A matter of weeks after it was first unveiled, Microsoft has launched the official SDK for Xbox SmartGlass – its new streaming platform for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

The development kit, which is free to registered Xbox 360 developers, offers up a SmartGlass Studio environment for building what's dubbed as "SmartGlass Activities" into games.

Smart SDK

Indeed, Microsoft demonstrated the kind of activities it expects developers to employ with SmartGlass during E3, using EA's Madden and Halo 4 at its press conference to highlight its strengths.

Though the amount of enthusiasm for the tool within third-parties remains to be seen, its potential, however, to link console and smartphone gaming is undeniable.

As billed, SmartGlass allows users to control specific aspects of an Xbox 360 game on either a smartphone or tablet, as well as affordint them access to further info about the game, TV show or film in question as it's playing.

Widescale Windows 8 support for both SmartGlass and Xbox Live has also been hinted at, though no word was given as to just what form this will take during the unveiling of Surface, Microsoft's tablet platform for both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

The SmartGlass SDK can be picked up now from Microsoft's Xbox Developer website.



[source: Ars Technica]