How Microsoft can save Xbox games for Windows Phone: Part 3

The implementation of Xbox games on Windows Telephone is riddled with issues. While these range from "Darn it" pocket-size to "Holy crap!" major, equally a whole they threaten the viability of Xbox games on the platform. We believe Microsoft can still turn things around and make Xbox Windows Phone a mobile gaming force to be reckoned with, hence this series of editorials.

Part One of this series focused on the problematic Xbox Live certification procedure, and Part 2 looked at both the importance of Xbox games to Windows Phone and the platform's demand for pop game engine back up. In this installment we'll tackle the elementary need for proper book control, the power to redownload purchased games, and the weak advertisement presence of Xbox Windows Phone games so far.

Three words: Independent volume control.

A Windows Phone's ringer inexplicably being lowered during gameplay

Here we have more of a generalized request, but it's so of import to the gaming experience on Windows Telephone (Xbox or otherwise) that I had to include it in this editorial.

Now, independent volume control isn't exactly a standardized phrase in the world of smartphones, only it absolutely qualifies as a basic, standard feature. It boils downwardly to the ability to command the phone's ringer volume independently from game and app volume. Phones that have his feature (namely iOS, Android, and Blackberry) permit users to serenity a game down without affecting ringer volume.

Despite the practicality of independent volume command, Windows Telephone seven launched without such a feature in 2022. Nor did it make the cut for the Windows Phone 8 launch last fall. At this betoken, Microsoft has withal to indicate the feature is always planned for the future. If nosotros were to ask them today, we'd get a generic "We're e'er listening" response, but you can add one of those to 100 pennies and all the same come away with nothing more than a dollar.

How did independent volume control get left out of the Windows Phone characteristic set, and why hasn't there been more of a fuss from retailers and consumers? Put only, it's not the kind of omission you lot'd notice during an in-store demonstration. Nobody gets a call on demo phones and they certainly won't alternate between playing games and receiving calls. People who simply use their phones equally phones would never even discover it'south not there. Merely for gamers, information technology's an admittedly essential feature.

Skulls of the Shogun has proper volume sliders, simply a universal mode to conform app volume is nonetheless needed.

I don't know about yous, but I like to have my ringer turned to the maximum volume to ensure that I actually hear it. Just the maximum volume (30) on the Lumia 920 and Samsung Focus I've endemic is much too loud for gaming. Information technology's loud enough to overpower (or at least rival) the radio in a auto, and indoors it's bound to distract other people in the room and phone call unwanted attention to the player.

Some games like the lovely Skulls of the Shogun allow users to manually adjust both music and audio effects volume, but most mobile games just let you lot toggle sound on or off. Heck, Picnic Wars lacks volume controls entirely! This forces players to plough the phone'southward volume down to comfortable levels when playing games. I tend to prefer it between 15 and xx, merely sometimes much lower depending on what I'grand doing.

That'due south the trouble though – forget to turn the volume back up after playing and your ringer volume stays down as well. I've missed more than a few calls as a result, and surely many of our readers accept likewise. Information technology's a nuisance that Microsoft can easily fix by storing 2 separate volume settings: one for games/apps and i for the ringer. Adjusting the volume during a game should not affect ringer volume and vice versa. Equally our EIC Daniel Rubino says, this is one characteristic that Microsoft needs to prepare right now.

Xbox Windows Telephone games must be available for redownload even if they go delisted.

Microsoft has nonetheless to reimburse your friendly neighborhood Games Editor for this purchase.

Once users purchase any Windows Telephone game or app, that title becomes tied to their accounts. If they delete the game after buying, they will mostly be able to redownload it at a later date without having to pay for it again. It works much like the buy organization established on Xbox 360 in 2006.

Lamentably, if a game or app gets pulled from the Windows Phone Store for whatever reason, it instantly becomes unavailable for download. Several Xbox games accept been delisted so far: Crackdown: Project Sunburst, Fast & Furious, Star Wars Cantina and Battle for Hoth, Twin Blades, MiniSquadron, and PES 2022 and 2012. Users did not receive advance notification of any of the delistings.

While delisted games still show up in the user's purchase history on the Windows Phone Store website, none of them can be redownloaded through any legal ways. No i who purchased a delisted game gets an automated refund, either. Some users have had luck procuring refunds in the form of Microsoft Points via Microsoft chat support, only there's no unproblematic and guaranteed way to get reimbursed.

Of class Microsoft tin can't continue selling a game if the publisher pulls it or goes out of business organisation. But when the money has already inverse hands, why shouldn't the user retain permanent access to his or her buy? Xbox 360 allows people to redownload most delisted games (with a few exceptions), every bit do many well-regarded storefronts like Steam. Admittedly, iOS and Android don't allow redownloading of games via the web. Just both competing mobile platforms let users support their purchased games on PC or other storage devices and restore them to the user's devices at will. Windows Phone owners don't have that option.

Even if refunds were quick and like shooting fish in a barrel to get, the inability to redownload delisted software would even so exist a existent problem. People replace their phones for a variety of reasons: the phone breaks, they upgrade to a new phone, or maybe they only utilize one phone at home and another at work. Or sometimes users delete a game for space reasons and programme to return to it later. If someone can't be confident that they will ever take access to their purchased games, at minimum they're going to have less faith in the Windows Phone ecosystem. At worst, they'll think twice before buying each new game.

Xbox for Windows Phone needs proper advertisement.

This sort of ties in with final week's editorial about how everybody inside Microsoft needs to exist on the aforementioned page nigh Xbox Live for Windows Phone actually being an important selling point. To illustrate, let's wait at what Microsoft actually does to promote Xbox Windows Phone.

Their advertising largely revolves around mentions on their own websites, Xbox.com and PlayXBLA. The Xbox.com page is fairly robust with the latest game release highlighted at top as well every bit a link to all Xbox games at the Windows Phone Store. The actual Windows Phone page is tucked away nether the Games tab though, and thus non especially visible. PlayXBLA's promotion consists mainly of manufactures nigh Microsoft-published Windows Phone games. Those games come along so infrequently that you'd hardly know Windows Telephone fits into PlayXBLA's purview, just we can hardly blame the PlayXBLA staff for that.

Beyond that, Windows Phone commercials like the ane above sometimes mention Xbox games every bit a general characteristic, though they're mostly throwaway mentions and Windows Phone needs way more TV commercials anyway. Microsoft dedicated a tiny wall to Windows Phone games (seemingly called at random) at last year's E3, and Xbox Windows Phone received no mention of notation at their E3 keynote presentation. Major brawl droppage at that place, because the Xbox 360 team in charge of the keynote just plain doesn't care well-nigh Windows Telephone or Windows 8.

Get more Xbox 360 owners interested in Windows Phone.

Is it more of import to sell The Hunger Games and Maroon five than Windows Phones?

Concluding time, I mentioned that Xbox 360 users are a perfect target audience for Windows Phone considering of the Xbox Live connection. Only advertisements for Windows Phone on the Xbox 360 dashboard are fifty-fifty more rare than PlayXBLA articles. Nosotros saw a couple of avatar prop giveaways in 2022 (both of which were targeted only at specific users and so went unseen by nearly users) and if Windows Telephone ties into a major sale like the Countdown to 2022, information technology will receive a small tile tucked away within the sale'due south overall department. Laura Foy's weekly Windows Phone-focused video serial Hot Apps appeared on the dashboard for a while, though the series moved from the 360 to the Channel nine website quite a while ago. Xbox 360 owners these days could be forgiven for not even knowing Windows Telephone exists, let lone the virtues of its Xbox features.

The Xbox 360 dashboard's overabundance of not-gaming advertisement clutter is reviled by pretty much anybody except for the marketing people who created and maintain that advertizing structure. Those same black-hearted people have no interest in Windows Phone succeeding; they just want more advertizing dollars to roll effectually in. But remember of how much better Windows Telephone would sell if it had a dedicated tile on the dashboard that led to a wealth of enticing videos and resource.

Looking past the dashboard, every major mention of the Xbox 360 and its successor console (E3 keynotes, Television appearances, etc.) should include some reminder that Xbox is also on Windows Telephone, and if y'all like one you lot're certain to dear the other. Use the established product to help the upward-and-comer get where it needs to exist.

Non washed nevertheless!

That was quite an eyeful, wasn't it? But we still have more to come. Come up back on Tuesday the 12^th to for Part Four – public relations, followed on Valentine'southward Day by Office Five – online features. Be assured that every important feature request (like backing upwardly salvage data) will be addressed before this series wraps. If you enjoyed this editorial, please let us know in the comments below and tweet the article to everyone y'all think would benefit from it.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-microsoft-can-save-xbox-games-windows-phone-3

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