Microsoft making Azure easy for social devs

Microsoft's Azure, a cloud development platform based on HTML5, is being tweaked to make life easier for social game developers to get products to market.

As part of the drive to engage social developers in the system, Microsoft has announced the release of source code which will enable the easy implementation of features such as achievements, monetisation and in-app purchases, reports VentureBeat.

The service's HTML5 base should also help developers to reach as many platforms as possible with less work, although that convenience does come at the cost of some performance and features.

"If you just want to concentrate on the game and don't want to deal with hosting or rebuilding your game for a lot of formats, then this is for you," said Azure marketing manager Daniel Appel. "We've got a platform that is cost-effective for start ups."