Windows 8 will allow for Xbox 360 games to be played on PC\'s
Monday July 11, 2011 | By:Ryan Burch | Entertainment - News
Microsoft has not made an official statement about the feature yet. From the two sources, the Xbox Live Dashboard or marketplace will be accessible through the PC. Users should be able to download and play any content from the Xbox Live marketplace as well as read game discs with their PC to play them.
The service will still cost a subscription fee. Whether existing Xbox Live members will need to pay extra to use the PC extension isn’t known. Technical details are very scarce at this time.
So, let’s speculate on what this move could mean for the next Xbox (Xbox 720 if you wish). My first suspicion is that backwards compatibility of 360 games in the next system may be a factor. Microsoft may be considering dropping backwards compatibility of Xbox 360 games in the new system for the sake of technological restructuring. Microsoft did start off the Xbox 360’s life with no backwards compatibility and no promise in the future. Fast forward and you see Microsoft not only allowed original Xbox discs to be played in the system, but started hosting the best of the library as downloadable titles.
Perhaps, the next Xbox will forego BC for the early time-frame, so Microsoft is covering its back through this PC initiative. Sony proved that you can even remove BC mid-way into your consoles life-span without killing your business. Microsoft may be ready to take a bigger risk this time because of the competition’s success.
Considering that Microsoft is primarily a PC oriented company, it would be no surprise if they are trying to merge their platform with their other PC products. I’ve said before that one of the big video game companies may design their next system more like a gaming PC, rather than a dedicated gaming machine. Microsoft is clearly trying to make Xbox an entertainment platform for music, movies, television, and gaming.
Building Xbox game playing into their new OS (which is meant to be used on PC, tablet, and mobile) may be Microsoft’s way of getting around their lack of portable gaming presence. Instead of participating in the handheld war between Nintendo DS and Sony PSP (3DS and soon-to-be Vita), Microsoft will target devices people already own. I’ve also stated before how LAN play is extremely desirable to Xbox fans, and PC fans are no different. Now, you don’t need an Xbox Laptop, you just need Windows 8 on your current laptop; a much better option to the all consumers and Microsoft.
What purpose will the next Xbox serve then? It will play the games that most devices can’t play yet. It will be the box under your TV. The average consumer doesn’t upgrade their PC parts too often and the next Xbox is sure to have specs matching, if not exceeding high-end PCs of today (and I’m talking like today-today, not 3-months-from-now-today). Most people don’t even know they can hook their PC up to a standard HDTV. Surely, we’ll see Xbox 720 games become playable on PC someday, but not until those specs are standard. Then again, your next PC could be the next Xbox.
Teknylate.com: Play Xbox360 games on PC - Windows 8 Insideris.com: More Xbox 360 Games on Windows 8 details
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ADD A COMMENTWarning: extract() [function.extract]: First argument should be an array in /home/metrowny/public_html/code/get_comments.php on line 22
2011-07-11 | 13:14:07
False.
I'll call bullshit on this one immediately. While Windows 8 could support Xbox 360 game disc recognition, the hardware won't be able to run the games. The immense power required to emulate an Xbox 360 game on a PC won't be here for a long time. Just one look at emulation of hardware of the previous generation, it is mostly subpar to say the least. And that's including the fact that the original Xbox is mosty stock PC hardware.
Hardware requirements aside, there is also the issue of having piracy, which, this would in no doubt increase the ease in which it is done.
2011-07-11 | 14:12:29
Can be true...
If you think about it.. Let´s just say microsoft knows the source code and other stuff and can change it to run on other hardware. As it just have to run separete from windows maybe?
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2011-07-11 | 16:16:16
Couldn't be true...
Not only would they have to do this on a game by game basis and configure every game to run on the literally endless hardware combinations possible, they'd have to get all of the various developers to agree to this.
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2011-07-11 | 16:16:18
Couldn't be true...
Not only would they have to do this on a game by game basis and configure every game to run on the literally endless hardware combinations possible, they'd have to get all of the various developers to agree to this.
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2011-07-11 | 16:16:40
Couldn't be true...
Not only would they have to do this on a game by game basis and configure every game to run on the literally endless hardware combinations possible, they'd have to get all of the various developers to agree to this.
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2011-07-11 | 17:30:25
Xbox 360 is a triple-core PowerPC using DirectX, which is not very difficult for a modern PC to emulate. Although unlikely, it's not at all impossible.
2011-07-11 | 19:57:55
It doesn't take much for a PC to emulate a 360 already. My guess MS is bypassing all the emulation bullshit and will allow '360' games to run in a virtual 360 machine, if it meets the bare minimum requirements. And no different hardware configs will not impede it. A 360 has 3 IBM PowerPC 5 type cores. Which are a far amount slower than traditional x86 PC cores. When apple switched from PPC to X86 there was a huge(upwards of 40%) performance increase. The GPU of the 360 is a cut down X1900XT. Graphics of that level are pretty much standard on all PC's(about HD6450). The only difference is that Xbox devs have learned to fully exploit the 360's hardware. Whilst on the PC, with the Hardware Abstraction Layers and OS Level permissions to deal with, PC games are marginally slower despite having better hardware.
Trust me I used to be a 360 dev. I hoped that one day MS would do the same for PC as it with the 360 and allow a 'Dedicated Video Game Mode' meaning; allowing the software to bypass all layers and directly interface with the hardware.
2011-07-11 | 20:01:37
Also before I forget.
Developing for the 360 is much easier than the PS3. Because of all the scheduling and partitioning BS you have to put up with, with the 'cell' cpu.
I'd be more impressed if someone created a PS3 emulator on the PC to be honest.
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2011-07-11 | 23:26:07
It will never happen...
Despite all of the good possible reasons, it there is no way this could happen. The hardware configurations of the PC are far too diverse to work and a Virtual Machine wouldn't without a huge paradigm shift! Have you ever tried to run a feature game in a VM? I've been recently trying to run some older games using that require a win95VM, And ones that require a WinXPVM. They don't really work with exceptions of the Win95 games as they dont' require much power at all. Trying to run the original Unreal on a WinXP VM was like trying to run through a frozen pool of molasses. Hell, every game I tried to run worked like shit. Except those really old games with minimal requirements. Hell, even photoshop 7 barely worked. I highly tuned that XPVM too.
As for emulating all of the Xbox hardware(that's what would be required), it'd be awefully difficult to get a decent amount of emulation running. Unless Microsoft found some sort of secret recipe, remember, X86 Intel isn't exactly the most compatible with PowerPC cores. There is a hole lot of emulation that would need to be done. The GPU, CPU, Memory. The entire behavior of the 360 and all of it's quirks would need to be spot on.
And again, there is the piracy issue. Any form of DRM they put on this would be rendered obsolete and reverse engineered in no time. If it did work, there would be 360 emulators and roms popping up all over the place.
This "rumor" is just reeking of bull.
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2011-07-12 | 21:30:41
False.
To the guy in the first comment that called "bullshit", are you for real? The immense power required, seriously? PCs have the capability to be extremely more powerful than a console. The Xbox 360 has a 3 core CPU clocked at 3.2GHz, Intel's i7 chips are 4 cores with HyperThreading (gives physical cores a virtual core and appears as 8 cores to OS), and the GPU is 2005 technology, computers today can run upwards of 4 GPUs in one machine. I will give you the fact that not every person has a PC built like that, but don't say it's not possible when PC hardware makes console hardware look silly and when the maker of Windows 8 is also the maker of the Xbox 360. If this is something they're thinking about, it's brilliant and will give them even more of a dominant force in the computer operating system division.
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2011-08-04 | 13:18:04
It could play xbox 360 games without too much difficulty, since it wouldn't have to "emulate" anything...they could just as easily put the kernel for the 360 as a module inside the OS so it can do it easily given the capability that mid to high end desktops will have in the next year or two. The only games it will be able to play, however, would be downloaded via xbox live onto the system, since the format of the disc is NOT readable by a standard optical drive due to the firmware only allowing it to read the normal standard formats. You can't read a disc in a current PC unless you have hacked firmware on a spare xbox 360 drive in vendor mode hooked to your pc. But so many games are downloadable now with no need for a disc, so those would easily be playable, especially if you're running an i7 or high end AMD cpu with a higher end radeon card, as that's basically the gpu for the 360 so little conversion would need to be done to run the game in some sort of xbox 360 mode of the OS. To those that say it can't be done due to emulation requirements, consider the CPU and GPU specs of the 360 and how they're virtually identical to current CPUs and GPUs, AND the fact that emulation is usually cobbled together from hacked code and immense power is only needed to compensate for the code conversion. If no code conversion is necessary since it's built into the OS by the people that did the original coding, then it'll work fine. Well, as fine as anything can work when it's made by Microsoft anyway. Which isn't saying much.
2011-12-15 | 09:26:43
CAN BE TRUE!!!
For all those who did'nt know, Xbox stands for DirectXbox, it should do bloody well PC, check the XBox 360 Specs and compare it to a laptop,you will see the difference.
2012-02-29 | 12:59:38
No
NO and NO
you can ONLY connect a xbox to pc,but you CAN NOT PLAY XBOX 360 games on pc :)
2012-03-30 | 06:39:06
True
I got win 8 (dunno what kinda version , beta maybe) and xbox games works.
2012-04-25 | 21:17:41
true
puta kmu !
2012-05-01 | 12:26:46
Retards
Are you guys retarded? Any 10 year old PC can run ANY PS3 or XBOX games. Do you actually believe that their inferior outdated hardware can come anywhere near a PC's hardware? LOL Either you guys are real trolls, or ignorant console fanboys.
2012-05-26 | 18:25:16
@ false
Xbox uses a x86 processor, therefore emulation will be much easier then normally shown in the past with other devices.
2012-06-11 | 18:35:15
yeah might
could be because the operating system only takes up a small amount of processing power. Espiacially if windows goes on a sort of temporary hibernate and then loads the game this could definitely possible. Depends on todays hardware. (AKA i series processors and nvidia gtxs would run flawlessly. pentium 4s, not so much)
2012-06-11 | 18:35:20
yeah might
could be because the operating system only takes up a small amount of processing power. Espiacially if windows goes on a sort of temporary hibernate and then loads the game this could definitely possible. Depends on todays hardware. (AKA i series processors and nvidia gtxs would run flawlessly. pentium 4s, not so much)
2012-06-11 | 18:35:20
yeah might
could be because the operating system only takes up a small amount of processing power. Espiacially if windows goes on a sort of temporary hibernate and then loads the game this could definitely possible. Depends on todays hardware. (AKA i series processors and nvidia gtxs would run flawlessly. pentium 4s, not so much)
2012-06-11 | 18:35:20
yeah might
could be because the operating system only takes up a small amount of processing power. Espiacially if windows goes on a sort of temporary hibernate and then loads the game this could definitely possible. Depends on todays hardware. (AKA i series processors and nvidia gtxs would run flawlessly. pentium 4s, not so much)
2012-06-11 | 18:35:20
yeah might
could be because the operating system only takes up a small amount of processing power. Espiacially if windows goes on a sort of temporary hibernate and then loads the game this could definitely possible. Depends on todays hardware. (AKA i series processors and nvidia gtxs would run flawlessly. pentium 4s, not so much)
2012-06-28 | 08:58:38
Possible
I Guess It Could Be Possible, I Mean Like Every Video Game Console Has Already Been Emulated On A PC, At Good Speeds.
2012-07-06 | 17:51:43
KIND OF RIGHT
MS plans to integrate The X-Box 360, PC, Tables and Phone with "Smooth Glass". This app will also be cross platform so you can use it on OSX and Android devices. - To Comment #1 - Do you just make shit up?
2012-08-25 | 11:38:20
Potentially TRUE
A console (in this case Xbox), was made back in 2005...no other parts of it was replaced (or upgraded in the past 7 years). Wherein PCs today upgrades almost once every three months. Hardware caught up (if not overtaken) the Xbox's hardware. So pretty sure that this can be done.
2012-08-27 | 18:31:02
better than an emulator
Rebo has a working virtual machine of the 360. As you know, the xbox is basically a modded PC. The VHD is available on deep net sites. Won't be able to hotlink anything, but go ahead and check it out yourself ;)
2012-11-24 | 15:44:05
Past Emulation
If you look back, you see that the Xbox cant even be emulated. Maybe 2-4 games are supported on an emulator. Just because the hardware is old doesnt mean anything. If you look at current emulators, you mostly see n64 and ps1 emulators. If the original Xbox isnt emulated well yet, dont expect the 360 to be emulated well untill its considered a retro console
2012-11-30 | 08:49:03
Same game both for PC and XBOX
I am really impressed by seeing the trailer of HALLO 4 a sci-fi game meant for XBOX.I was lacking the differences between the XBOX and common PC.I 've went all over the market place in area to this game but unfortunately this was only meant for XBOX only so I was disappointed and I thought that I might not be the only person...if this were released both for PC and XBOX much income come to the creater.May be one day I also have this XBOX I cannot sure in very near future and when I have this XBOX another version of this may likely to release...so it will be too late....it may company policy but I think income surely comme both side of the users if both versions were released...for now this game is only mmeant for XBOX guys...who may be more or less than PC users...worldwide...thank you!!!.
2013-01-21 | 11:05:10
windows8 playing xbox
does this actually work or not.
straight answer please people!!
