Xbox Live - the key to success with Windows Phone 7 Series?

The recent launch of the Windows Phone 7 Series surprised a lot of people. It is not unreasonable to say that most commentators expected Microsoft's new mobile phone OS to be broadly similar to previous versions of Windows Mobile but with changes made to make it more intuitive to use without a stylus. In essence, people expected change, but not a change as big as the one that happened: Windows Phone 7 Series is a different proposition to any earlier versions of Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Since the official launch, Windows Phone 7 Series has become one of the hottest topics for discussion within the mobile industry, with people debating both its design aesthetic and the underlying features and principles behind it, as well as such topics as whether third-party apps would be allowed in the new software ecosystem. In these discussions, a central theme seems to be emerging, and many people are speculating on what the so-called 'killer app' for Windows Phone 7 Series might be.

The likeliest candidate, as well as being a feature truly unique to Windows Phone 7 Series, is the Xbox Live integration that Microsoft has planned, a move which is designed to bring the worlds of mobile phones and video gaming closer together.

Many commentators are stating that this is a very smart move indeed.

From the launch event, it became clear that Microsoft planned to integrate Xbox Live into the 'games hub' on Windows Phone 7 Series, and that integration would include such things as displaying the user's Live avatar on the phone, and allowing them to customise it without having to even turn on their Xbox 360. The event also promised such features as mobile games that would help increase your Live Gamerscore, and so on.

Since that launch event, however, further details have emerged, which show that Microsoft's plans don't end at simply allowing users to customise their avatar and that the potential of the Xbox Live integration runs deeper than most commentators have theorised.

In short, they envisage multi-platform gaming, and this was demonstrated recently by Microsoft's Eric Rudder. In his demonstration, he played a simple platform game, but the real potential was shown when he saved the game on his PC, then picked up a 7 Series mobile phone, and picked up playing at the same point he'd left off at on the PC, before saving again, and picking up again, on an Xbox 360. In essence, he was able to continue playing the same game, across three different platforms, with each platform automatically picking up where he left off.

This, then, demonstrates the real potential of the Xbox Live integration in Windows Phone 7 Series, and it shows why Microsoft's new operating system easily has the potential to become one of the most popular and talked about software platforms within the mobile industry. By allowing gamers to carry on playing their Xbox games on the phone, it provides a service that no other mobile operating system can offer. Of course, as the licensing fees for Windows Phone 7 Series will likely be higher than other platforms, making the phones more expensive, getting mobile phone insurance for your phone would be a sensible thing to do, just in case the worst happens to your new phone.

As the recent outage of the PlayStation Network proved, gamers hate to be separated from their games, so if Microsoft can successfully bridge the gap between the Xbox and the mobile phone, then that could be the most important feature of Windows Phone 7 Series, and as such, a large part of the success or failure of the new operating system could be down to how much it does to make gamers happy.