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XBox (Games) Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Closes Gap Between Windows 10 and Xbox One With "Crossplay" Plans 66

Posted by samzenpus from the all-in-one dept.
An anonymous reader writes In its attempt to make console gaming more accessible, Microsoft has announced that it will be developing universal apps which can run across Xbox One and Windows 10, as well as smartphones and other mobile devices using the upcoming OS. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's video games branch, said that the end-goal was to allow people to play games wherever they are over whichever platform they wish to use. Microsoft also announced that an adapter was currently being developed to hook up wireless Xbox One controllers to PCs. This latest move from the tech giant shows its push to grapple back its position in the mobile computing revolution, as the booming smartphone and tablet market shadows its longstanding desktop and laptop business.
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Microsoft Closes Gap Between Windows 10 and Xbox One With "Crossplay" Plans More

Microsoft Closes Gap Between Windows 10 and Xbox One With "Crossplay" Plans

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  • Another Gap Filled. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @08:09AM (#49195607)
    We're running out of gaps.

  • Why can't they just go full Bluetooth like Wii/PS3/PS4 controllers? It's pretty annoying to have to get a special dongle on a long wire to use an Xbox360 controller on my laptop that already has built-in Bluetooth.

    • Actually, IIRC the Xbox One controller uses WiFi direct, so it should be just a matter of connecting over wifi from the PC.

      • I have no idea what the adapter does, but you have always been able to connect a wireless xb1 controller to a Windows PC. (The first time, you have to connect it via USB so it will install the driver, but it works wirelessly after that.)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I have to agree. You can easily connect a Wii controller, or a PS3/4 controller to a bluetooth PC, Phone or tablet. (I like to emulate Nintendo games on my tablet and use the Wii controller).

      They also want to make console gaming more accessible??? Seriously???

      Consoles used to be: put in cartridge -> turn on -> play.
      Now you have to basically do a system update with every new major game that takes a while, install DLC, and have online connectivity for games.

      If anything, they need to start removing re

  • Ya, MS, you do that. You aim for the "One OS to rule us all" and end up with a crappy OS that works on no platform.

    I guess the new management is the same as the old management, just doesn't throw chairs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not sure what you're talking about here. The under-the-hood part of Windows has been massively improving as of late. I run android, next to a similarly powered Windows tablet, and Windows feels leaps and bounds more responsive and can do more than the android tablet. This is the same OS I run on a monster workstation, but running on a tablet. The only thing they lag behind in is UX design and app ecosystem. Fixing the UX should be achievable, the app ecosystem however puts them at a large disadvantage.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bazorg ( 911295 )

        The UX design "Modern" gets a lot of stick but is well aligned with everything that is widely accepted in present day applications. Just look at the Skype and eBay apps on W8 as good examples of what people can do if they leave "advanced settings" to be done on the website rather than on the standard UI. The Office ribbon was a change that also got a lot of criticism from old time users, but in actual fact works much better than having ALL UI elements on the screen with some grayed out.

        As for the App ecosy

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Nope, M$ marketing scam. You have to pay a licence fee to M$ for that xbox licence. So to the game publisher but you want to sell you game on xbox and on windows, that means just like xbox you should pay a licence fee on windows, it's only fair right, don't pay for both and you wont get either.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • If i were a shareholder id be very alarmed at Microsofts decision to hobble an already proven revenue stream with an on-again off-again business machine OS.

      If you were a shareholder, and did your homework, you would know that the Xbox already runs Windows. The original Xbox OS was derived from Windows 2000, the Xbox 360 OS was derived from the original Xbox OS, and the Xbox 180 OS was derived from the Xbox 360 OS.

      • The original Xbox OS was derived from Windows 2000

        Contrary to popular belief, Windows XB wasn't a fork of NT 5 any more than CE or NT was a fork of Windows 9x. (Source: Xbox Engineering [msdn.com])

        • Contrary to popular belief, Windows XB wasn't a fork of NT 5 any more than CE or NT was a fork of Windows 9x. (Source: Xbox Engineering)

          Before people inside Microsoft said that, other people inside Microsoft said the opposite. But good luck finding that reference now, because of all the people crowing triumphantly about the particular reference that you cited.

  • I'll be interested to see how this works out for them: Architecturally, MS is reasonably well placed to pull it off(to the degree that it is possible, no common language runtime is going to make a 40GB XBone game run on a low end Lumia phone); they can presumably produce whatever set of software services and shims a PC of sufficient power needs to run an Xbox game, given that this generation's xbox is mostly a PC and MS wrote the software on it; and their CLR is available across x86 and ARM, for programs th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sosume ( 680416 )

      They will just stream the game from xbox to other devices. You will need to use your xbox controller as well to play the game. There are no interface issues.

  • They pretty much tried this already (Score:3)

    by Higaran ( 835598 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @08:54AM (#49195825)
    So they are trying to say we can play the next Halo or Assassins creed game on the xbox, then jump to pc or phone. Realistically that's never going to happen, what will happen is you can take the companion app that alot of games have now, and write that to every platform, so you can run them anywhere. Games that a great on one platform NEVER translate well to a different one, a game that is great on your 5 in phone, will suck ass while playing it on the xbox, and vise versa.

    • So they are trying to say we can play the next Halo or Assassins creed game on the xbox, then jump to pc or phone. Realistically that's never going to happen,

      It will, kind of, with streaming. The apps which are too big to run on your phone can be streamed.

    • Many games will fit within the specs of all devices. Same goes for most applications. There are exceptions such as heavy CAD software and FPS. There's also the matter of inputs. You won't be playing LoL on a mobile device but you could play it on an Xbox.

  • Xbox One games on PC (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rodrigoandrade ( 713371 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @09:10AM (#49195935)
    Unless this means I'll be able to play Xbox One games on PC (he did say "whichever platform"), I'm not interested.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Murrdox ( 601048 )
      They tried this already with Games for Windows Live. It failed miserably and had all sorts of issues. First of all, console players were never able to successfully play will with PC players. Secondly, sign-in problems on the PC caused problems, both on the PC and on the console. Being logged into Steam while you play a game isn't that big a deal. Having to then sign into Games for Windows when you launched a game was just dumb. I remember back in the days of Bioshock, which had Games for Windows Live,
      • GFWL was a marketing gimmick to boost the PC gaming market. It sucked beyond suck, and I usually bought GFWL games then downloaded the pirate version SPECIFICALLY to avoid dealing with the GFWL garbage.

        It never allowed us to play Xbox 360 games on the PC.

        This seems to be different. Here's hoping...

    • They've already said they were going to do that

      http://thefusejoplin.com/2015/02/xbox-app-windows-10-stream-xbox-games-pcs/ [thefusejoplin.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        But you can't stick an xbox game in your PC and play it, you have to use a PC and an Xbox with the PC being little more than a TV that's in another room, you might as well just grab the xbox and move it.

        If you could play your xbox games from a friends house on their PC, that would be interesting, of course it'll never happen because it'd allow home-brew game rentals.

  • finally! ha.
  • Another horrible idea that nobody wants, just like touchscreens. Do MS employees even use computers in their daily life? There isn't a game on my entire computer that I want to control with a joystick or touchscreen. How am I supposed to play Fallout 3 on a surface?

    • How am I supposed to play Fallout 3 on a surface?

      Presumably, you'll either use a gamepad or you'll connect a keyboard and mouse, like you can with Surface or Android or perhaps iOS for all I know, although I'd guess not and I'm too lazy to look it up.

    • At least it's not as bad as I feared from the title. When I hear "crossplay", I think of Sailor Bubba. [knowyourmeme.com]

    • Some of us actually enjoy games that require a joystick.

  • While MS has always had XBox separate from Windows OS - haven't they always had a toolkit/library/framework strategy that promised an almost-write-once game experience across platofrms? And it was weak?

    I've heard interviews with developers who used XNA to built mobile games that also run on XBox - with a few, uh, gaps - or caveats.

    What is missing is that single game store. A few years ago MS promised this flying game that looked amazing (Simulator replacement?). I signed up for the beta but wasn't acce

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dstyle5 ( 702493 )
      Personally I'd like to buy a game via my PC or mobile device and have it delivered to my XBox. Kind of like the method for buying music.

      This functionality has been implemented for a while now with Xbox One if you have the Power Mode set to instant on. I've purchased games or selected demos via web browser on my PC or Smartglass on my phone and the games were downloaded automatically.

  • Why don't xboxes allow hooking up USB mice and keyboards, microsoft makes both of these and USB support seems ubiquitous, i would play/buy xbox games (read FPS) if they offered this... i can't use a controller because one of my thumbs doesn't bend at the knuckle so the dual analog controls are painful to use...

  • As a PC-only gamer, I cannot wait for the influx of console-only FPS players.

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