Microsoft/NintendoMicrosoft is expanding the scope of Xbox Live by bringing a new level of support for the online service to iOS, Android devices, and… Nintendo Switch.
The official reveal of this undeniably huge move will come during GDC 2019 in March, according to the annual industry event’s conference schedule (as spotted by Windows Central).
The GDC talk is snappily titled “Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC.” It’ll be presented by Microsoft as the company explains how it plans to expand the service.
Microsoft’s description reads:
Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger. Xbox Live is expanding from 400m gaming devices and a reach to over 68m active players to over 2bn devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK. 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.
You can already sign into your Xbox Live account on Switch or mobile devices through certain cross platform games like Minecraft, but this new move will see things like achievements, game history, and friends brought to non Microsoft made platforms for the first time ever. It’s pretty huge.
MicrosoftThe idea that you’ll soon be able to earn Xbox achievements while playing Fortnite on a Nintendo machine is deliciously nutty, but it’s just another huge stride towards the unified future of play that Microsoft is clearly after.
You’ll also notice that there’s no mention PlayStation anywhere in all this talk of cross play and integration, so I guess those guys still aren’t too bothered about playing with Xbox…. For now, at least.
Does this bold new move mean that we could one day play certain Xbox Game Pass titles on Nintendo Switch? I’m honestly not sure, but if I can get Fable and Halo on the go, I’d be in heaven.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.