At the moment, when a game is released on multiple platforms you expect to buy one of those games and have an experience limited to that hardware. Microsoft is attempting to change that by allowing you to play the same game across different devices.

This isn’t a case of some data from a game on Xbox 360 affecting your experience on a PC version. Microsoft want you to be able to take your game from platform to platform, and is implementing developer support to allow for this.

As the video above demonstrates, if you are playing game X on a PC and need to go out, you can continue playing that same game on your Windows Mobile 7 handset. When you get home, just switch back to the PC and carry on from the save point you reached on your smartphone.

The new technology was shown at the recent TechEd Middle East 2010 conference held in Dubai. It relies on save files being stored in the cloud and developers implementing the code to support this cross-platform gameplay. Microsoft is offering support for this in its latest version of Visual Studio.

As the main focus is on the save data, it doesn’t matter if your games differ greatly on different platforms. For example, a 3D FPS on the Xbox 360 may be the same game on a PC, but on a smartphone it would have the same levels, but in a 2D platformer setup. You choose which platform to play on, switch when you want to, and play wherever you like.

Read more at Pocket-lint

Matthew’s Opinion

If you think about the apps you enjoy using most on your iPhone or Android smartphone, I bet some of them are mobile versions of your most-used services. For example, mobile Gmail, Facebook, or your favorite desktop browser in mobile form. The same is going to be true of your favorite games.

If Blizzard released a mobile, 2D version of World of Warcraft which allowed you to progress your character while away from your PC, you know it would top the App Store charts. Nintendo is already experimenting with such features in the latest Pokemon games. You can upload your Pokemon to a PokeWalker and carry them around with you all day. Transfer them back to your DS and they have levelled up.

With that in mind, Microsoft’s support for such features is sure to be well received by game developers. It gives them another selling point for a game, and potentially another revenue stream for selling the mobile app. For gamers, it’s another form of interaction when they just can’t sit at their PC or Xbox 360. It’s going to make the commute to work a lot more enjoyable for some.

The only problem with this being a Microsoft solution is the fact it won’t include support for iPhone deployment. What you can bet on, however, is Apple deploying a similar system. It may have already started such a transition with the relaunch of the Mac Developer Program to mimic the iPhone Developer Program. How long before we get a Mac App Store and links made between Mac and iPhone apps?