Microsoft has long hinted at somehow unifying games across its multiple platforms. Now it appears the company is ready to deliver. A recent demonstration at TechEd Middle East shows a single Indiana Jones game that can run on Windows Phone 7 Series, Windows, and the Xbox 360. We have the full video below (via Engadget).
Cross-platform game releases aren’t anything new, but this demonstration differs by showing us a single game that’s developed in Visual Studio, and can share 90 percent of its code across the three platforms. The remaining 10 percent of code concerns the unique changes that need to be made for each platform: Touch-screen and accelerometer support on Windows Phone, gamepad support on the Xbox, and keyboard and mouse support on Windows.
Also significant is the ability to save the game on one platform and resume your progress in the exact spot on another.
In more ways than one, Microsoft is showing off the holy grail of cross-platform game development. Instead of picking and choosing individual platforms, game developers will be able to work on a single project that will work on all of Microsoft’s current platforms. It’s also a major feature that Microsoft will be able to lord over Apple and Google’s development platforms.
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