Microsoft Releases Wordament, the First iPhone Game with Xbox Live Achievements

[MacRumors]

Microsoft has released a game tonight called Wordament for the iPhone. The game has been a popular Windows Phone game, but is now also available on iOS. Wordament was originally a side-project for two Windows Live employees that was later acquired and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Wordament is notably the first Microsoft game to come to iOS with Xbox Achievements.

When you sign in with your free Microsoft account, you can earn up to 50 Gamerscore from our 10 achievements and you'll have access to all of your Xbox Friends and Wordament Frenemies. If you've played on Windows Phone or Window 8 and jump to the iOS version, all of your player stats and friends will follow your account automatically.

Wordament is a word game that takes two minutes and allows you to compete, real-time, with everyone else playing at the same time. A 4x4 Grid of letters is presented and words can be created by dragging your finger across adjacent letters. Everyone plays on the same board at the same time.

Microsoft has been making slight movements into the iOS gaming space. They had previously released an Xbox Live App that allows you to manage your Xbox Live account, and a few iOS games including Kinectimals. Wordament is available for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Microsoft Releases Wordament, the First iPhone Game with Xbox Live Achievements

[mw360]

The XBox Live app is the only app I've ever seen that can make an iPad spontaneously hard reset. How did they even manage that? I'll be cautious with this.

[turtlez]

this must have taken forever to make

[knightlie]

Wait, isn't this just a blatant rip-off of that Zynga Word Challenge game I was playing two years ago? Oh, it's Microsoft, never mind.

[arn]

Originally Posted by knightlie

Wait, isn't this just a blatant rip-off of that Zynga Word Challenge game I was playing two years ago? Oh, it's Microsoft, never mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boggle

Invented 1972.

arn

[Ahheck01]

Originally Posted by knightlie

Wait, isn't this just a blatant rip-off of that Zynga Word Challenge game I was playing two years ago? Oh, it's Microsoft, never mind.

Originally Posted by arn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boggle

Invented 1972.

arn

Yeah, it's like Boggle, using the design philosophy of Letterpress and Windows 8 combined.

[DavidLeblond]

Originally Posted by knightlie

Wait, isn't this just a blatant rip-off of that Zynga Word Challenge game I was playing two years ago? Oh, it's Microsoft, never mind.

You DO know that Zynga doesn't actually produce original games, right?

[thejadedmonkey]

Originally Posted by knightlie

Wait, isn't this just a blatant rip-off of that Zynga Word Challenge game I was playing two years ago? Oh, it's Microsoft, never mind.

The Zynga game was a rip off of Wordament.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by mw360

The XBox Live app is the only app I've ever seen that can make an iPad spontaneously hard reset. How did they even manage that? I'll be cautious with this.

"lolwut"
So, Microsoft has released a Microsoft version of Game Center? As if Game Center wasn't bad enough...

----------

Originally Posted by AFDoc

It's not apple so it must suck right? Some of you are sadly so predictable.

Not a fan of these types of games but good for MS for some cross platform integration.

It's not that it's not Apple. It's that it's Microsoft of all things.

----------

Originally Posted by winston1236

And how did xbox ruin gaming? and how does an app you dont have to download ruin your phone?

The XBOX and the 360 took over a large part of the gaming console market only to be pieces of garbage that break for no reason but have very many good games. The PlayStations, on the other hand, were more reliable (not as good as Nintendo) but had terrible controllers and didn't have Halo. If there was no XBOX, maybe some other company would have something to compete with the PlayStation. But that's a weak point. I wish Nintendo just stayed with traditional controllers instead of pushing motion gaming gimmicks and also made their systems powerful enough to do the job of an XBOX or 360.

----------

"If you've played on Windows Phone or Window 8 and jump to the iOS version"

Window 8? I think there's a typo.

[AnonMac50]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

"If you've played on Windows Phone or Window 8 and jump to the iOS version"

Window 8? I think there's a typo.

Why? The game's out on Windows 8.

[AbSoluTc]

Cool game. Hate the ADs though. Don't like apps that have ads.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by AnonMac50

Why? The game's out on Windows 8.

It says "Window 8". Should be "Windows 8".

[HiRez]

Only real difference from Boggle is this game assigns points to each letter, Scrabble-style. In Boggle you get a fixed amount of points depending on word length only, regardless of the letters used. I always preferred Big Boggle (5x5 grid).

[AnonMac50]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

It says "Window 8". Should be "Windows 8".

Right

I missed that

[Dr McKay]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

The PlayStations, on the other hand, were more reliable.

I had 7 PlayStation 2s break from laser reader faults, when Microsoft launched the Xbox I hopped onto the platform, my Xbox never broke, I lived until the 360 launched and I bought that. My 360 lasted 3 and a half years before RRODing. My replacement Xbox has been going ever since.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

I had 7 PlayStation 2s break from laser reader faults, when Microsoft launched the Xbox I hopped onto the platform, my Xbox never broke, I lived until the 360 launched and I bought that. My 360 lasted 3 and a half years before RRODing. My replacement Xbox has been going ever since.

Yeah, actually, I think the PS2 is worse than the XBOX in terms of reliability. My XBOX broke for no reason (RRoD), but the replacement worked. Meanwhile, my NES and GameCube still function perfectly.

[Unggoy Murderer]

It's brilliant that Microsoft are taking iOS seriously, and it would be nice to see Apple returning the favour in some way. Really awesome app, nice job!

(Would like to see iPhone 5 optimisation in the future =D)

[AFDoc]

It's not apple so it must suck right? Some of you are sadly so predictable.

Not a fan of these types of games but good for MS for some cross platform integration.

[knightlie]

Originally Posted by AFDoc

It's not apple so it must suck right?

Nope, it's Microsoft so it probably sucks. Or someone else did it first.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Originally Posted by AFDoc

It's not apple so it must suck right? Some of you are sadly so predictable.

Not a fan of these types of games but good for MS for some cross platform integration.

I'm not a Microsoft fan by any means, but I agree the sheer predictability of the fanatical/fanboy "haters" on here gets REALLY old fast. I think Microsoft has done a respectable job of porting Office to the OSX platform (even the 2004 version was nice and not just a carbon copy of the Windows version) and certainly a popular game (simple or not) from them for iOS should be a good sign (imagine Nintendo making one of their popular games for the PS3 or XBox...it would NEVER happen these days). I'm glad to see any cooperation between Microsoft and Apple since we don't all live in a vacuum.

However, the one thing I wish Microsoft would do is do a tit-for-tat ability to read HFS drives connected to Windows as Apple added the ability to read NTFS drives in OSX. (And Apple supports SMB, but Microsoft doesn't support AFP in return either). Just a pet peeve of mine, I suppose. Not being able to write NTFS without a further driver makes sharing a media drive between systems a royal PITA from both ends as well, but this is another topic, really.

[Sylon]

Who cares who ripped off what, or what came first, or who is better than who. The game is free.

I've been playing it since last night and I have to say, its pretty addicting. I'm nowhere near great at it, but I do alright. Its entertaining, and that's enough for me. Especially for a free game that gives you some easy achievements.

[doelcm82]

Originally Posted by AFDoc

It's not apple so it must suck right? Some of you are sadly so predictable.

Not a fan of these types of games but good for MS for some cross platform integration.

You say you are not a fan of these types of games, but you suggest anyone ELSE who doesn't like it is doing so because it's "not Apple"! Speak for yourself (the only one you CAN speak for), and allow others their own opinions rather than projecting your prejudices onto them.

[AFDoc]

Originally Posted by doelcm82

You say you are not a fan of these types of games, but you suggest anyone ELSE who doesn't like it is doing so because it's "not Apple"! Speak for yourself (the only one you CAN speak for), and allow others their own opinions rather than projecting your prejudices onto them.

Nooooo I was making a comment about the people that said something negative and MS in the same post. Nice try though.

(the key to giving it away was when I said "Some of you are sadly so predictable".

[shandyman]

Having problems logging in via Xbox live. That sucks.

[markieg]

oh xbox ruining gaming, dont ruin the iphone too