Microsoft is bringing forward its first payout day for external mobile game developers, the company has confirmed.

Windows Phone 7 app creators will start receiving pay for their published games “in the 4th week of January 2011”, a director at Microsoft said.

Developer payouts had previously been scheduled for February.

“This payout will include payment for all sales of Windows Phone 7 apps and games that occurred after the phones became available in October 2010 through the end of December 2010,” said Microsoft’s senior director for Windows Phone, Todd Brix.

He added that, from February, developer pay will be processed on a monthly basis “for all combined sales of Windows Phone 6.x and Windows Phone 7 apps”.

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This will only be for developers who meet the minimum payout threshold limits.

Brix said changes were made to the group’s mobile strategy “due to your feedback”.

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s latest attempt to capture the smartphone market. The first wave of phones supporting the OS launched by the end of October.

A month later Microsoft said it had registered over 15,000 individual developers to create apps and games for Windows Phone 7. That figure doesn’t accurately portray growth rates, as the phone’s SDK has been available since September.

Windows Phone 7 now features 4,000 apps, Microsoft has said.