Advice Request Windows 8 will allow users to play Xbox 360 games on their PC’s

[Jack]

Insideris.com dug some more information regarding the upcoming Windows 8 feature which will allow users to play Xbox 360 games on their PC’s.

According to our sources, Xbox 360 on PC will have a subscription fee (just like Xbox Live). However, when it comes to online gaming, it will use Windows Live Marketplace and as a result, PC owners will not be able to compete against console owners (at least in initial stage), due to plausible frustrations (mouse vs. controller).

Why would Microsoft do that?

Since software giant plans to launch Xbox 720 (not the real name) in few years, Xbox 360 game sales on PC will not only give company additional revenue but will also extend current generation hardware lifespan.

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Microsoft’s vice president of global marketing, Mike Delman has now confirmed that Xbox Live will be built in into Windows 8, as he said the following:
'Live has been successful on the Windows Phone. Live will be built into the PC. It will be the service where you get your entertainment. We were talking about it — you will not just see consoles and handhelds at this show next year, this show’s going to morph into other devices.'

 

[Dejan]

Sounds good actually, I always wanted to play 360 games on my PC. Although, by the time a 720 is released, 360 games will be outdated.

 

[Ink]

I heard that you would have to pay extra -on top of the current Xbox Live subscription- for 360 games on Windows PC.

I haven't got a source for what I have said though.

 

[HeffeD]

I heard that you would have to pay extra -on top of the current Xbox Live subscription- for 360 games on Windows PC.

That sounds a bit odd, unless they are talking about downloading games.

In other words, one of the reason that Xbox games run so well on the Xbox is because they are optimized for a specific set of hardware. They may not run as well (or at all) on a different hardware loadout. It doesn't seem far-fetched to me that in order to run an Xbox game on Windows, the game code would have to be a bit more generalized to account for a wider array of hardware. Basically a slightly different game than the Xbox version.

So it may be that Windows users will actually need to buy a game they wish to play on XBL from the marketplace. (Future Xbox games may have reduced performance because developers I'm sure will start writing more generalized code to save time later...)

They'll also have to have stronger checks in place to ensure that Windows users aren't running modded games.

 

[Valentin N]

not bad feature for gamers