Yes, You’re Reading That Headline Right
Microsoft is planning to bring additional Xbox Live support to the Nintendo Switch, according an announcement scheduled for next month’s Game Developer’s Conference.
“Xbox Live is expanding from 400M gaming devices and a reach to over 68M active players to over 2B devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK,” the announcement read.
“Get a first look at the SDK to enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs,” it continued.
According to Windows Central, Microsoft has previously included Xbox Live support for its own games on those aforementioned platforms but this planned announcement means that the company “is aiming to bring Xbox Live cross-platform play to even more titles.”
Here are two big takeaways to glean from this news, per the GDC 2019 announcement:
- Xbox Live players are highly engaged and active on Xbox and PC, but now they can take their gaming achievement history, their friends list, their clubs, and more with them to almost every screen.
- This will break down barriers for developers that want their communities to mingle more freely across platforms. Combined with PlayFab gaming services, this means less work for game developers and more time to focus on making games fun.
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