The next generation of Microsoft phones promise to be far more capable gaming devices. At a Windows Phone Summit, the big MS revealed plans to natively support C/C++ and DirectX for upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices, allowing for "killer games."

DirectX will allow for game developers to "write the same game for Windows 8 and Windows Phone," a company representative said during the summit. According to VentureBeat, that means WP8 devices will include more powerful hardware and "shared drivers with Windows 8 graphics and media components."

No official Windows Phone 8 devices have been announced, but hardware partners include Nokia, Samsung, and HTC. Unfortunately for owners of current WP7 devices, the OS cannot be upgraded to WP8. Instead, "many" features will be available in an upcoming Windows 7.8 update. However, it's unlikely that WP8's new gaming features are possible on WP7 hardware.