Microsoft Closes Gap Between Windows 10 and Xbox One With "Crossplay" Plans 66
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.
Another Gap Filled. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Another Gap Filled. (Score:5, Funny)
We're running out of gaps.
Oh my god, soon we will have a gap gap.
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If it's Crossplay, then there is no gap.
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It's Gap Day on Slashdot:
http://science.slashdot.org/st... [slashdot.org]
Of course, sometimes putting something in a gap just creates two new gaps either side, leaving you +1 on gaps.
Gap gappity gap-gap-gap.
Eventually I'll Zeno gap that I can't cross (Score:2)
Of course, sometimes putting something in a gap just creates two new gaps either side, leaving you +1 on gaps.
True, trying to bridge gaps with an island will double the number of gaps, per Zeno's paradox [wikipedia.org]. But once the gaps have been made small enough that the average end user can cross a gap unaided, mission accomplished.
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Welcome to Jazzdot's gaps. It's the news you don't read that matter.
adapter? (Score:2)
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.
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Actually, IIRC the Xbox One controller uses WiFi direct, so it should be just a matter of connecting over wifi from the PC.
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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
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If it requires Windows 8.1, doesn't it mean the Xbox One controller is not compliant with the usual HID for gamepads/controllers?
On OS to rule us all? (Score:2)
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
Dolphin with HD textures (Score:2)
A game able to run on a mobile phone will look just GREAT on a PC
Sarcasm detected. But people play GameCube and Wii games on PCs using the Dolphin emulator, which performs upscaling by tricking games into rendering the scene to a larger output surface. Some games benefit from high-definition replacement textures [dolphin-emu.org] even if they don't add mesh detail. There's also an "HDNes" emulator that plays NES games with high-definition replacements for CHR ROM.
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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.
Xbox OS != Win2k (Score:2)
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])
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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.
This will come down to implementation... (Score:2)
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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)
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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.
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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)
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It never allowed us to play Xbox 360 games on the PC.
This seems to be different. Here's hoping...
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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]
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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.
Halo on PC! (Score:1)
horrible idea (Score:2)
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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.
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Some of us actually enjoy games that require a joystick.
Wasn't that DirectX or XNA? (Score:1)
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
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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.
to hook up wireless Xbox One controllers to PCs (Score:1)
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...
Not all games. (Score:2)