce Xbox Live to the audition. He touts the full number of hours spent on Live by users worldwide as increasing by 30 per centum per year. Subscribers spend seventy hours per month on average (two.5 hours a solar day), making Xbox Live the nearly highly engaged gaming customs in the earth. It's also very social – millions of users instant message and conversation with each other daily.

Wordament

The magnitude of Xbox Alive established, Tarrand moves on to Wordament specifics. It should come as no surprise that Wordament is the number i free puzzle game on Windows Phone. Even more impressive, it's the highest-rated Xbox Live game ever across any platform. 3 costless Xbox Alive games occupied the top v rated slots on Windows Telephone at the fourth dimension of the presentation, though the other ii freebies go undisclosed.

Wordament's raw statistics are quite interesting likewise. First, the player base of operations skews towards males of ages 12-34. I've encountered some very enthusiastic female players, so (in the absence of actual hard data) I chalk the gender ratio up to more than males owning Windows Phones than females.

As for player nationality, United states players account for l percent of the worldwide player base. That percentage could easily alter every bit Wordament introduces more playable languages over time of course. Overall, the game has been downloaded more than than 580,000 times, and play sessions average out to 13 minutes – a very loftier number for mobile games.

Benefits of Live-enabling a game

Alex runs down the list of benefits to Xbox Live-enabled games on Windows Phone, most of which should exist familiar to avid gamers.

• Clan with a Gamer make: Xbox Live is ane of the strongest brands in gaming.
• Access to Gamers: Live games sell to the more than passionate gamers on Windows Phone, and are advertised directly to them through the Games hub.
• Placement in exclusive list of Xbox Live games in the Windows Phone store, which Alex compares to being 'Featured' on iOS. Visibility can brand a huge impact on downloads and sales.
• Attracts Accomplishment gamers (including yours truly and many of our readers)
• Friends socialize a game for complimentary (since other friends tin meet users playing it)

The effects of Alive enabling Wordament

Upgrading Wordament to Xbox Live condition was clearly an experiment by Microsoft. If things went well, the big MS could then use that success to promote the idea of Live-enabling games to other developers. And it did succeed: only 1 calendar week after Wordament went Alive, the number of players quadrupled. Not merely that, but game session length increased dramatically compared to pre-Live condition. In turn, advertizing impressions multiplied by a factor of betwixt two and three, a number that doesn't quite match the overall number of users. Still, it means significant acquirement for Microsoft equally the game's publisher.

Joining Xbox Alive

At times Tarrand refers to the Xbox Live lineup as both a "curated portfolio" and "a relatively airtight portfolio." Merely he claims that Microsoft is starting to open up things up, significant that it should become easier for games to gain Live status. (In the by, we've covered the frustrations of indie programmer Karios, whose games have consistently failed to gain approval from the Live team. There may be good reasons for that, which I'll explore in my upcoming MonsterUp Adventures review.)

More encouraging than simply promising the platform will open up to a degree, Alex Tarrand has offered to personally answer questions and offering communication to Xbox Live hopefuls. Developers can email him directly or contact the team at the email addresses in the image to a higher place.

Questions and Answers

After the cadre presentation wrapped up, Alex engaged in a Q and A session with audience members. The questions provide some insight into what the average mobile developer wants to or needs to know about Xbox Alive, while the occasionally reticent response might reveal a thing or two also.

Q: "When integrating a mobile game with Xbox Alive, is that a Windows-only solution?"

• A: "Information technology is correct now, just it won't exist for very long."

  My interpretation is that since Windows Phone 8 is moving abroad from XNA development, WP8 games will be programmable on other calculator platforms similar Mac at present likewise. Anyone become something unlike from this?

Q: "You're bringing functionality [from] the Xbox to mobile?"

• A: "Absolutely. The same people who engage on the console are the same users who have the Alive account who engage on the mobile titles. We find at that place'southward a great bargain of migration betwixt the separate screens."

  This is why nosotros cover a smattering of Xbox 360 games and news, dear readers.

Q: "What [is the] number of games y'all're looking for correct now [for Xbox Alive on Windows Phone]?"

• A: "Again, information technology's a relatively curated portfolio. We're interested in all phenomenal IP, but specifically things that would exist debuting on the Windows platform. [So being sectional to Windows Phone] is a plus."

Q: "What are the device sales numbers for Windows [Phone] right now?"

• A: "High. Very high. I can [elaborate] more when contacted directly."

  Uh oh! The elephant in the room: Windows Phone device sales numbers aren't as high equally anyone would like. Otherwise, he'd have shared some kind of figures.

Q: "Y'all merely said that [Xbox Live on mobile phones] is Windows Telephone-only now but it won't be for long. Practice we accept a [time tabular array for when] you'll be opening upward to other mobile platforms?"

• A: "Yes. Our slate is in the procedure of expanding; we're moving a couple of titles over to both iOS and Android… With the release of Windows 8, information technology'll exist opening up to Windows eight, spider web, Windows Phone, and eventually iOS and Android. As for timelines, Windows 8… afterward in the year."

That last response might merely be Tarrand trying to go on the iOS and Android developers in the crowd enthused about Xbox Live with vague promises of full support for their platforms someday. Or information technology could be a sign that Microsoft actually does plan to accept Live to competing mobile devices. (In the past, a scattering of games similar Kinectimals have shown up on iOS but without actual Xbox Alive support.)

Should the latter prove correct, Windows Phone may one day lose a key selling bespeak to the 'gamer' crowd touted during the presentation. Later on all, if gamers could unlock Xbox Live Achievements on the iPhones they already own, in that location would be much less incentive to adopt Microsoft's underdog smartphone platform.

Update: But to exist articulate, this is by no ways an official announcement of full Xbox Live support coming to non-Microsoft platforms. Some of our commenters seem to be slightly confused by the admittedly confusing answers the presenter gave. I'd wait for a existent annunciation to that result from Microsoft (which may never come) before getting worried.

Slides created past Microsoft and edited hither for size and readability.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/switching-xbox-live-boosted-wordament-and-can-help-other-games-too

Posted by: martinezbesided59.blogspot.com

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