Windows Central has found a GDC 2019 session suggesting Microsoft is going to debut a new cross-platform XDK to bring Xbox Live support to Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.

The GDC 2019 schedule includes a session entitled, "Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across Platforms", by Jeffrey Shi, Principal Program Manager of Team Xbox, and Ramsey Khadder, Software Engineer of Team Xbox.

At the time of this posting it looks like the Takeaway and Intended Audience have been removed, but the description states:

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Get a first look at the SDK to enable game developers to connect players across platforms.

Windows Central reported the original description with much more detail, suggesting expansion of the PlayFab services and Xbox Live connectivity across new platforms:

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Xbox Live is one of the largest, most engaged gaming communities on the planet with decades of experience providing managed game services to developers that save you time and unlock all of the social and engagement features that players love.

Now Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger. Xbox Live is expanding from 400M gaming devices and a reach to over 68M active players to over 2B devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK.

Get a first look at the SDK to enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.

Takeaway

• Xbox Live players are highly engaged and active on Xbox and PC, but now they can take their gaming achievement history, their friends list, their clubs, and more with them to almost every screen.
• This will break down barriers for developers that want their communities to mingle more freely across platforms. Combined with PlayFab gaming services, this means less work for game developers and more time to focus on making games fun.

View the original story on Windows Central.

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Interesting indeed. DirectX11/12 for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch in the pipeline perhaps? This could be a game changer.

6 hours ago, DividedByZero said:

DirectX11/12 for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch in the pipeline perhaps?

Technically that might already possible -- dxvk runs D3D11 on Vulkan, vkd3d runs D3D12 on Vulkan, MoltenVk runs VK on Metal (iOS), and Nintendo runs VK on NVN (Switch)  

How many layers is too many?

Seriously though, Valve used a similar library (ToGL) to ship D3D9 games on Mac, and are now using dxvk/vkd3d in Steam's Linux client.