Microsoft & Gameloft announce first mobile games with Xbox Live support

Asphalt 9 Asphalt 9 has been developed by Gameloft and has by far been the year’s best mobile game in the racing universe. The arcade racing game succeeds Asphalt 8, a popular racing game launched in 2013 and features licensed cars from biggest car brands such as Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Koenigsegg and features flamboyant graphics.

Microsoft announced that Xbox Live was coming to mobile devices, mainly Android and iOS platforms, a few weeks ago. Microsoft’s Xbox Live SDK (Software Developer Kit) for mobile lets third-party developers take advantage of the online service.

Gameloft recently confirmed the company’s first confirmed titles for Android and iOS platforms. Flagship mobile titles like Asphalt 9: Legends, Dragon Mania Legends, and Asphalt 8: Airborne will receive some degree of Xbox Live integration.

Gameloft’s COO Baudouin Corman said: “We are thrilled to be partnering up with Microsoft to bring the Xbox Live network into Gameloft's flagship games. As one of the first partners to support Xbox Live on mobile devices, we seek to provide to our community more ways to experience our games and extend their fun, while seamlessly continuing to bring console, PC and mobile together.”

The Software Developer Kit lets developers cherry pick Xbox Live features and incorporates them into their mobile games. Gameloft also claims that players of these mobile games will be able to unlock Xbox achievements, compare rankings, view their Xbox friends list and more.

Gameloft is likely to bring Xbox Live support to several other titles as well in the months to come. Microsoft's online service will be coming to these games sometime in the near future.

Asphalt 9: Legends, Asphalt 8: Airborne and Dragon Mania Legends are free-to-play games available on Android and iOS platforms. However, none of these games offer players a level playing field as in-game purchases can offer a serious advantage over the competition.

Whether this is a good move or not is yet to be seen, but at the moment we can't see any downside to bringing Xbox’s ecosystem to mobile platforms.