How Do I Use Xbox LIVE APIs on Windows Phone?

We’ve seen a lot of excitement around our Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone 7 announcements. Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone 7 represents one of our first steps toward enabling consistent identity and rewards (such as Xbox LIVE achievements) across games and platforms, and additional social, connected game experiences with friends. Specifically, we announced that some titles would be able to use Achievements (and associated Gamerscore), 2D Avatars, Leaderboards, and enable asynchronous gameplay. We also recently announced the availability of the Windows Phone Developer Tools, and that’s led to people asking questions about how to access these Xbox LIVE services.

To answer, it’s important to understand that we have a managed portfolio for Xbox LIVE titles on Windows Phone 7. As we looked at how the mobile gaming industry was evolving, it was obvious that there’s a significant problem with the “race to zero” – or having too many, mixed quality titles available on a marketplace. Too many offerings makes it very hard for any specific title to stand out (no matter how high-quality), and negatively impacts the overall business ecosystem by making it almost impossible for developers to earn a fair return on their work. Our goal with the Windows Phone 7 games that utilize Xbox LIVE services is to cultivate a portfolio of high-quality titles that are regularly released – this is very similar to the portfolio management we do for Xbox LIVE Arcade titles.

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