Windows Phone & Windows 8 Deal Thread

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Windows Phone and Windows 8 Deal Thread

One Xbox game for Windows Phone and a different one for Windows 8 goes on sale every seven days as part of the weekly Red Stripe Deals. The Red Stripe Deals change every Thursday. Red Stripe Deals are open to all Windows Phone and Windows 8 owners.

Xbox Windows Phone Red Stripe Deal of the Week
January 23

  • Collapse - $2.99 $.99

Windows Phone Price Drops - Updated 04/02/13

WP7 Xbox Live Release Schedule - Titles listed from oldest to newest
2011 release dates
  • March 02, 2011 - I Love Katamari - $6.99
  • March 09 - Burn it All - $2.99
  • March 16 - Full House Poker - $2.99
  • March 23 - Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 - $2.99
  • March 30 - Fable Coin Golf - $4.99
  • April 6 - Super Monkey Ball - $4.99
  • April 13 - Centipede - $2.99, Harbor Master - $2.99
  • April 20 - Asteroids Deluxe - $2.99
  • April 27 - Pitfall! - $2.99
  • May 4 - Enigmo - $2.99
  • May 11 - Lunar Lander - $2.99
  • May 18 - Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - $6.99
  • May 25 - Hydro Thunder Go - $4.99
  • June 1 - Doodle Jump - $2.99
  • June 8 - geoDefense - $2.99
  • June 15 - Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I - $6.99
  • June 22 - Plants vs Zombies - $4.99
  • June 29 - Angry Birds - $2.99
  • July 6 - Twin Blades - $2.99
  • July 13 - Beards and Beaks - $2.99, Nokia exclusive: Mirror's Edge - $2.99
  • July 20 - Tentacles - $4.99
  • July 27 - Sally's Salon Luxury Edition - $4.99
  • August 3 - Cro-Mag Rally - $2.99
  • August 10 - Minesweeper and Sudoku - Free!
  • August 17 - IonBallEX - $2.99
  • August 24 - No US release
  • August 31 - Fight Game Rivals - $2.99
  • September 7 - Gravity Guy - $2.99
  • September 14 - Collapse! - $2.99
  • September 21 - Implode! - $2.99
  • September 28 - Burn the Rope! - $2.99
  • October 19 - Jet Car Stunts - $2.99
  • October 25 - Orbital - $2.99
  • November 2 - Kinectimals - $2.99
  • November 9 - Fusion: Sentient - $2.99.
  • November 16 - Let's Golf 2 - $4.99
  • November 21 - Farm Frenzy 2 - $2.99
  • November 28 - Ghostscape - $2.99, Shuffle Party - Free
  • December 7 - Hasta la Muerte - $2.99
  • December 14 - Battlewagon - $2.99, Doodle God - $2.99, Breeze - Free
  • December 21 - MiniSquadron - $2.99
  • December 28 - Spider Jack - $2.99

2012 release dates

  • January 4, 2012 - Zombies on teh Phone - $2.99
  • January 11 - Bug Village - Free
  • January 18 - TextTwist 2 - $2.99
  • January 26 - Fragger - $2.99
  • February 1 - Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - $4.99
  • February 8 - Bullet Asylum - $2.99
  • February 15 - Chickens Can't Fly - $2.99
  • February 22 - Splinter Cell: Conviction - $4.99
  • February 29 - Toy Soldiers Boot Camp - $2.99
  • March 7 - Dodonpachi Maximum - $4.99
  • March 14 - Gerbil Physics - $2.99
  • March 21 - PES 2012 - $4.99
  • March 28 - iStunt 2 - $2.99
  • April 4 - Civilization Revolution - $2.99
  • April 11 - Pirates! - $2.99
  • April 18 - Monster Island - $2.99 (pulled)
  • April 25 - Wordament - Free!
  • May 2 - Pac-Man Kart Rally $2.99
  • May 9 - Feed Me Oil - $.99
  • May 16 - geoDefense Swarm - $2.99
  • May 23 - Droplitz Delight - $.99
  • May 30 - MonstaFish - $.99
  • June 6 Battleship - $2.99
  • June 13 Final Fantasy - $6.99
  • June 20 Fling - $.99
  • June 27 Super Monkey Ball 2 - $2.99
  • July 4 - Mush - $2.99
  • July 11 - Gun Bros - Free
  • July 18 - Contract Killer - Free, Lode Runner Classic - $2.99
  • July 25 - Asphalt 5 - $2.99
  • August 1 - Pool Pro Online 3 - $2.99
  • August 8 - Sally's Spa - $2.99
  • August 15 - Little Acorns - $2.99
  • August 22 - Shoot1UP - $2.99
  • August 29 - Roll in the Hole - $.99
  • September 5 - Galaga Legions DX - $6.99
  • September 12 - Crimson Dragon Side Story - $.99
  • September 19 - Contre Jour - $2.99
  • September 26 - Real Soccer - $2.99
  • October 3 - Extraction - $.99
  • October 10 - Babel Rising 3D $2.99
  • October 17 - Cracking Sands - $2.99
  • October 24 - Carcassonne - $2.99
  • October 31 - Big Buck Hunter Pro - $2.99
  • November 7 - Cut the Rope - $.99
  • November 9 - Nokia Exclusives: Game of Life, Jet Set Go, Parking Mania (all $2.99)
  • November 14 - Sonic CD - $4.99
  • November 20 - Nokia Exclusives: Spy Mouse, Trivial Pursuit (all $2.99)
  • November 21 - Turn N Run - $.99
  • December 4 - AlphaJax - Free
  • December 19 - KenKen - $4.99
  • December 21 - Nokia Exclusive: iBomber Defense - $2.99

Check out post # 2 for more info about Windows Phone games.

 
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[quote name='nCogNeato']Vaguely positive response from Microsoft is better than nothing at all.[/QUOTE]
Any response is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned. Even if it was bad news, I would feel better at least knowing that are being acknowledged. The fact that it is relatively positive news just makes it that much better.

And of course, thanks to Paul for keeping us updated throughout this whole thing!
 
[quote name='nCogNeato']Vaguely positive response from Microsoft is better than nothing at all. Colour me relieved.[/QUOTE]
Having worked before within Microsoft's spin machine ... I'm not relieved at all, and here's why:
  • There's no other bellweather apps on the horizon but "SotS". Seriously, the only apps coming to WP8 (and even Win8-specific) are those where MS freely tosses money at them to simply get included in a release, much less platform-exclusivity. The debut of "Wordament" and "Tentacles" on iOS is proof that the Interactive Entertainment Business division needs legitimate sales.
  • The ecosystem is saturated with developers not making profit off a skant 2% of all mobile device users. With Windows Phone breathing neck & neck against Symbian flip phones & old dinosaur Blackberries, there's little to no incentive for retailers to stock or push the limited selection of phones. Even at my local T-Mobile store, there's an island in the middle of the store with 8 Android devices, while WP8 is on 2 devices, and 1 of those (the Nokia Lumia 810) is a model from early 2012. Which calls out point #3:
  • All the WP7.5 owners are getting royally burned with no upgrade path for 1-2 years (due to 2yr contracts with their cell providers). I dropped my HTC Radar 4G on the ground 3 days ago, and frankly, I barely miss it. I don't miss a phone incapable of handling 2 Hotmail accounts (without the phone being confused about which calendar to display). I don't miss having to remember app-names, in order to find them alphabetically. I don't miss apps having permission to run in the background regardless if you disable them or not, nor do I miss apps having access to all my phone's data, contacts, location, photos, and call logs when all I wanted to do was download & try it. And last, I don't miss running a dinosaur OS that was still "new & barely supported" last April, but already sunsetted in October.
Think how all those WP6.5 and WP7 phone owners feel with no apps to run, but still stuck on their "old" device. Now explain to me how they'd purchase a WP8 phone with no remorse, and meanwhile, all their Apple/Android friends enjoy free & discounted USEFUL apps ALL THE TIME.

MS has already shown they're 100% reliant upon new devices, and that means they're quite happy to start from 0% market share with each & every WinPhone OS release.
 
[quote name='Cornelius']Having worked before within Microsoft's spin machine ... I'm not relieved at all, and here's why:
  • There's no other bellweather apps on the horizon but "SotS". Seriously, the only apps coming to WP8 (and even Win8-specific) are those where MS freely tosses money at them to simply get included in a release, much less platform-exclusivity. The debut of "Wordament" and "Tentacles" on iOS is proof that the Interactive Entertainment Business division needs legitimate sales.
  • The ecosystem is saturated with developers not making profit off a skant 2% of all mobile device users. With Windows Phone breathing neck & neck against Symbian flip phones & old dinosaur Blackberries, there's little to no incentive for retailers to stock or push the limited selection of phones. Even at my local T-Mobile store, there's an island in the middle of the store with 8 Android devices, while WP8 is on 2 devices, and 1 of those (the Nokia Lumia 810) is a model from early 2012. Which calls out point #3:
  • All the WP7.5 owners are getting royally burned with no upgrade path for 1-2 years (due to 2yr contracts with their cell providers). I dropped my HTC Radar 4G on the ground 3 days ago, and frankly, I barely miss it. I don't miss a phone incapable of handling 2 Hotmail accounts (without the phone being confused about which calendar to display). I don't miss having to remember app-names, in order to find them alphabetically. I don't miss apps having permission to run in the background regardless if you disable them or not, nor do I miss apps having access to all my phone's data, contacts, location, photos, and call logs when all I wanted to do was download & try it. And last, I don't miss running a dinosaur OS that was still "new & barely supported" last April, but already sunsetted in October.
Think how all those WP6.5 and WP7 phone owners feel with no apps to run, but still stuck on their "old" device. Now explain to me how they'd purchase a WP8 phone with no remorse, and meanwhile, all their Apple/Android friends enjoy free & discounted USEFUL apps ALL THE TIME.

MS has already shown they're 100% reliant upon new devices, and that means they're quite happy to start from 0% market share with each & every WinPhone OS release.[/QUOTE]

So I just threw 7.8 on my Lumia 900 (the AT&T variants just recently showed up on Nokia's servers). In addition, I've recently upgraded two lines on my account to iPhone 5's.

There are some things that annoy me as well about WP, first and foremost the ongoing issue of not being able to rename MS account emails. I've been wanting to do this since google announced phasing out Exchange push on gmail. I REALLY wanted to do it at the same time as the 7.8 update so I would only have to hard reset once.

I'm not terribly bullish about the platform's market share going forward either.

But I just have to say this: coming from previous Android experience, and setting up and supporting iPhones for the rest of the family, I would still absolutely choose WP for my personal phone. WP 7.5 and 7.8 are still _vastly_ superior usability wise for, you know, actually productive smartphone scenarios. I of course am referring to the killer "apps" of Phone, SMS, calendar, and E-mail. Your dual hotmail issue sounds very annoying but also more than a little niche.

As for Apps... all I can say is the entire App zeitgeist of the post-iphone era is mostly a load of utter crap. The app junkies would have you believe that four or five apps on their preferred platform have somehow substantially improved their quality of life and/or productivity to the point that even thinking of their life before 2006 would drive them to drink. Usually, they are also missing one or two from their previous platform the way someone maimed in an industrial accident misses a limb.

WP7 is now _deprecated_. Some people are clearly more upset/impacted by this than others. But if you want to see a "dinosaur" OS, pick up an iphone. Better yet, pick up 90% of the android devices out there and once you have reoriented yourself to the OEM UI, prepare to ride the wayback machine.

On a side note, anyone who bought a WP7 device last Spring on contract with most US carriers, is actually due for an upgrade in Dec/Jan. So eleven months of living with the "hell" of WP7.
 
[quote name='ERROR SUCCESS']The app junkies would have you believe that four or five apps on their preferred platform have somehow substantially improved their quality of life and/or productivity to the point that even thinking of their life before 2006 would drive them to drink. Usually, they are also missing one or two from their previous platform the way someone maimed in an industrial accident misses a limb.[/QUOTE]

Dude, I need to use all of that material. My writing is usually way too serious because I'm always either running up against a deadline or sleep deprived.

Also, nice defense of the platform! They need to get their act together as far as music players and independent volume control, but otherwise the basic smartphone functions do all seem to be well met.
 
Ok back to complaining then while we are feeling up :p. I've never used Bing local searches (eg finding a business from Maps) in Lake Jackson, but they suck in most of greater Houston. Misplaced pins, pins for shuttered locations, missing locations, etc. Having said that, they are getting better steadily. And it's not like google is perfect in this regard. Don't even get me started on ios6 defaults though :p.

Also, a native Skype app would've been killer for 7.8. Although, if I really needed background Skype availability, I wouldn't have bought a WP7 handset. Still, it's kind of sad that the app is more functional in ios than in 7.

EDIT: of course if you live in bustling metropolis of Lake Jackson I doubt very much you would ever need Bing to tell you where the Home Depot is :p.
 
New to WP8, as well to this thread (great article, Paul!). Not even two weeks have passed, and my HTC just died. Hope this isn't a bad sign. Regardless, missed out on the awesome Pac-Man discount, so I'm hoping to find some cheap and easy games to pad the gamerscore.

Any word on AlphaJax patch that's rumored to be released sometime this year? I've got the 50 games played achievement pop and 10 games not popped, supposedly they're in talks of fixing it... but ya never know... Thanks!
 
I still don't know what to think when it comes to WP7 and xbox live branded games. I think we'll get some more Deals o the Week come the middle of February and by then, I'll have FINALLY grinded out the Carcassonne 200 match achievement. Slowly but surely......
 
[quote name='cancermatt']Any word on AlphaJax patch that's rumored to be released sometime this year? I've got the 50 games played achievement pop and 10 games not popped, supposedly they're in talks of fixing it... but ya never know... Thanks![/QUOTE]

I would think it's worth it to just try uninstalling, reinstalling and doing another 10 games. Should be quick.
 
[quote name='BigPopov']I would think it's worth it to just try uninstalling, reinstalling and doing another 10 games. Should be quick.[/QUOTE]
That hasn't worked for anyone as far as I'm aware. Quite a few people are having this problem, which is why it's being addressed in the upcoming patch. They didn't give a specific time for when the patch will actually show up, but it's supposed to be pretty soon.
 
[quote name='ZombieToast']That hasn't worked for anyone as far as I'm aware. Quite a few people are having this problem, which is why it's being addressed in the upcoming patch. They didn't give a specific time for when the patch will actually show up, but it's supposed to be pretty soon.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. I was in a TA boosting session for the Lexi... painful achievement, and didn't look at the full achievement list, and if you don't get that one first, it'll glitch. So, I got my 50 games played to pop, but not 10 wins in a row. *sigh*

I've only seen people write about a possible "upcoming" patch, but haven't seen any links or quotes from the publisher, firmly stating it'll happen.

#CrossingMyFingers
 
[quote name='tylerh1701']Seems a little too rumor-y to be believed, but we'll see soon enough.[/QUOTE]

I agree, but it would be pretty nice to finally get 7.8. :)
 
Nokia released a video saying the update was available now. Also, many users on the forums are confirming the update.

Oh, and Skulls of the Shogun is awesome! It seems to annihilate my battery, though.
 
[quote name='voormis']Nokia released a video saying the update was available now. Also, many users on the forums are confirming the update.

Oh, and Skulls of the Shogun is awesome! It seems to annihilate my battery, though.[/QUOTE]

Nice. I'm hoping my HTC Arrive gets the update. I haven't seen any mention as to whether it will or not, I would think (and hope) it will.

I'm gonna get the Skulls of the Shogun demo sometime this week and check it out.
 
Paul, I don't think you've covered this yet (unless I missed it), so I thought I'd mention it because I personally think it's rather important: another thing that Microsoft really needs to address is the inability to migrate game saves to a new phone. I don't know how difficult it would be to program, but it seems like it would be simple to either place gamesave data in our GDP files (just like many XBLA titles) or allow us to back everything up to SkyDrive. This alone is one of the biggest things holding me back from upgrading to WP8. We also need some kind of file manager for our phones, but that's not specifically an Xbox Live problem.


[quote name='cancermatt']Exactly. I was in a TA boosting session for the Lexi... painful achievement, and didn't look at the full achievement list, and if you don't get that one first, it'll glitch. So, I got my 50 games played to pop, but not 10 wins in a row. *sigh*

I've only seen people write about a possible "upcoming" patch, but haven't seen any links or quotes from the publisher, firmly stating it'll happen.

#CrossingMyFingers[/QUOTE]
I don't know if this is something you would consider sufficient, but here's a post mentioning the update over on the official Xbox forum:
http://forums.xbox.com/mobile_games/a_-_d/f/3270/p/406751/2080248.aspx#2080248
 
7.8 is the tile-resizing update.

The most agreed-upon solution to the save data issue is cloud saves. All WP games can use cloud saves and it's not much work. Not many devs do it yet though... That'll be one of the points in my next article(s).
 
No update on my LG Quantum either, of course the Mango update was staggered, so maybe at the tail end of the 7.8 rollout older devices like mine will see some love. Again, here's hoping!

Also, I went ahead and got Skulls of the Shogun, I played the demo for a few minutes and enjoyed the gameplay and humor in the game. $5 is really expensive for a smartphone game, but I haven't got one in awhile so I splurged.
 
[quote name='eastx']7.8 is the tile-resizing update.

The most agreed-upon solution to the save data issue is cloud saves. All WP games can use cloud saves and it's not much work. Not many devs do it yet though... That'll be one of the points in my next article(s).[/QUOTE]

Cloud saves are a must! I am on my 5th Windows Phone (long story) and it's frustrating to start my games all over. This is also another issue that, to me, has to be put on the shoulders of MS. When they announced cloud saves for Xbox 360, to my knowledge, it was universal. Game developers didn't have to do anything or else it wouldn't have supported every game from the very start? Unless I am missing something.
 
Does anyone know how exactly to purchase the Zombies!!! Dlc? I am using an HTC Arrive, I deleted and reinstalled the game to make sure I had the newest version, I just can't find it anywhere. I'm hoping it's not delisted.
 
[quote name='JohnnyDeLicious']Does anyone know how exactly to purchase the Zombies!!! Dlc? I am using an HTC Arrive, I deleted and reinstalled the game to make sure I had the newest version, I just can't find it anywhere. I'm hoping it's not delisted.[/QUOTE]

You do it from within the game itself. From main menu hit play game, then above where the characters are you will see expansion packs. Hit that to bring up the purchase screen where you can use your points.
 
[quote name='tylerh1701']Looks like Wordament is now available as a browser game as well, and you can earn achievements. :)

http://majornelson.com/2013/01/31/wordament-web-beta/[/QUOTE]
Wow, that's interesting yet cool. Wordament is whoring itself out like crazy now. Managed to get 80% of the achievements in like 5 rounds since my progress carried over from WP.

I will be very upset if my HTC Arrive from Sprint doesn't get the 7.8 treatment. Is this rumor true? :hot:
 
[quote name='Dustinator']Wow, that's interesting yet cool. Wordament is whoring itself out like crazy now. Managed to get 80% of the achievements in like 5 rounds since my progress carried over from WP.[/QUOTE]

Wait, so does the browser version have separate achievements from the phone app? As in a GS double dip?
 
[quote name='Feeni']Wait, so does the browser version have separate achievements from the phone app? As in a GS double dip?[/QUOTE]

Ya. Triple dip if you know anyone that has an iPhone that you can play it on. I believe it's also available on Windows 8 for the rare quadruple dip.

[quote name='eastx']Nokia users get non-Xbox Super Monkey Ball 2 free[/QUOTE]

Between games that only work for WP7, ones that only work with WP8, and ones that are available only to Nokia phones, this fragmentation is starting to bug me.
 
[quote name='tylerh1701']Between games that only work for WP7, ones that only work with WP8, and ones that are available only to Nokia phones, this fragmentation is starting to bug me.[/QUOTE]

I keep telling ya to switch carriers... :cool:
 
Just got a 920 to play around with, guess I'm going to sub to this thread now.
Loving this phone so far, aside from the fact that the contact profile pics do not sync to the cloud. Very annoying.
 
I have a Nokia Lumia 820, and I cant figure out how to get to the free version of Super Monkey Ball 2... I've tried going through Nokia Collection, Apps and Highlights, etc. I keep seeing 2.99$, but I see a little blue square that says 'Nokia' and when I touch it, the price disappears, but it still says Try and Buy, and when I click Buy, it says 2.99 again. What am I doing wrong?
 
[quote name='Arthas54']I have a Nokia Lumia 820, and I cant figure out how to get to the free version of Super Monkey Ball 2... I've tried going through Nokia Collection, Apps and Highlights, etc. I keep seeing 2.99$, but I see a little blue square that says 'Nokia' and when I touch it, the price disappears, but it still says Try and Buy, and when I click Buy, it says 2.99 again. What am I doing wrong?[/QUOTE]

http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-super-monkey-ball-now-free-lumia-users

Try the QR code on that page - I actually had to reset my phone to get it to work. Also, Sonic CD is free for Lumia users as well.
 
God I can't wait for March 16 so I can upgrade to WP8...my HTC Surround keeps bugging out when I turn wifi on and my data connection has been slow as shit.
 
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