Xbox Live: Microsoft expanding multiplayer service to Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms

Xbox Live currently has more than 68m active players

Xbox Live will expand to Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms (Stock)

Microsoft is planning to expand Xbox Live to Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS.

The move was revealed in the description of an upcoming Game Developers Conference session, according to Windows Central, and would make Live available to more than “two billion devices”.

Under the GDC session titled: “Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC”, it stated that the new “cross-platform XDK” will “enable game developers to connect players” across multiple platforms.

“Xbox Live players are highly engaged and active on Xbox and PC, but now they can take their gaming achievement history, their friends list, their clubs, and more with them to almost every screen,” the description continued. It has since been removed.

The new software will reportedly be combined with PlayFab gaming services and allow developers to create games that seamlessly integrate from one screen to another – allowing players to “watch, buy, play, pause, and continue their games from one device to the next on top of the most reliable social and multiplayer network in the world”.

More details about the cross-platform update are expected to be revealed during GDC 2019 – which will take place March 18 to 22.

The announcement comes after Microsoft vice president Phil Spencer previously explained to Variety that the tech company is aware it cannot reach the “two billion people who play video games on the planet” with just a game console.

“We have a long term commitment to the console space, but when you think about two billion people, we’re not going to sell two billion people a game console,” he said.

Currently, Xbox Live is only available cross-platform within certain games such as “Minecraft”.

A Microsoft spokesperson told The Independent: “We have nothing additional to share at this time.”