Rumor is pretty much confirmed: Windows 8 will play Xbox 360 games. Good or Bad?

[Ducttape]

If I'm understanding it correctly, beginning with Windows 8, you will be able to play your Xbox 360 disc on your PC. If you need a special DVD drive for this I don't know (probably not, but who knows?)

Microsoft will charge you a fee to play on-line (just like Xbox live now) but pricing hasn't been disclosed. At this time, the PC players will not be able to play with their 360 counterparts, even though they are playing the same game(s).

I think it'll be nice to have the option of playing 360 games on my PC, but I don't fancy paying to play on-line. I'm assuming we can play single-player off-line games without paying the fee.

Now when games like Red Dead Redemption or L.A. Noir come out, people won't have to wait for a port to play. This could be huge for the PC sports community as well; a lot of people were miffed when Madden cut PC support.

Windows 8 is probably a ways off though; by the time it releases, there will likely either already be or will soon be a new Xbox out anyway.

 

[Meatwagon<3]

It would be awesome if they did it like Valve and PS3 with Portal 2 and just gave you a digital copy for download if you bought the Xbox version. I doubt that would happen though.

 

[v1ruz]

Sounds like a pretty sweet concept but I dont know how it would be online. Keyboard + mouse versus xbox controller...

 

[Spitfire'd]

Sounds like a pretty sweet concept but I dont know how it would be online. Keyboard + mouse versus xbox controller...

I think you somewhat answered your own question. They'll probably make you buy the expensive adapter to connect (kinect ) the controller to the computer.

 

[Nik :D]

At least I can play Red Dead Redemption then.

 

[Beta]

If this is true, and all I need is just Windows 8, I'm fine with this! I own a PC/PS3/Wii and at the moment I don't think I need another console sitting around.

 

[Narh]

At least I can play Red Dead Redemption then.

It would be insanely awesome :w00t:

 

[Caped_Sensei]

connect (kinect )

Lol xD

 

[IrateDonnie]

Hmmm playing Halo Reach with a mouse & keyboard might actually be fun. I don't think they should alienate the pc players though...maybe make a M/KB controller for the xbox so the players with controllers won't be at a disadvantage, even though it's not that big of a disadvantage if you're used to using a controller.

 

[JunK]

i see PC support going extremely down hill if this happens. its already heading into the gutter, now we will soon see xbox games not being created/ported to PC format since you can just play xbox on the PC...so its forcing you to do these extra features etc whatever they will have.

i see this being a dark era for PC gaming

 

[Sexy Beast]

It makes sense. Microsoft has been promising to get back to PC gaming. It only makes sense to combine their console game department and PC game department together. Though paying a fee to play online is a tricky sell for PC gamers and one that might not pay off.

 

[Boo-Yeah!!]

If true that spells the end for the xbox....

 

[Mike?]

I highly doubt PC gaming will take a hit from this. If anything at all, it will make it easier for PC gamers to pirate Xbox games.

 

[InkSix]

I'm having trouble thinking of something on the Xbox I care to play.

 

[cirE]

I think you somewhat answered your own question. They'll probably make you buy the expensive adapter to connect (kinect ) the controller to the computer.

You don't need an adapter to use an Xbox 360 controller for your PC. It's just a plug & play since the Xbox 360 controller is a USB connector. So once you plug in your controller into the PC, the PC will automatically recognize it.

 

[Liliana]

Hmmm playing Halo Reach with a mouse & keyboard might actually be fun. I don't think they should alienate the pc players though...maybe make a M/KB controller for the xbox so the players with controllers won't be at a disadvantage, even though it's not that big of a disadvantage if you're used to using a controller.

Nope, it's still a big disadvantage. Microsoft did some tests with PC and 360 users playing FPS games together, to test the viability of a single Live service (probably directly related to this feature). PC gamers performed much better than the console gamers, meaning that playing competitive games fairly with PCs and 360s cannot happen.
It would help somewhat if the PC users were able to play with console gamers if they had a controller plugged in. But making console users play with a mouse and keyboard isn't exactly the best idea. They generally find it to be even worse than their controller.

Anyway, the only thing I'm worried about with this is that the developers of console games just won't even bother to add any additional stuff for PC anymore, like key customization, or text chat, or mod support, or any additional optimization. So unless Windows 8 is handling those things, this could possibly be bad. Otherwise, this sounds awesome because it means that no game will be an Xbox 360 exclusive.

And paying for online. What's up with that? Unless I can use my existing Xbox Live account, which I probably will be able to. Either way, they're probably going to find that forcing PC gamers to pay for their online gaming will not work out. As in, hardly anyone will pay for online and then Microsoft will either ignore it, make the service free(lolno), or be evil and pull the feature out altogether with the next version of Windows.

If true that spells the end for the xbox....

Also nope. Console users often like their console's simplicity. And their TV. And their controller(although this pretty much guarantees controller support for all these games). And, occasionally, have the incorrect idea that computers cost so much because they don't quite understand how to upgrade, and think that viruses are a very serious and hard to prevent problem.

[Edit]
I also realized that this could mean the end of PC porting and developing games for PC altogether (for non-PC dedicated developers or games). This is very bad. Steam might finally meet its match, in an unexpected competitor.
Also, how are they going to get the mouse and keyboard to work naturally with games that use the completely different format of camera control that is the right stick?

 

[general_crash]

Nope, it's still a big disadvantage. Microsoft did some tests with PC and 360 users playing FPS games together, to test the viability of a single Live service (probably directly related to this feature). PC gamers performed much better than the console gamers, meaning that playing competitive games fairly with PCs and 360s cannot happen.
It would help somewhat if the PC users were able to play with console gamers if they had a controller plugged in. But making console users play with a mouse and keyboard isn't exactly the best idea. They generally find it to be even worse than their controller.

Anyway, the only thing I'm worried about with this is that the developers of console games just won't even bother to add any additional stuff for PC anymore, like key customization, or text chat, or mod support, or any additional optimization. So unless Windows 8 is handling those things, this could possibly be bad. Otherwise, this sounds awesome because it means that no game will be an Xbox 360 exclusive.

And paying for online. What's up with that? Unless I can use my existing Xbox Live account, which I probably will be able to. Either way, they're probably going to find that forcing PC gamers to pay for their online gaming will not work out. As in, hardly anyone will pay for online and then Microsoft will either ignore it, make the service free(lolno), or be evil and pull the feature out altogether with the next version of Windows.



Also nope. Console users often like their console's simplicity. And their TV. And their controller(although this pretty much guarantees controller support for all these games). And, occasionally, have the incorrect idea that computers cost so much because they don't quite understand how to upgrade, and think that viruses are a very serious and hard to prevent problem.

[Edit]
I also realized that this could mean the end of PC porting and developing games for PC altogether (for non-PC dedicated developers or games). This is very bad. Steam might finally meet its match, in an unexpected competitor.
Also, how are they going to get the mouse and keyboard to work naturally with games that use the completely different format of camera control that is the right stick?

you sir have posted an arguement that cannot be matched. for this i salute you.

 

[AnotherAsian]

I like this idea as long they wont make us pay to play online

 

[Go team seaslug!]

This is interesting. I don't think you can argue that it is the end of the world for anything.

I think this is an attempt from Microsoft to gain some longevity with their console. Presumably there is another X-Box in the works, meaning that the 360 will be rendered obsolete. I suspect that the new version will be unable to port back previous generation's games (as Sony did with the PS3, the issue being that the console cost too much to make with both PS2 and PS3 capabilities), meaning Microsoft needed another way to gain longevity. This appears to be a pretty elegant solution, allowing everyone to play the previous gen games, but probably not allowing the next generation.

 

[Naku_vamp]

This is interesting. I don't think you can argue that it is the end of the world for anything.

I think this is an attempt from Microsoft to gain some longevity with their console. Presumably there is another X-Box in the works, meaning that the 360 will be rendered obsolete. I suspect that the new version will be unable to port back previous generation's games (as Sony did with the PS3, the issue being that the console cost too much to make with both PS2 and PS3 capabilities), meaning Microsoft needed another way to gain longevity. This appears to be a pretty elegant solution, allowing everyone to play the previous gen games, but probably not allowing the next generation.

i think he has a point he said it only supports xbox360, they are planning on making a new console and since windows 7 is fairly new windows 8 will be a litte while off as will the new xbox, But yeah xbox live is already on pc and many xbox exclusives are already on windows (its technically exclusive because both are Microsoft products aka mac pc's cannot play, really its no diffrent than apple haveing apps exclusive to apples ipods that share ipad apps)