Xbox Live Moves in With Windows 8

[IanDavis]

Xbox Live Moves in With Windows 8

The Windows 8 Xbox Live app will play exclusive XBLA games on desktops and tablets.

The Director of Programming at Microsoft, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, has announced that certain Xbox Live games will be available in Windows 8 upon launch. Starting on October 26th, 40 titles will be initially available via the Windows 8 Xbox Live app, with more trickling in as time goes by. The games will run on both desktops and tablets, and feature traditional Xbox Live amenities such as leaderboards, achievements, and friend lists.

The first wave of games presents a diverse selection. There's the predictable time-wasters like Minesweeper and Mahjong, as well as tablet-fodder like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds. Perhaps most importantly, many XLBA exclusives are making the leap into PC land for the first time, such as Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

With the failure of Games for Windows Live, this seems to be a move by Microsoft to use the Xbox moniker for all its gaming products. Thus, the MS-sanctioned gaming ecosystem in Windows 8 will chiefly take place via the Xbox Live app, a move which may or may not make sense depending on your perspective.

If nothing else, Windows 8 is a bold move to merge the traditional desktop environment with the new emerging tablet one. Now that the Xbox ecosystem is being wired into Windows 8, it will be interesting to see if there will be any future integration with the future Xbox 720 as well.

Source: Major Nelson

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[RhombusHatesYou]

Ah yes, Microsoft showing their 'support and dedication for PC gaming' once more.

 

[yuval152]

Oh fuck no.

Piss off Microsoft. Your operating systems are bad enough, and now you want everyone to use Xbox Live? This will be worse than GFWL, calling it now.

I don't know, microsoft is actually supporting xbox live.

OT: Neat feature, great for me because I have XBLA games but others might not like it.

 

[Charli]

Average reaction right now I'm sure.

As someone who doesn't touch much of XBLA, I think i'll be safe-ish.

But then again GFWL was pretty clunky and terrible, I can't imagine they make it MUCH worse.

 

[jbm1986]

Hmm... this maybe good news for XBLA devs or even the modding/hacking community.

 

[CortexReaver]

Does it mean I will be able to play Dust: Elysian Tail on my PC? This is great news.

 

[Megacherv]

Oh fuck no.

Piss off Microsoft. Your operating systems are bad enough, and now you want everyone to use Xbox Live? This will be worse than GFWL, calling it now.

Ah yes, Microsoft showing their 'support and dedication for PC gaming' once more.

Guys, I'm just going to explain this to you: these will be Metro apps that will work in the same way like on Windows Phone and even on 360. You sign into your XBL account to get onto the Windows Store, then download them, and that's it. They're mostly gonna be for tablets I'm guessing, but I've seen examples of KBM/Controller ones as well (such as Pinball FX)

 

[Rainforce]

*wakes up*
MY LAWN. WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CRAP ON MY LAWN.
GET OFF.
D:
reasonable answer: oh well, since I won't bother with 8 anyways... still sucks overall. GFWL and XBL are bad enough as-is (the regulations enforced by MS/the entire concept/etc.), we don't need to impregnate windows 8 with their bastard child. I mean. The nightmares must be over SOMEWHEN, and not reproduce, right?

EDIT: inb4 nobody developing for windows/pc ever again, but XBOX instead, because it will be one and the same anyways, thereby killing the entire pc and console market without any chance of diversity or recovery.

 

[Doom972]

If they'll add Comic Jumper I might have to upgrade to Windows 8. That's a scary thought.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

I don't know how to feel about this.
On one hand I don't care... and on the other I don't care
I don't use Xbox live, a little hard to without a 360. But at the same time we've seen first hand what happens when Microsoft throws their hat into the PC gaming scene. And Xbox live, despite being good enough at what it tries to do, is still nowhere near what you can get from a PC. This will either completely suck, or just be so comparatively mediocre no one will care.
Inb4 Minesweeper is 99 cent app.

 

[gigastar]

So long as GfWL doesnt make it to Windows 8 and XBL doesnt replace it as a DRM/distribution scheme then i can happily not care about it.

 

[Bagged Milk]

If they'll add Comic Jumper I might have to upgrade to Windows 8. That's a scary thought.

Oh man, that's an awesome game!

Anyways, I have a feeling this won't turn out very well, but I do have to give them props for supporting the whole cross platform thing where if you buy it once, you own it on multiple platforms

 

[Megacherv]

If they'll add Comic Jumper I might have to upgrade to Windows 8. That's a scary thought.

Oh man, that's an awesome game!

Anyways, I have a feeling this won't turn out very well, but I do have to give them props for supporting the whole cross platform thing where if you buy it once, you own it on multiple platforms

As far as I know that will not be the case, nothing in either article states that it will do this, and there's been no news anywhere as far as I know.

 

[Covarr]

I was excited, until I noticed that there was no Trials Evolution on that list.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Bagged Milk]

If they'll add Comic Jumper I might have to upgrade to Windows 8. That's a scary thought.

Oh man, that's an awesome game!

Anyways, I have a feeling this won't turn out very well, but I do have to give them props for supporting the whole cross platform thing where if you buy it once, you own it on multiple platforms

As far as I know that will not be the case, nothing in either article states that it will do this, and there's been no news anywhere as far as I know.

Oh, well, I assumed it would be true considering you log in with your xbl gamertag. That really sucks if you'd have to buy it twice on the same account. Whatever, I guess. I don't use Xbox live anyways.

 

[GenGenners]

Because these ventures always work out so well for all those involved.

 

[omicron1]

"Xbox" is my problem with this.
I am permanently soured on the very name itself - I refuse to use anything associated with it - thanks to Microsoft's broken promises and active attacks on the platform I call home. I don't care how many "exclusives" you bring over, Microsoft - I am not touching anything with a green X on it, end of story. Windows branding - and Windows support - or nothing.


Maybe I'm pedantic. But I'm angry. I have a right to be pedantic when I'm angry.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

On one hand, I do like that I'll be able to play games on my hypothetical PC (hypothetical, because I'm not touching Windows 8 until I'm given a good reason to "upgrade") that I otherwise wouldn't be able to.

On the other hand, Microsoft has shown time and time again that they don't understand PC gaming, and this, to me, shows that they simply no longer give a fuck about it. Because obviously PC gamers don't exist and the only way we can sell games on a PC is by calling them Xbox games. Fuck you Microsoft. Fuck you.

Also, this is probably the final nail in the coffin for the hopes that GFWL will ever be fixed.