Xbox 360 games playable with Windows 8 (rumor) *updated with enhanced linkage*.

[RhombusHatesYou]

Also rethinking this subject made me ask why thier doing this. I mean anyone buying 360 games would already have an Xbox and anyone with a PC capable of playing those games will just buy the PC version.

You're assuming that there would be PC versions. How many publishers are going to be willing to hand over the extra cash for a PC version of a multiplatform game when they can turn around and say "yeah, with windows 8, they can play the 360 version"? This is monetary incentive for publishers - same sales, less dev cost.

Potentially you've got a lot of PC gamers more or less forced to go with the 360 version of a game... Versions that all, regardless of what platform they end up being played on, net MS that extra 'platform development licence' payment.

Divorcing their entire gaming system from set hardware is a brilliant business move. Sure, you still offer the official hardware for sale... but start allowing people to buy into the system to run with any minimum spec hardware? Masterstroke.

From a PC gaming perspective, this is probably the biggest threat to PC Gaming we've seen since MS started buying up a shitpot of previously PC only developers when the original Xbox was launched. Yet, on the other hand, the threat is only to PC gaming in it's current form... if we accept that change then it has the potential to be a boon for PC gaming.

 

[infohippie]

I'm a PC-only gamer who couldn't care less. The handful of console exclusives I really want to play are all on Playstation, not Xbox. Besides which, I'd rather see Microsoft stay as far away from PC gaming as possible. We have neither forgotten nor forgiven Games for Windows Live.

Anyway, a 360 is really only a mid-range PC in a different case. If Microsoft want to support PC gaming, they should simply insist that anyone who wants to develop for the 360 spend some of their time on making a decent mouse & keyboard control scheme for their games. Then MS can easily release the same game on PC.

EDIT: Oh, and there's not a chance I'd buy a 360 game to play it on my PC. They're usually more expensive than PC games, and I'm not wasting my video card's time on rendering some low-poly, low res texture scene with no advanced render effects. I'd rather buy a proper PC version of a game with higher-polygon models, and better effects & textures.
And if Windows 8 looks like the previews I've seen so far, with a shitty Windows Phone style interface, I won't be buying that at all. I'll wait to see what Windows 9 is like.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The PCs these days don't have the power to emulate hardware such as X360. At best, SOME games might be ported (or rather, back-ported) to Windows, just like SOME original Xbox games were ported to X360.

Umm sorry but are you kidding?

emulators have to simulate the hardware of the console in addition to the software

Of course Win8 could have it's 360 functionality built into it as OS level rather than trying to run in on top of the OS (resulting in the big resource suck of trying to run 2 OSes at once and translating between them). The fact that the Xbox OSes are based on Windows in the first place makes that a possibility.

 

[Still Life]

Potentially you've got a lot of PC gamers more or less forced to go with the 360 version of a game... Versions that all, regardless of what platform they end up being played on, net MS that extra 'platform development licence' payment.

Inferior versions at increased cost to the consumer? No offense to Xbox users, but their games are designed to run efficiently for their platform. Assuming Microsoft can work around the hardware complexities, it will most likely turn out to be a rather ugly cash grab that reduces the overall qaulity of games available to PC users. Microsoft have done a completely half-assed job of supporting their PC titles and services -- their track record says it all.

Well, that's what the cynic in me says....

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Potentially you've got a lot of PC gamers more or less forced to go with the 360 version of a game... Versions that all, regardless of what platform they end up being played on, net MS that extra 'platform development licence' payment.

Inferior versions at increased cost to the consumer? No offense to Xbox users, but their games are designed to run efficiently for their platform. Assuming Microsoft can work around the hardware complexities, it will most likely turn out to be a rather ugly cash grab that reduces the overall level of qaulity of games available to PC users. Microsoft have done a completely half-assed job in supporting their PC titles and services -- their track record says it all.

Well, that's what the cynic in me says....

Yeah, but if MS do pull this off... well, like I said, are most publishers going to spend the cash to develope PC versions of multiplat titles or just say 'Fuck'em, they can play the 360 version on their computers.'? That's quite a bundle they'd be saving on dev or porting costs for PC titles.

Yes, it's an ugly cash grab that will reduce the quality of games available for PC gamers. Anyone expecting any different should visit reality sometime.

 

[Church256]

Snip.

Thus coming back to my original post. This is Microsoft killing all PC games that are released for the 360. But the potenial gains that could come from this like the boon in PC gaming would be worth it if it plays out that way.

However havn't Microsoft said they are in the process of designing a new Xbox? Such a move would destroy the market for this console unless they went back to the way games are sold now.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

To this, I say LOL. Microsoft has proven once again that they will continue to fuck themselves so hard in their endless search for MOAR MONEY until their testicles became a permanent fixture of the anus.

 

[NLS]

The PCs these days don't have the power to emulate hardware such as X360. At best, SOME games might be ported (or rather, back-ported) to Windows, just like SOME original Xbox games were ported to X360.

Umm sorry but are you kidding?

emulators have to simulate the hardware of the console in addition to the software

Of course Win8 could have it's 360 functionality built into it as OS level rather than trying to run in on top of the OS (resulting in the big resource suck of trying to run 2 OSes at once and translating between them). The fact that the Xbox OSes are based on Windows in the first place makes that a possibility.

I've bolded out the key part here. The OS itself wouldn't be too hard, since Microsoft has the source code for that hidden somewhere. The REAL problem here has already been stated, the hardware.
Xbox 360 is using a PowerPC based processor (Xenon). That is not the same kind that your everyday gaming PC is using (that is x86). In order to run the code that has been compiled for the Xenon processor, you would need to emulate the whole processor, along with most other components of the XboX 360.
Emulation can take a lot of power to get working, general thought is "should be at least 7 times better than the target". So any chance of emulating the 360 with current hardware is next to nothing.

Is there any other chance of this working then? Yes and no.
Since Microsoft doesn't have the source code for 3rd party games, developers would have to start compiling all their games for both PowerPC and x86 in the future.
This means all previously released 360 games are out of the question, unless they are re-released with x86 binaries, which would require a lot of work for 3rd party developers.

Short answer: No
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooo (and read the above reason why)

 

[Chainsaw_Chuck]

The PCs these days don't have the power to emulate hardware such as X360. At best, SOME games might be ported (or rather, back-ported) to Windows, just like SOME original Xbox games were ported to X360.

Umm sorry but are you kidding?

He just phrased it incorrectly. Computers today have the power, it's just that nobody has made a working emulator because it's too complicated. Although the PS2 and Wii emulators that I have do work well. So I guess we're on our way, right?

 

[SuperGauntlet]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft is just gonna buy OnLive at some point.

Who needs a console that actually runs the game when you can just stream it?

 

[Still Life]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft is just gonna buy OnLive at some point.

Who needs a console that actually runs the game when you can just stream it?

I sure as hell hope not. We need more competitive alternatives operating in the Video Gaming market and thus give the heavy-wights less of an opportunity to piss on our consumer plates. God forbid the market goes the general route of the music industry.

 

[Maxtro]

One possibility is that Windows 8 could something similar to Onlive and just stream games. That would explain the subscription service.

If that's the case then console gaming would pretty much never be the same.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Is there any other chance of this working then? Yes and no.
Since Microsoft doesn't have the source code for 3rd party games, developers would have to start compiling all their games for both PowerPC and x86 in the future.
This means all previously released 360 games are out of the question, unless they are re-released with x86 binaries, which would require a lot of work for 3rd party developers.

Not necessarily. Not if MS can manage dynamic recompiling of the instruction sets... which, admittedly, is something of a big ask but not an insurmountable problem... but it could handle a bulk of the hardware emulation issues... although, even assuming competent coding, there would be stability issues.

It's possible that Win8 could handle the 360 OS as a dual boot... so you can interrupt the OS loading and instead load up a modified 360 OS instead, thereby leaving a shitload of system resources available for emulation (because all windows OSes are resource pigs).

 

[Chibz]

SNIP!

I'm going to just throw it out there, but do you have ANY credible sources on this matter? If so, please link them.

 

[Still Life]

SNIP!

I'm going to just throw it out there, but do you have ANY credible sources on this matter? If so, please link them.

It has been clearly stated that any information pertaining to the topic is RUMOR, ie. there are no credible sources as of yet.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I like the idea that, in the future, after my Xbox360 kicks the bucket and MS no longer makes a console that plays Xbox360 games, my dozen+ games will still be playable on my PC.

Although, if MS is going to try to charge me to play MY games on MY PC because the faulty 360 hardware that I BOUGHT from them no longer works...screw that. I'll just wait until a free Xbox360 emulator for PC is made.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Been back and forth on this and I think it's a good possibility this will come.

The reason for it is all the extra cash, the current GFWL is an utter fail that noone uses, but if they offer up Xbox games it will be a whole different story, then they got a very good Steam competitor with games others can't offer while they hang a 50$ monthly fee on their service.
Evil genious is what it is, and they sure as hell don't lack the money to push this into existence.

 

[Still Life]

I like the idea that, in the future, after my Xbox360 kicks the bucket and MS no longer makes a console that plays Xbox360 games, my dozen+ games will still be playable on my PC.

Although, if MS is going to try to charge me to play MY games on MY PC because the faulty 360 hardware that I BOUGHT from them no longer works...screw that. I'll just wait until a free Xbox360 emulator for PC is made.

That begs the question:

Wouldn't that make the whole point of the console kind of redundant?

 

[ezeroast]

snip

ahh, I didnt realise you were talking about actual emulators.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I like the idea that, in the future, after my Xbox360 kicks the bucket and MS no longer makes a console that plays Xbox360 games, my dozen+ games will still be playable on my PC.

Although, if MS is going to try to charge me to play MY games on MY PC because the faulty 360 hardware that I BOUGHT from them no longer works...screw that. I'll just wait until a free Xbox360 emulator for PC is made.

That begs the question:

Wouldn't that make the whole point of the console kind of redundant?

Presently and in the near future, no. Xbox360 emulation on PCs isn't a viable option for the general public, so the console is the easiest and most effective way to play the games.

Many PCs still struggle with PS2 emulation, just because you're using a program to do something that the PC wasn't specifically designed to do.

However, by the time reliable Xbox360 emulation is possible, I doubt the 360 will still be in production. So yeah, by the time emulation is a viable, the console will be redundant, assuming that there will still be a decent number of working models floating around.