Microsoft is reported to be "waiting for [the] right opportunity" to develop games for Apple's iPhone, according to latest reports from Official Xbox 360 magazine in the UK.
Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer is looking for the right game to do it with, according to an E3 interview posted today over on OXM.co.uk
Spencer noted that the iPhone version of Will Wright's Spore from EA Mobile was "a good example" of how cross-platform gameplay would work.
"We've done things like the pub games in Fable," he said "which aren't cross platform but it's playing an arcade game, building currency that works for you in the Fable game. You could imagine doing that from another device as well."
"It's thinking about the right opportunity. Where it makes sense is more important than just proving that it can be done."
Let the speculation commence
Immediately we are set to wondering which Microsoft developed Xbox 360 games might make their way to Apple's iPod – could we see mobile versions of Banjo Kazooie, Viva Pinata or Too Human some time soon?
"It seems perfectly plausible: every publisher is keen to do iPhone games, as they are proving to sell very well. This, clearly, is Microsoft with its games publisher, as opposed to platform-holder, hat on," commented freelance games journalist (and TechRadar contributor) Steve Boxer on hearing the news.
"Obviously you won't be able to shoe-horn full Xbox 360 games onto the iPhone, but any mini-games within Microsoft-published games would be candidates, the classic example being the pub games in Fable 2," adds Boxer, reiterating the comments made by Microsoft's studio head.
Boxer adds that: "Also any Microsoft-published Xbox Live Arcade games (Geometry Wars, for example), retro games and possibly even original Xbox games. The perception that Apple and Microsoft are bitter enemies isn't necessarily correct, even though both companies might like us to think that they are."
