Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it was bringing parts of the Xbox Live experience to Windows 8 and today, the company announced the first wave of Xbox games for its new desktop operating system. There aren’t too many surprises here and the focus is clearly on casual games. Among the 40 titles in this first wave are hits like Angry Birds, Angry Birds Space, Fruit Ninja, Reckless Racing and old Microsoft standbys like Mahjong, Solitaire and Minesweeper.
It’s worth noting that 29 out of these 40 games come from Microsoft Studio. Other partners include Rovio, Miniclip, Gameloft, ZeptoLab, Glu Mobile and Halfbrick Studios.
Most of these games will find their way into the Windows Store by the time Windows 8 officially launches on October 26th (some are already in the store) and, as Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc notes, “ongoing new releases will of course be available through the holiday and beyond” (just in case you were worried that Microsoft would stop adding games to the Windows Store after December).
The games will feature the usual Xbox achievements and take advantage of other Xbox features like leaderboards and multiplayer modes.
Here are the 40 games that will make their Windows 8 debut in this first wave:
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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