Microsoft is reportedly offering successful iPhone game developers cash incentives to port their applications to its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 platform. Citing sources approached by Microsoft, PocketGamer.biz reports the software giant is promising "substantial" upfront cash payments to select game developers who translate their iPhone titles to Windows Phone 7 prior to the operating system's commercial launch later this year. Complicating Microsoft's efforts: The substantial costs associated with reworking iPhone applications written in C++ to Silverlight or XNA, the two frameworks underpinning the Windows Phone platform.
Microsoft formally announced Windows Phone 7 in mid-February. The OS boasts a series of "hubs" integrating related content from the web, applications and services. The hubs include Games, transporting Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming platform to mobile devices.
Microsoft is not the only mobile platform provider actively wooing iPhone developers: Earlier this year, The New York Times reported Google is reaching out directly to the iPhone developer community to convince its members to expand their creative horizons to Android. Although representatives from Google's Android Advocacy Group are said to be offering prospective candidates Android smartphones to trial, there is no word of corresponding cash payments.
For more on Microsoft's efforts to court iPhone developers:
- read this PocketGamer.biz article
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