It is no surprise that the Xbox 360 is the highest selling gaming console of 2011 with 66 million units sold. Kinect has even sold over 18 million units since its launch. Now, Microsoft plans on extending the Xbox Live service to work on both iOS and the Android platform, rather than just the Windows Phone.
“While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms,” a spokesperson for Microsoft told Forbes today.
It is quite obvious why Microsoft is doing this. First, this type of move will boost Microsoft’s presence in the mobile gaming industry. Second, both iOS and Android are large mobile platforms. The potential of boosting Xbox game revenue on these platforms is a no-brainer. Microsoft did a test run by launching Xbox Live and a game called Kinectimals on Apple’s iOS and it was a huge hit. Now its time to expand.
The Android Market and Apple App Store will also make it possible for Microsoft to boost their presence while earning more money. So far, Microsoft is on track to increase Xbox revenue going into 2012.
In related Xbox news, a new report surfaced recently that suggests the next generation Xbox, dubbed Xbox 720, will have six times the power of the current Xbox 360 and will be available in the fall of 2013. This coincides nicely with a previous report of the GPU being based on a Radeon graphics engine.
