Sleeping with the Enemy: Wordament on Android

10 long months after it shipped its first Xbox Live-based game for iOS, Microsoft has delivered one for Android too. And perhaps not coincidentally, it's the same game: Wordament for Android is now available, and like the versions on Windows, Windows Phone and iOS, it provides Xbox LIVE Achievements.

A moment of silence, please.

See, as awful as it was to have Microsoft deliver its first Xbox LIVE-based game on iOS, we at least knew those guys would be respectful, plus most iOS users couldn't care less about Microsoft one way or the other. But Android? This is the like ravenous Vikings at the door of a monastery on coastal England. This is war.

But seriously, folks.

When you consider Microsoft's "devices and services" strategy, it's not just about Microsoft devices. It's about Microsoft services running on all popular devices. And there is no more popular device than Android. And if Microsoft is serious about making Xbox LIVE universally popular with billions of smart phone users and hundreds of millions of tablet users—and not just something that is primarily about ~50 million living room set-top box users—then it needs to be on Android. (Heck, Xbox Music is on Android.)

So Wordament makes sense.

Like the iOS version, Wordament for Android offers only 50 Achievement points, compared to 200 points for the Windows and Windows Phone versions. It's an online game, and you can play against others on other platforms, which makes perfect sense since this is just a scrabble-type thing with minimal UI.

And of course a lot has changed since last year. When the iOS version of this game arrived last December, I noted it was a slippery slope, and that it could open the floodgates to more Xbox LIVE games on other platforms. Now I'm of the mind that this can't happen fast enough. It's pretty clear that the heterogeneous world of the future—Android, iOS, Windows—is one in which Windows is the minority player. For Microsoft to be successful, it needs to support these other platforms very heavily.

Anyway, I'm not a Wordament player. But this seems like a faithful/identical port of a great game. As it should be.

Wordament for Android is available now from the Google Play Store for free.