Microsoft Points used for in-game transactions, Beards & Beaks the first supported title

Well here's something we overlooked when talking about the release of Beards & Beaks earlier this week. Apparently the game is the very first Xbox Live title for Windows Phone to support in-game transactions for downloadable content. That actually makes sense considering that this was the first game to be wholly developed by Microsoft Game Studios, so introducing a new feature in this game is hardly surprising.

Here's how it works in Beards & Beaks:

In Birds & Beaks, players have a number of special abilities in order to help their gnomes defend against the birds, from launch a meteor to a special leap manoeuvre. In order to use these special abilities however, players must use mushrooms from their limited supply. Players will refill this mushroom stock simply by completing a series of levels, however should their supplies run dry too early they will not be able to perform any special abilities. That is, unless they choose to purchase a new supply with Microsoft Points.

The first refill is free, beyond that players must spend 40 Microsoft Points to gain a new supply.

There's a few things that could prove troublesome for this system of in-game transaction: for one Windows Phone never really uses Microsoft Points for anything, and secondly Xbox Live games are already quite expensive despite lacking the content of other platform ports. Still, this could also turn out to be an excellent source of income for other lower-cost games in the future. We just hope Microsoft plans to support this API in others apps and games besides their own.

Via: Neowin
Source: The Electronic Theatre