Skulls of the Shogun coming to XBLA, Windows 8, Windows Phone and Surface Jan. 30

Skulls of the Shogun, 17-Bit's long-in-development samurai-infused strategy game, will launch Jan. 30, according to a press release from the developer.

As the first game to feature asynchronous Xbox Live Arcade and cross-platform play, launch day will bring the game simultaneously to Xbox 360 via XBLA, Windows 8, Windows Surface tablets running Windows RT and Windows Phone.

"After three and a half years, Skulls of the Shogun is finally ready to be released," said 17-Bit CEO Jake Kazdal. "We're ecstatic we could bring Skulls to all four of Microsoft's platforms, and bring them all together with cross-platform functionality. We appreciate the excitement and patience by all the Skulls of the Shogun fans, and we here at 17-Bit believe the wait will be well worth it."

The multi-platform shipment has long been planned, but as recently as last July Kazdal said the developer was aiming for an October 2012 launch. He also told Polygon recently that he'd prefer a solution like Sony's Cross Buy program, which allows players to purchase a copy on one console and receive a free copy for another, but that Microsoft doesn't have the capability.

Be sure to check out our interview with Kazdal and programmer/engineer Ben Vance on the game's development.