Xbox Live coming to iOS and Android games

Microsoft has had the goal of getting Xbox Live onto as many platforms as it possibly can for quite some time now, and it just added two new platforms to add to that list. Out now is a software development kit (or SDK, for those of you who love your acronyms) that will allow developers of iOS and Android games to include Xbox Live features in their software.

Using the SDK, developers will be able to include Xbox Live features such as achievements, Gamerscore, hero stats, friend lists, clubs, and family settings (h/t The Verve). All of these features - of which, by the way, developers will be able to pick and choose to include in their programs - will be accessible via a single Xbox Live login.

Microsoft points to their hugely successful Minecraft an example as to how Xbox Live can be used in a cross-platform capacity. Minecraft is available on last and current generation consoles, as well as mobile devices. Using Live, Microsoft is able to connect the different communities on different platforms into "one singular experience," as the company recently described it.

While this is pretty cool news for Xbox Live fans with mobile phones (don't you guys have phones??!), those hoping to see it on the Switch anytime soon are going to be a little bummed out,

"[W]e don’t have any specific announcements as it relates to Switch today," stated Microsoft's gaming cloud boss Kareem Choudhry while talking to media this week, "Our goal [however,] is to really unite the 2 billion gamers of the world... we’re willing to partner with the industry as much as we possibly can."

Which means that while Microsoft is open to the idea, don't expect to see Xbox Live on any Sony PlayStation software anytime soon.