New Xbox features added to Windows Phone 7

GAMESCOM:Microsoft is planning more new features for the Games Hub in its Windows Phone Mango software update.

The new features include in-app purchases for games, or ‘Game Add-ons’ as Microsoft is calling them. New Windows Phone title Beards & Beaks will be the first to benefit, with players able to buy mushrooms and other virtual items using the Microsoft Points currency.

Also new are Avatar Awardables, which are a new form of Xbox Live achievement that can be worn by players’ avatars to show off their prowess.Other new features include parental controls in advance of the release of the first Mature-rated Windows Phone game, Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Microsoft also took the wrappers off 14 new Xbox Live games for its smartphone platform. Kinectimals Mobile may have the highest profile, being a mobile version of the innovative motion-controlled Xbox 360 game.

Sister site ME has a more detailed look at the news.