Microsoft blends platform lines with Live Anywhere

The latest ambitious endeavor by Microsoft might have "monopoly" written all over it, but we have a feeling they wouldn't want it any other way. Microsoft's new Live Anywhere that they announced at today's E3 keynote takes their Xbox Live concept and extends it to the PC, Windows Mobile and even Java-enabled phones. Whether you're at your PC or rocking a mobile, you'll be able to track your gamer tag, message friends, purchase content for that device or set it to download to another device, and of course compare rankings with your buddies on various gaming titles. Halo isn't going to run so well on your RAZR, so for actual cross platform titles, Microsoft is sticking with XBLA-esque games that can translate easily to different platform, such as Bejeweled. There will, however, be major games that can be played on your Vista PC and Xbox 360. Microsoft is banking heavily on third party support for Live Anywhere, in the form of mobile friendly value-adds for 360 games, and just straight up phone-friendly casual titles. In order to get more support, they're claiming to approach this from a "platform agnostic" (hah!) angle, and after supporting the 360, Windows Vista and Windows Mobile, will move on to Java, S60 and possibly even Palm if they deem it worth their while. Microsoft obviously has the muscle to launch a service like this, and the features they demoed look quite entertaining and welcome, but we'll still be (pleasantly) surprised if they actually manage to pull it off. Keep on reading for screenshots and impressions.

After the keynote we got a personal showing of prototype Live Anywhere functionality, mainly running off of a Windows Mobile device. Here's what we saw.



Teh Gamez. Once again, if you were hoping for some mobile version of Halo or even something like Geometry Wars, you'll be sorely disappointed. With that said, everything looked fairly snazzy, and there is definitely a difference between games supported by the more powerful Windows Mobile and those plain-jane Java phones.



In keeping with its XBLA roots, Live Anywhere allows for trials of games, which are suddenly terminated with a request for payment to purchase the full version. A bit janky, but at least they offer trial versions in the first place.


Be sure to bother MajorNelson with challenges to beat your high score, everybody else seems to.


That Gamercard is looking good.


There's enough platform support here already that it quickly seems like overkill.


Friends and what platform they're on.


Messaging isn't just email, it can include  video, voice, or even game content.


Java version doesn't look too different, but most of the games are different.


Our friendly presenter.


They finished up with a bit of Gamercard trading, which works over IrDA between phones and syncs across all platforms. In this case they showed the Xbox 360 Dashboard show the request, ask for approval, and then update automatically once the request was approved with the other mobile phone. Pretty slick.

[Nukes and Candy @ May 10th 2006 12:22AM]

Man, why blame Microsoft for monopolizing. They simply are quicker to take advantage of the opportunities, leaving the competition in the dust. No monopoly here, just a company lead by creatives and talented people.

MS is king, amazing company, great way to start getting Sony?s Online plans in MS?s shadow? I with you MS!

Alexander Wunderlich

[onimoto @ May 10th 2006 2:10AM]

Bringing the Office Experience to Mobiles and PDA via SMS

[mrasmus @ May 10th 2006 2:34AM]

To Alexander -- Well, I'm not saying that MS is doing anything particularly wrong in this move -- they're taking advantage of an oppurtunity However, at the same time it is a fairly monopolistic (is that a word?) move on their part -- a monopoly is basically an exclusive control over something, oftentimes in such a way that it shuts out competition. The simple fact of the matter is that neither Sony nor Nintendo has an operating system for Computer or Mobile that they can integrate their gaming with. The "monopoly" comes in the fact that they exploit that uniqueness. Nothing necessarily wrong with it, but it cannot possibly be replicated by Sony or Nintendo -- they just don't have Windows or Windows Mobile to integrate into. I hope this made sense.

As for my thoughts, I think that it has potential. They can spread Live into handheld devices and onto the PC -- interesting, but how well will it be done. This type of integration could be very cool, or it could fall flat on it's face. I like the idea of cross-platform gaming -- There've been times in LAN parties when I knew that I could beat anybody at Halo 2 if only I had a keyboard and mouse... looks like I'll get that oppurtunity. If they launched Halo 3 for Vista soon after or sync'd with the 360 launch, and allowed this type of cross-platform play, well, I could see some interesting things happening.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Ripped a New One @ May 10th 2006 3:58AM]

Saying MS is monopolistic for this Live feature is like Airbus saying to Boeing, you can't make fighter jets because we don't make fighter jets even though we make airplanes.

All MS is doing is taking what they are good at, software, and making it available in different wrappers. It would ONLY be monopolistic if MS blocked Sony or Nintendo from installing a chat program, or making cellphone OS's, which Sony or Nintendo won't do for a while if ever.

Remember, the reason we all enjoy FREE web browsers is because MS started giving them away free, or else we'd all be yelling at Netscape.

[Mike Abundo @ May 10th 2006 6:13AM]

Viacom buying Xfire for $102 million must have clued them in on the potential of intergame chat.

[Michael @ May 10th 2006 9:07AM]

Man is that guy fat!

[Tyler @ May 10th 2006 1:40PM]

SoOoOo awesome man!!! love the concept. but no sooner that they mention the lacking game capabilites of cell phones will they release those that are faster and kick more ass!!! i had the motorola E815 with verizon and they had ghost recon available as one of the games. and true to the playability, it was online!! i could play anyone who had teh game. it was a bit laggy, and you were limited by the times you could play it, but it was still pretty great to be fraggin' on my moto! i just hope sprint releases some more capable phones. UNLIMITED HI SPEED DATA!!! wOoT for micrsoft though!

[Rene @ May 11th 2006 11:43PM]

PC Halo players will own console players

[LaP @ Jun 10th 2006 8:52PM]

rest in peace xfire and gamespy. with all the money microsoft has xfire and gamespy are going to die quickly. well microsoft will let one live to be sure they don't have a monopoly of course. not the first time it happens. i think soon there's will be a microsoft logo over all my media system at home. yippiiee. i mean after games and media centers why microsoft would stop ? they have the money to do it. iTune and iPod are probably the next target since both help apple to compete to a level microsoft probably doesn't like. BTW for those who did not try xbox live it's no so great. it's an average online service. it takes age to connect. average of 10 secondes before you are conneted. you need to reconnect each time you switch DVD. the xbox dashboard is useless and empty. Takes around 5 to 10 secondes before your friends list pop up from the dashboard even while connected to the service. few features. you need to go to bungie.net from your PC to actually see your stats. i heard microsoft improved it a lot with xbox 360. but i doubt it's really that much better than online gaming on PC. i do like the idea since i hate gamespy arcade. i actually do like microsoft product and own an xbox. but i would like to see them having more competition. will be interesting to see if apple will make a PC version of Mac OS now that it runs on the same architecture than a normal x86 PC. but seeing that you can now install windows xp on a mac i don't see why apple would not go further unless they have a secret deal with microsoft.

[Scopique @ Jun 19th 2006 2:15PM]

There's really nothing to stop Nintendo or Sony from offering an installable dashboard for Windows (or even Mac or Linux for that matter, which MS either can't or won't do) or as a BREW app for cell phones that would allow the same kind of functionality that LA is offering. It remains to be seen if they find worth in that kind of activity. MS obviously does, because it brings people on board with their brand, which doesn't have the history of Nintendo, or the penetration of the PlayStation. It's a bold move by MS to push their console by leveraging their dominance in the PC gaming market.

What might be hard is to convince die-hard PC gamers to switch to something like LA when there are disparate services out there that cover chatting or even voice. As the only person I peronsally know with a 360, I wish there was a way I could have a cross platform voice communication with people playing OTHER PC games. A convergeance of not just cross-platform gaming, but gaming experience that would sell a lot of people on the idea.

[nathanh @ Jun 20th 2006 1:36AM]

"Remember, the reason we all enjoy FREE web browsers is because MS started giving them away free, or else we'd all be yelling at Netscape."

Netscape was always free for personal or academic use. Also Mosaic was free for all non-commercial use long before either MSIE or Netscape existed.

And the reason Microsoft gave their browser away with their operating system was to kill Netscape. It had nothing to do with generosity. Microsoft simply abused their deserved monopoly on operating systems (legal) to push Netscape out of the web browser market (illegal).

[Robert Jung @ Jun 20th 2006 3:49AM]

Call me skeptical, but I have a feeling that when Live Anywhere actually goes live, it won't be half as flawless and nerdgasmic as Microsoft has been selling it as. Just ask anyone about their flawless and nerdgasmic experiences with other Microsoft products... *cough*Windows*ahem*Office*cough*

--R.J.

[Andrew @ Jun 20th 2006 2:03PM]

IE is so messed up anyway, cant go two sites w/o your entire screen fills with popups, unless you buy all this crap to stop what they should block anyway. as for this, well, checking your scores on your phone is all well and good, but you could just go on the net to check them anyway, that is, if you have the net on your cell.

as for the cross-platforming games, just thinking about the connectivity times and lag makes my skin crawl, i mean you think theres lag on Live now? think about when they have to cross two operating systems, a shudder at the thought.

I'm really not a fan of the Xbox, i mean, yeah, Halo, I know, Halo on live, big deal, Live usually lags the fun out of the game anyway. as for Xfire and Gamespy, I dont think they're going anywhere, as anyone who tries to transfer to this would be disgusted with the bugs it "might" have, and since its MS, i think I can safly say, it will have those bugs, and so many you will just want to throw yourself to Xfire's knees and grovel for forgivness.

[ghamdan hussien @ Aug 12th 2006 4:57PM]

really so funy to jion all of you darling

[John @ Aug 19th 2006 11:21PM]

Hmmmmmmm...... Seems to be alot of micro$oft haters here... Anyways I personally like the idea of live anywhere.. I used xbox live on a 360 for the winter and I found it to be verry streamlined and not verry buggy at all... I rarely got lag and when my friends and i did it was because some idiot joined with really high ping rates not because of microsoft.. Gaming is the main reason people use windows and of course micrsoft where going to do something like this eventually.. I knew that from the begining with the xbox1... The reason why sony and nintendo wont make there own versons of ps3 or wii anywhere on windows or pocket pc is because that would be giving your competition the money... Sony are using linux as their os of choice for the ps3 and i wouldnt be surprized at all that if sony win the consol wars that will only be a good thing for linux and apple. Microsoft where actually catching up to opengl with directx with there release of directx 10 and even now dx10 performs only to the same level as opengl which is bad news for microsoft because it means that linux would osx and linux would play games at the same performance as windows.... When you speak about microsoft as if its an evil corporation your probably right but sony,nintendo and apple are the same. They care about money.. You care about money.. Your going to try and win a competition. And thats what it is, A competition for money. Look at the demograph of microsoft and you will see that they owe there pc gaming market alot cause thats how microsoft started to thrive.. live anywhere is a nice new perspective on gaming... its their way of trying to save pc gaming from extinction.... There are lots of attempts of microsoft trying to do this rescently... Making devkits with xna integrated for the pc and 360 developement to not be as individual from eachother to in return make it easier for developers to make cross platform games.. My view on live anywhere is that its gonna be stable. They will get more server to handle the load....Its gonna make gaming on the pc easier and less complicated or centered if you will... All this will lead to a more fun gaming experience on the pc.... And I say fair dues to microsoft for trying to save pc gaming from the brink of extinction.... Because that will trully be a sad day in gaming.

[JohnDaddyo @ Oct 11th 2006 12:20PM]

...and this can be download where???

[pkilla @ Jun 19th 2007 11:21AM]

I really like the live anywhere concept but Like someone said earlier PC gamers with have an unfair advantage over console they will dominate all FPS, and third party shooters. They should give an option to separate the two groups where you have the choice to play with PC people or not. Believe me after, this go into full production you'll wonder why you always seem to die so fast in games (hint: its the PC people!)