Xbox Live’s popular achievement system is stepping out of its comfortable Microsoft ecosystem and into the world of iOS. Friday night marked the release of Microsoft’s popular Windows Phone game Wordament to the iOS App Store along with a handful of unlockable achievements.
Wordament is a word game where players try to find words in a 4×4 grid of letters while competing in real time against others across the world. The game is free and includes 10 unlockable achievements that add up to 50 Gamerscore points.
This is a big shift for Microsoft as up until now, achievements had been seen exclusively on Microsoft platforms. Windows computers, Xbox consoles and Windows Phones were the places achievement hunters would have to look if they wanted to increase their Gamerscore. However, it now seems as though Microsoft is shifting its focus away from making achievements a Microsoft exclusive service, and moving it to being a feature used to rope people into the Microsoft ecosystem.
While the decision may anger some Windows Phone users who chose to buy their phone simply because it offered achievements, expanding the feature is likely a good move for Microsoft. There are millions of casual iOS gamers out there who have never bought a serious gaming console before. If Microsoft can get them hooked on achievements, these people may just go out and drop a few hundred dollars on a new Xbox.
Download the game here for free.
Image Credit: Game Informer
