When Microsoft unveiled SmartGlass at their E3 press conference this week, there was one thing we couldn't help but wonder: would we ever actually use it?
But Microsoft Studios Corporate VP Phil Spencer told Joystiq that SmartGlass will be implemented in all first-party Microsoft games moving forward once the service is released in the fall. "It just makes so much sense for a developer who wants to supply, maybe not time-critical information, like 'that enemy is getting ready to shoot you,' but information that augments what's happening on screen," he said.
SmartGlass is a device-connecting service that will allow your tablets, PCs, phones and consoles to communicate with one another. You can start watching a movie on your tablet and resume it on your 360, access content on your phone that you've unlocked in a game, or view an interactive map on your PC for a show you're watching on HBO Go on another platform.
"You don't have to log in and out of each app – you know, 'I'm gonna start the Mass Effect app, and now I'm gonna start the Game of Thrones app.' So you have this surface, this smart surface," Spencer said, "that sits on any device that you already own that's always in sync with what's happening on the television, and it knows where to go and grab the right content to display at the right time, to make sure that if you're playing Halo, then the Halo surface is available on SmartGlass."
Are you still skeptical or is it sort of starting to sound awesome? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.
