Phil Spencer announces new Xbox One, HoloLens and Windows 10 plans at GDC

Xbox head Phil Spencer used his GDC presentation this morning to talk about Microsoft's attempts to integrate Windows 10 with its Xbox and tablet businesses.

Spencer announced that Other Ocean's sports-platformer IDARB will be cross-play enabled for Xbox One and Windows 10 tablets and PC.

The ID@Xbox program for indie developers is being expanded to cover all Microsoft platforms with tools provided for cross-play development. Various ID@Xbox games for Windows 10 are being demoed at GDC.

A wireless adapter for Windows 10 will be released that allows all Xbox One wireless peripherals to work on Windows devices.

A new action MOBA called Gigantic was announced from Motiga. The game will be available for Windows 10 and Xbox One and will be cross-playable between both, with the same account.

Windows PC space trading game Elite: Dangerous "will come to Xbox this summer."

Spencer also spoke about the Windows Universal App Platform, which allows developers to create the same game across Windows 10, Xbox and HoloLens, adding that he understood that individual platforms would have their own display and input considerations. He said he wanted to see more games working across the different devices.

His talk, very much aimed at developers, also touched on the Windows Store, which will "enable cross-buy and cross use." That will allow people to buy games on one platform and access them across platforms, but "it's not something that we will mandate."

A new Xbox Live SDK is being released to some "early adopter" developers today, with a full rollout of the API set to come out in the next 12 months. A Universal Development Center will act as a central tool hub for bringing games to multiple devices.

He touched on HoloLens and said that holographic APIs would be made available along with new details.

"All of the parts of gaming at Microsoft are coming together to show a complete vision," said Spencer, adding that the company is committed to deliver services and games across multiple platforms, and not just console. "We are committed to making Windows 10 the best that gamers have ever had."

Windows 10 is Microsoft's new PC operating system, due to be introduced later this year. It will be freely available for anyone who owns consumer editions of Windows 7 through to Windows 8.1.

Back in January, Microsoft showed the multiplatform-designed Windows 10 on Xbox as well as its Xbox PC gaming app on Windows 10. The company how it planned to allow games like Forza Horizon 2 to stream Xbox One games direct to their local PC and Windows 10-based tablet, and indicated future plans to stream from Windows 10 PCs back to Xbox.

The company also talked about how free-to-play combat adventure Fable Legends will be cross-playable across both platforms. It unveiled the HoloLens augmented and virtual reality system and announced that Cortana, Microsoft's voice-powered digital assistant, will be baked into Windows 10.