Phil Spencer has announced the upcoming Xbox App for Windows 10 at today’s reveal. It looks to be your Xbox activity feed on your Windows device.
Here’s the live stream:
Screenshots and live blog here, starting at 10:11:
http://live.theverge.com/microsoft-windows-10-event-live-blog/
List of features:
http://news.xbox.com/2015/01/xbox-one-phil-spencer-unveils-new-experiences-for-xbox-one-and-windows-10-gamers
“With Windows 10 we will enable streaming of Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC or tablet in your home later this year.”
Feels backwards, somewhat.
Great, I can stream upscaled games to my PC…
Would have made much more sense if they are eventually transition to a streaming service to reverse it. Have the xbox as the client and use a PC to stream to the box/tablets/shield.
EDIT: longer reasoning -
No more hardware transitions, stream from cloud (once the internet catches up globally) or a PC to which you could just upgrade a few years later to get another performance boost.
Remove the hardware side from the platform holders. Become a software service provider, which they are already heading towards with the leverage of “windows as a service”.
Sell the software as a service as a sub which is platform independant.
Profit???
There used to be a great theory regarding consoles - the parts, specs, drivers are known to the devs so they should be able to program a solid game rather than have to worry about different video cards, cpus etc
Recent performance by the game develoment industry, for the One at least, has been woeful.
What is your view regarding the so called benefits of console gaming versus the so called complexity of multiple hardware combinaations in the PC world?
Dust tends to talk over my head often with his SMKKLVAA’s and BGPTU47F’s and whatever else that looks like a broken up DLC code on the console. He still does it to me though I know some of the stuff. To simplify his wall of text above…
The theory was only that, a theory. They had to make games for different systems running different specs (still do that), drivers, etc. If everything was universal it would be easier but XBOX, Playstation, PC, and Nintendo all had differences and different hardware to boot. It is supposedly harder to code for the XB1 than the PS4 now, the reverse was the case last gen. We also used to have games that had to work on release, there was no patching. I believe the patching has become a crutch for not only gaming but software in general.
On your second point regarding development for the One. Do we know it is development or is it the console itself. I can’t name a game that has came out in the past 14 months without issues, especially on the multiplayer front. Then you look and they have trouble on the PS4 as well. Maybe, and it’s a theory of my own, is that instead of graphically pushing every piece of hardware why not create a game that works first then polish it later instead of polishing something then making it work after your consumer has purchased it.
On your last point as a recent adopter of PC gaming with limited knowledge there is no complexity and it really isn’t overwhelming at all. Can you route a cable from your tv to your xbox? Then you can route a cable from your motherboard (a huge piece of plastic with plugs and circuits on it) to your other hardware. It’s pretty much plugging stuff in, installing it, then moving on. I have an Nvidia card in my PC, a new AAA game comes out and within 24 hours it is optimized with a prompted driver update from them. New game has a problem, it is generally fixed by the community of said game before the sun goes down. PC gaming is effortless, honestly I have 10 times as many problems and frustration trying to get into a game and talk to my friends on the Xbox ONE as I do on the computer I am typing on.
There is absolutely nothing to fear on it and it isn’t as expensive as people think. My initial investment was under 2 grand but my PC is ridiculous and there is nothing I can’t play on ultra settings and my hardware aside from my graphics card is nearing a year old. This thing wouldn’t need an update for many years. For the cost of a console you can get a PC that will throttle a current console. Oh, games are much, much cheaper. I like taking pictures of deals and sending them to Duekacer because I’m such a nice guy.
This is still true in the same sense. A fixed platform is certainly easier to target and optimize. Scalability doesnt matter in this equation.
Under powered, over promised.
To many technical limitations get imposed onto consoles (even SFF [small form factor] PC’s).
You only have a set thermal envelope and power draw to work with when dealing with any “power brick” device.
8GB VRAM is great framebuffer, doesnt change, nor help any power limitations within the chip itself.
I think incomplete SDK’s didnt help any situation either, nor a push for launch games, or just games in general.
The console benefits dont exist anymore.
The only real benefit of the console is everyone must play every multiplayer game on the same settings, and input device - this comes into competitive play on PC - the super competitive will use the lowest of the low graphics settings which not only removes most effects, increases enemy visibility and stupid FPS (200 - 300) While this isnt cheating in anyway, anyone could do it, it becomes much the “I want leaderboards for no assists users higher then assist users cause Im more hardcore I should be higher arguement”. (playing with maxed settings/effects/decreased visibility).
Mouse and Keyboard is 100% an advantage over gamepads in FPS’s. This is why you wont see PC crossplay with xbox in anything FPS. The mouse/kbd users will destroy you, every time.
While the cost of entry to PC is undoubtly higher, this is also coming down as we see OEM’s stepping into the living room space with really well priced and spec’d prebuilts in a SFF such as the Syber Vapor K bringing the price down and offering well, well above the console performance.
Scalability is the biggest thing with PC and the hardware combinations. If you engine can scale (graphic settings too!) well from low-end, to high-end then you are already onto a winner.
Certain engines have issues with certain hardware on both sides of the fence, whilst some have none. Drivers can certainly improve performance on all platforms so this a non-point really.
DX12 will bring a lower overhead on PC which will increase performance for lower end cpu based machines. The xbox will not see any major performance bump from DX12 as it already uses low level programming.
Probably more I didnt think of right now.
EDIT: just came across this, interesting read, especially considering who wrote it. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-kids-right-living-room-dead-rahul-sood
And as quickly as it came, it quickly fizzled back out
Xbox one game streaming targeting full 1080p 60fps
How many games run 1080p 60fps on the one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI4QVOaLCWk&feature=youtu.be
end of clip.
Streaming locked behind gold paywall…
Opinion: If you want pc users to pay for gold, put your games directly on PC and let us run them at resolutions and framerates our PC’s can deliver.
I agree 100% best idea I’ve heard
If I was given the option to buy a new version of windows that allowed xbox one games to be played on it or an XBOX ONE, I would have chosen the former. My pc is more powerful than the xbox one
Kinect replacement? http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/8949944/microsoft-reveals-iron-man-holographic-headset
Much more than a Kinect replacement. Gaming applications would be just a tiny slice of this tech’s potential in my opinion, but I’m still very curious about them.
Also, this Microsoft is 'really looking at' streaming from PC to Xbox One - Polygon
A response for Apple filing a patent on the same thing a couple weeks ago.
Nice find Furia. Confirms my thoughts of Xbox brand becoming software as a service.
“Windows 10 Xbox Gold program could happen, but online gaming would remain free”