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]

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]

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

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

 

[boss.king]

A great game for anyone with an affinity for words. I'll be competing with my friends soon.

 

[arn]

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

To be fair, Wordament pre-dated Letterpress, and was designed for Windows 8 phone.

arn

 

[iLondoner]

Also wordtwist.org

 

[apfeljonas]

The metro UI an the iPhone's industrial design make an awesome combination.

 

[AnonMac50]

Love that game. I play it on my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro a lot.

 

[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.

 

[shandyman]

Having problems logging in via Xbox live. That sucks.

 

[1083296]

oh xbox ruining gaming, dont ruin the iphone too

 

[progx]

Xbox app? It's now the SmartGlass app and it works very well! Apple is definitely getting the benefits of Google versus Microsoft

 

[charlieegan3]

oh xbox ruining gaming, dont ruin the iphone too

Xbox is not ruining gaming it is changing one area of the gaming industry - for the better in my opinion.

The iPhone is also changing the another area of the gaming industry - also for the better and again in my opinion.

Don't come out with such comments if you don't fancy explaining them, please.

----------

Xbox app? It's now the SmartGlass app and it works very well! Apple is definitely getting the benefits of Google versus Microsoft

What is google's smart glass competitor?

 

[DavidLeblond]

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?

 

[Dr McKay]

oh xbox ruining gaming, dont ruin the iphone too

How is Xbox ruining gaming exactly?

 

[NutsNGum]

How is Xbox ruining gaming exactly?

Because it's not been updated in, like, EVER, and there's, like, developers who aren't even, like, bothering to make their games more graphically, like, good anymore etc. etc.

 

[dimer0]

Geesh

If you actually try this game, I think you'll find that it's nowhere near a clone of anything out there... The tournament aspect of it makes the game. Quick rounds (I think two minutes), where you're scrambling to find the top words.. At the end, it's cool to see what percentile you're in.. Achievements for finding the top word on a board.. They show common words, but you're finding obscure ones..

This is pretty addictive. Bravo MS for bringing this to iOS.

-- Apple Zealot

 

[Dr McKay]

Because it's not been updated in, like, EVER, and there's, like, developers who aren't even, like, bothering to make their games more graphically, like, good anymore etc. etc.

Games are still improving graphically, take a look at at Oblivion compared with Sky rim, same hardware, much better game. If anything Microsoft has made developers optimise their engines. Imagine running Skyrim on a PC from 2005, I'll bet it won't be pretty.

Games companies can't afford to be sloppy with their games anymore, and these benefits get ported back to PC gaming in the form of lower system requirements.

 

[myrtlebee]

Like Ruzzle on iOS

 

[macs4nw]

I'm definitely downloading this one; my kinda game!

 

[NutsNGum]

Games are still improving graphically, take a look at at Oblivion compared with Sky rim, same hardware, much better game. If anything Microsoft has made developers optimise their engines. Imagine running Skyrim on a PC from 2005, I'll bet it won't be pretty.

Games companies can't afford to be sloppy with their games anymore, and these benefits get ported back to PC gaming in the form of lower system requirements.

Sorry, sarcasm obviously doesn't translate well, I was facetiously pointing out the single most moronic argument that tends to come from the people that say consoles are ruining games.