Following the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 Series, including Xbox Live functionality, Microsoft is revealing first technical details at a GDC 2010 tutorial, joining event coverage of smartphone gaming from iPhone through Android to Blackberry, Palm and beyond.
The Windows Phone 7 Series itself is a new set of smartphones running a drastically reconfigured Windows OS and including Xbox Live-compatible avatars, achievements, and games as part of the new system.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showcased the Windows Phone 7 Series set of phones at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, and announced that the new phones will debut by holiday 2010.
As noted on Microsoft's official Windows Phone blog, the company has been getting "a lot of questions about the developer story, platform, etc. We are not prepared to talk about it yet but all will be revealed at two coming events... [including] Game Developers Conference in San Francisco."
The sessions appears as part of Microsoft's Game Developer Day tutorials on March 9th and 10th, with much of Wednesday, March 10th dedicated to the new operating system and technical/design specifics.
Some of the session titles include 'Overview of Game Development for Windows Phone', 'Optimizing Performance of Modern Games for Windows Phone', 'Development and Debugging Tools for Windows Phone', and a discussion on "basic design for a web-services-enabled game" for a Windows Phone 7 Series-compatible device.
The sessions, which are accessible via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2010 passes, join a major set of content sessions for mobile and handheld devices, including the new iPhone Games Summit on March 9th-10th, as well as the GDC Handheld/Mobile Summit on the same dates, which includes talks on Android and other mobile OSes.
In addition to these notable talks, smartphone game-related sessions are rounded out by a Palm sponsored session on WebOS in the Main Conference and a Blackberry-specific Developer Day on March 9th.
Final pre-onsite registration for GDC 2010 ends on March 4th, and passes are available now at the official Game Developers Conference website.
