Play Xbox LIVE games on your Windows Phone

Overview

The Windows Phone Marketplace or Store has many Xbox LIVE games that you can download and play on your phone. Tap Marketplace or Store on your phone to find and install games.

View your gamer profile

You can view your Xbox LIVE profile, achievements, friends and messages, and edit your avatar on your Windows Phone. Here’s how:

On your Windows Phone, tap Games.

Flick left until you see your avatar, and then tap your gamertag.

Flick left to see your achievements, friends and messages.
Invite friends to play a turn-based game

If an Xbox LIVE game is turn-based, you can invite other players to play on their Windows Phone or on the web. In turn-based games, players take turns playing the game. During gameplay, you are notified when it’s your turn.

How Samsung can save Windows 8 tablets

Windows 8 tablets aren’t in good shape: Microsoft’s OS gets plenty of hate for its desktop functionality, and many people aren’t willing to pay premium prices for the ability to run Office—and not much else—on what amounts to be keyboard-less PCs.

Indeed, with Windows 8 and Windows RT making up just 7.5 percent of the total tablet market, many manufacturers are fleeing what they perceive to be a sinking platform. It looks really bad, right? Not so fast. At Thursday’s big Samsung event, the Korean tech giant might have just thrown Microsoft the life-preserver it needs to help keep Windows tablets in the game.

Microsoft’s Socl network steps up its game with animated GIFs, meme generator

Microsoft has been playing around with the idea of a social network for a few years, but its lab-grown Socl has been slow to catch on with the kids. On Tuesday, Microsoft is introducing a handful of new features to pump up the volume on what it now calls its "social network for creatives.” And what better path to Internet domination than cat GIFs and pictures with funny words on them?

A meme generator and GIF creator are two brand-new tools Socl users will see on Tuesday. Picotale is a strange name for a feature that lets you enter a phrase and browse photos that would fit the meme. Blink is the animated GIF creator that comes in the form of a stand-alone app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. The app, also released on Tuesday, lets you start with an image blast, which you can then animate, turn into a looping reel (sort of like Vine), or simply choose the best image to post.

Microsoft backtracks on Xbox One sharing policies

Reacting to "feedback from the Xbox community," Microsoft is appearing to reverse course and change two key components to policies for its new Xbox One video game console.
All disc-based games can be played without ever connecting online, and the 24-hour connection requirement has been dropped, according to an update to a May post concerning questions about the new device, due to be released this fall.
Additionally, there will be no limitations to using and sharing games, Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business division, says in the post. People will be able to share, trade or resell their games in the same way they do for Xbox 360 games.

Microsoft goes 'Windows Everywhere' with Best Buy takeovers, new ad

The theme of Microsoft’s latest ads is “Windows Everywhere”—and if you visit a Best Buy store in the near future, you’ll certainly understand why.

Best Buy will be partnering with the software giant to add stores-within-a-store to 500 selected locations within the United States, plus another 100 more within Future Shop and Best Buy locations in Canada. And the size will be in your face as well: 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet, on par with the size of the homes into which those PCs will be installed.

Inside each “store” will be a mixture of Microsoft devices: Windows-based tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, the Xbox console, and more. Microsoft said that each space will also include examples of how Windows services straddle those devices, and showcase the latest ultramobile Windows-based PCs, both from third parties as well as its own Surface. The Best Buy stores will be installed from late June through September.

Office Mobile for iPhone: What's really at stake for Microsoft and Apple?

Few people actually open and edit documents on their smartphones, let alone actually create them there. From a short-term perspective, then, placing a version of Microsoft Office on Apple's iPhone shouldn’t dramatically change the world.

Microsoft announced Office Mobile for iPhone on Friday morning, ending months of speculation.

The “free” Office Mobile for iPhone app only works with an Office 365 subscription, however, so users will have to pay to edit Office documents, whether it be an Office 365 subscription or Apple’s own $9.99 productivity apps, iWork. And, for now, Office Mobile is specifically formatted for the iPhone, so iPad users won’t be able to use it.

Xbox One coming in November for $500

Xbox One will drop in 21 countries this November, with a price of $499.99 in the U.S., £429 in the U.K., and €499 in Europe.

Gamers can reserve their Xbox One Day One edition for those prices at major retailers—the list, including Amazon, Target, GameStop, and more, is at
The commemorative Day One package includes a console with 500GB hard drive and Blu-ray player, wrapped in special Day One black packaging. You also get a new Kinect, one limited edition Xbox One Day One wireless controller, and a 14-day trial of Xbox Live Gold. Microsoft will even throw in a "unique commemorative Day One Achievement," so all your Xbox Live friends will know you are a total ninja at buying things.