That's why this is a very slippery slope, and one that needs to be navigated with care and a deft hand.

Paul Acevedo also talks about them on WP Central ( read them here) and I can't find fault in his thinking. Of course, the latter is tempered by the fact that these mobile phone games are running on iOS as well, so if people wait long enough, they'll come to iOS.īut right now the negatives far outweigh these potential advantages. Wordament has not 'broken out' of the Windows Phone watchers into the public consciousness - in which case, if it can't perform the task that an exclusive app can do, then perhaps it can do the second task, which is to let people know that Xbox Live (and therefore Microsoft) can make pretty good mobile games and you should take a look at Windows Phone.

For example, there is no point in having an exclusive title if nobody knows about it. It is possible to find the positives in this story. Xbox Live on Windows Phone should have been a masterstroke for marketing Microsoft's mobile operating system - unfortunately the promise has not yet been fulfilled. Now Xbox 360 users looking for a mobile device might be wondering if the iPhone is the way to go. Up until this release, that was something that could only happen on a Windows Phone. It's not just that the title is no longer a Windows 8 / Windows Phone only title, it's also that iOS players can log on with their Xbox Live account, working through the achievements and earning gamer points. That's why the news of Wordament's loss of exclusivity and availability for iPhone and iPad is worrying news. Xbox Live is a strong mobile brand, but it has very few exclusive titles (and the expectation is that many of the shared titles, such as Angry Birds, will not be available on the same day of release as iOS and Android versions). Think Little Big Planet, and you think Sony.

Exclusive titles are one of the mainstays of promoting a platform, especially in the world of gaming.

Wordament like game