Godzilab's Thomas Lachartre on how Microsoft's might is drawing devs to Windows Phone 7

The revelation that 63 games will be available on Windows Phone 7 from day one certainly generated headlines, giving the platform a major boost.

Indeed, as Apple has proved, half of the PR battle is drumming up as much noise for your format as you can.

Yet the quality of the releases themselves will be more important come launch day. As such, getting developers such as French studio Godzilab on board is a step in the right direction.

Its Pocket Gamer silver award winner iBlast Moki is being ported from iPhone.

We asked Godzilab president Thomas Lachartre his views on Microsoft's new platform.

The tools are really good. XNA is a pleasure to work with. You can see everything has been thought through to ease the life of game developers. C# is also a great language and accelerates development dramatically.

It's a shame that Windows Phone 7 doesn't support C++ though as this is what we use mostly on the other platforms.

As a player, Xbox Live is definitely an advantage. You have your avatar, friends, achievements and Gamerscore all on Windows Phone 7, and you have the same experience as the one you have on Xbox 360.

I think we'll see great quality titles on Windows Phone 7. What gives the platform a big advantage is having Microsoft behind it.

It has the experience gained from Xbox. You can see what it did nine years ago as an industry newcomer and where it is now, and it might do the same again.

Is the smartphone market is becoming overcrowded?

The smartphone market maybe, but the smartphone as gaming platforms, I don't think so.

Only Apple and Microsoft are really focused on a smartphone as a gaming platform. Maybe Google will in the future. But the big players are the ones to follow – all the others seem to be a some kind of distraction for now.