Microsoft trying to bring iPhone games to Windows Phone 7

So far, we haven’t really heard much about iPhone gaming at E3 — the focus has mainly been on the consoles and the PC. That doesn’t mean, however, that people have forgotten about Apple or mobile gaming.

Microsoft is very interesting in trying to horn in on that market, and their latest move shows they’re fairly serious about it. According to Pocket Gamer, Microsoft is now offering iPhone developers up-front cash to port their iPhone games to the new Windows Phone 7s. Unfortunately for Microsoft, developers appear to be declining the offer — there’s too much work involved in recoding the games into Silverlight or XNA framework.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft ups the ante. Do you think the Windows Phone 7 will be able to take on the iPhone, or is Microsoft just wasting money on a futile endeavor?

Microsoft is paying developers to port iPhone games to Windows Phone 7 [Pocket Gamer via AppleInsider]