Solitaire, Minesweeper, Freecell, I could go on, they’ve been the forefront of the legendary “included Windows games” forever now, but it now seems that Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 8, will not come bundled with these games, and will only be available as a seperate install from the Windows Store.
The game is still however available for free in the Store, as the “Microsoft Solitaire Collection”, and to add to that its now an Xbox Live title with Achievements.
Even more interesting is that when the game is updated the update offers the ability to:
PAUSE AND RESUME YOUR GAMES ACROSS ANY PC, TABLET OR WINDOWS PHONE!
Presumably the game settings are uploaded up to the cloud, and a version of the game will be made available for Windows Phone soon also.
What’s even more awesome, is that Solitaire is not alone – Microsoft Mahjong and Microsoft Minesweeper will also be offering the feature.
With the common core now in place with Windows 8, will there come a time when we are surprised a game does NOT offer this feature?
I don’t know about you, but I think the whole “Shared Windows Core” idea is really starting to make sense now, and I can see this really improving, not only Windows Phone marketshare, but the capabilities, games, and essentially more reasons to buy one, I think its fair to say more or less every new PC will be running Windows 8 soon, and once people get used to it, its only a matter of time before Windows Phone could be in everyones pockets, thats of course Microsoft’s hopes and dreams right there, but its definitely possible.
RKUK Media 