New Details about the Games Hub in Windows Phone Mango, Winks at Multiplayer

It's felt like since the dawn of time (or Windows Phone 7's release) that all we've said is that Xbox Live on Windows Phone needs to improve significantly in order to really compete with iOS and maybe even eat into the market share of Sony's PlayStation Vita and Nintendo's 3DS. The first step to improve the service is to improve the Games Hub which, according to a new Windows Phone Blog entry from Windows Phone games program manager Shirlene Lim, is going to be seeing plenty of refinements in Mango. Let's lay them all out:

• The Collection view has been improved and is now more consistent with the App List rather than the large, cumbersome tiles and by default are sorted in alphabetical order. When the phone is carrying more than 20 games in the Collection, a new Recent area will appear above your games and display the last three games played.
• 3D Avatars are now fully integrated into the Hub instead of jumping into the Xbox Live Extras app in the Marketplace. Avatars also have new behaviors that you can manipulate: when you shake your phone the avatar can dance, and when you irritate your avatar too much it will literally push its own screen off to the side and you will now see the Collection instead.
• Xbox Live messaging is now more fully fleshed out and will support emoticons (which your avatar will reflect). So a :D will lead to a happy Avatar for your friends to see.
• Friend management has also improved as you can now control all of your tasks straight from your phone. You can also see which Xbox Live friends are online through the status indicator.
• New integrated Achievements have been added to the Hub, which will let you look at and compare those 'cheevos with your friends whether it's Ilomilo (Windows Phone), Halo: Reach (Xbox 360), or Command & Conquer 4 (Games for Windows).
• Editing your profile straight from your phone.
• Improved Spotlight which will now display images inline with headers for more eye-catching news.

Finally, the last point Lim mentioned was Game Request notifications which sounds like a big tease towards multiplayer gaming to us:

In Mango, you’ll receive notifications for multiplayer game or turn requests and can track them in the Requests section of the Games Hub.

So are you excited for the new changes coming in the Games Hub? Tell us your favorite new feature (ours is the new 'Recent' category) in the comments below!

Source: Windows Phone Blog