Windows 8 PC Gaming Conspiracy Corner

DISCLAIMER:
Ok. This post is just for the fun of discussion, and I realize there is no good basis for the following. Consider this an entertaining hypothetical rather than a suggestion of what is likely to be true.

WINDOWS 8: many of you probably know of this somewhat ambitious idea that is the vision for the future of Microsoft in this changing technological climate. Windows 8 is an attempt for windows to convert the juggernaught of support they have ammased with their windows product into a more adaptable product capable of leaping into today's fastest moving market place. Mobile devices. Therefore, they are attempting to release one basic product capable of being adapted to fill all windows roles, rather than having fragmented products which lack the advantages of the other (nice UI vs product support, etc). This means the windows 8 NT kernal will be on PCs, tablets, smart phones, etc. But why stop there? If they want to integrate everything, are there not advantages to having ALL microsoft based products running Windows 8 or a form of it? Enter xbox. We already see that the updated 360 dashboard is unquestionably based on the new Metro interface which microsoft is moving their products toward. There have also been leaks in which it appears the xbox 720(?) will be Windows 8 based as well and feature either a x86 or ARM processor. This lead some to say that the idea is for developers to write a single program that will work on PCs, tablets, phones, and possibly even xbox? Imagine truly having this level of integration. Playing angry birds on your xbox and pc, having THE microsoft word on a tablet, One day playing crysis on your phone? All of these are interesting to consider, but are either (a) not THAT usesful or (b) years away. However, as I thought of possibilities, a wild theory occured to me:

If you have both a gaming pc AND and xbox running Windows 8, might this not be an attempt for microsoft to Merge to large markets!? Developers create games, and you buy the game. And for the first time ever, you can play the same game competitively through your pc or casually on console (cloud based?). One purchase, two ways to experience it. So now if you are a PC gamer with a large library of games, wheras before you may have been hesitant to see any advantage to buying a console and re-buying games, now you already have the games (one game with low/console, medium, high, ultra presets?). So perhaps now you would consider a console for it's advantages on those couch kind of days. Whether this strategy would actually work I don't know. But it may make interesting discussion. As a final thought for this conspiracy theory: Xbox 720 HAS to be backwards compatible right? Well... If PC and xbox are now both Windows based, would there be any reason NOT to be able to play xbox 360 games on your Windows 8 pc as well. Whether microsoft allows this to be done as a feature, or whether there is software to obtain and download that would allow it. If it's a feature; perhaps you pop in a 360 disc to your pc, install it to the innevitable microsoft game center (like steam...), download a PC patch/update to unlock the other settings of medium, high, ultra and begin playing? If not, then it may not be quite as neat but perhaps we'd see GOOD third party Xbox 360 apps come along. If xbox+windows 8+software is designed to play them, shouldn't pcs+windows 8+app/software also play them very well?

What do you think? Would this be good or bad? Any thoughts?

 

Don't think that would happen. It would cut their profits in half as everyone would buy 1 copy.

They are streamlining because instead of having 15 different dev teams and support for each independent OS, you cut it in half thus more production power for 1 product.
They are trying the Apple model (in the next 5 years IOS will be the main operating system for all their devices). I personally think Win8 on the desktop will fail, many people will not like Metro (I am one of them), and just stick with W7.

In theory your idea is a good one, but at a profit point of view, just bad.

Wouldn't you rather people buy 2 copies of your software rather then 1??

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

 

It would be great to play Xbox 360 games on your PC. It's not likely any time soon. It would require emulation, modern PCs simply aren't prepared for it. We have a REALLY hard time emulating the ps2/gamecube/wii.

The NextBox doesn't HAVE to be backwards compatible, but it will be a shame if it's not. If it uses an Arm or x86 processor, it won't be backwards compatible (or it will need to have at least some xbox 360 hardware - namely the processor - to assist in partial emulation)

Writing a single program and having it work on many platforms is a great idea, and it already largely exists. The Unreal Dev Kit, Unity, and other development environments allow many platforms as targets. Unity target platforms are Win/Mac/Linux/Flash/360/PS3/Wii/iPhone/iPad/Chrome/Android and a few others. Unreal Dev Kit is similar - Win/Mac/PS3/360/Flash/Wii U/iOS/Android. These are available to indie developers. Larger developers sometimes use these engines as well. Even if they don't - they can still

Valve also pioneered the idea of cross platform licenses with consoles. If you buy recent Valve games on the PS3, you also have access to them on the PC. They also enabled cross-platform play between the PS3 and PC. These features doesn't work with M$FT's console (they won't allow it). It's possible that M$FT will try similar strategies with their next console, but people largely expected them to try this with their previous console to no avail.

As far as all of Apple's devices running iOS in 5 years, I doubt it. iOS in it's current form is basically OS X with a custom UI, with all of the irrelevant desktop functionality stripped out, and a few mobile specific APIs added, locked down with an Apple package manager system for software.

So what are you really saying when you make a statement like "all of Apple's products are going to run iOS in 5 years". Do you mean the name will change to iOS? Do you mean that desktop functionality is going to be removed (compilers, file access, non-Apple-managed software). If you think the latter is going to happen, then who is going to develop software for iOS?

 

I don't like win 8, it is not really a desktop OS but a tablet one.
I am staying with win 7.

Microsoft call me when you get your *censored* together with win 9.

 

Does anyone think that software could be used to allow a Windows 8 computer to natively run Nextbox games? I understand hardware would make this impossible for xbox 360 and emulation is not a possibility yet. However, If Nextbox has a x86 processor, shouldn't users be able to 'make' a 720 game play on their pc somehow? Or not...? Do you think Microsoft would be totally against this idea altogher. As i mentioned, wouldn't this make xbox more appealing thus boosting their sales/market share?

 

If Microsoft set it up specifically for that purpose, it could be possible. However, it seems unlikely that any consoles are going to use an x86 processor. They are, quite simply, too expensive.

 

Lmao that troll face always gets to me. It should be pretty clear that Metro 8 will be crap. It's a tablet OS that doesn't belong on non-touch devices. I will try it once there's a good hack that gives the Win7 desktop.

 

Working on Booting Windows 8 from a flash drive right now... No way I'm jumping on board without using it. IDC if it's only $15 for me if it renders my pc crap then no way. For anyone who wants to try out the gr8 experiment, here is a way to use a USB flash drive to do so. I considered dual booting, but some have experienced problems with booting Windows 7 afterwards. So if you have a 32GB (or 16GB even) Flash Drive and a few hours to waste (well my internet is REALLY slow) then you can try 8 out.

How to Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a USB Flash Drive - LogicLounge

 

where is Windows 2000?

 

I'd be using Windows 8 now but it just went "LOL" when I tried to get my drivers working for Enduro, so until switchable graphics works on Windows 8 I'm sticking with 7.

 

Haha very funny picture I must say. Although it was before my day, It seems the general consensus from those I know is that '95 was a big improvement over ME, but I wouldn't know from experience. Microsoft is taking a pretty big risk here. We'll see how it turns out, fingers crossed.

 

2000 wasn't really geared towards the average consumer.

 

Pretty much all I have to say:
(Based on my ownership of an Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7.5, Windows 7 Laptop, and usage of Windows Vista on a Laptop, Windows XP on a desktop, Windows 98 on a desktop, and testing out on a seperate parition all three of Windows 8 Developer Preview, Consumer Preview, and recently the Release Preview)


Windows 8 has some great features added to the Aero UI (or Desktop UI). All of which I'd love to see in Windows 7 if possible through a Service Pack or something. The Metro UI is very sleek and simple looking. However, on a large resolution device it is just too much wasted space. The Windows Live account integration, saving settings over the cloud, and better email/socail networking/messaging integration even brought to a laptop or desktop is great. But, the Metro UI and Start Screen as well as charms on the right side of the screen are optimized only for touch and are quite annoying with mouse and keyboard input. So much so, that even at the loss of the new features for the Desktop UI, I do not want Windows 8 for the Metro UI. On top of that, some features only work in the Metro UI. For example, I was on the Desktop and recieved a facebook message from a friend. A Metro styled notification popped up on the bottom right so I clicked it and it took me to the messaging app. Which unfortunately takes up the whole screen and in Metro there is no side by side sort of multitasking, just apps open in the background. This is annoying due to wasted space and convienence. It is easier for me to have facebook open in a website side by side instead.

Now, Xbox is better integrated. By just signing in with my Windows Live account, I have my Xbox account synced which is great. Just like how it works on my phone. But, for the previews at least, it was mostly useless.

In the end, I really enjoy the Metro UI. It is slick on my Windows Phone, it works nicely and quite well in the Xbox 360 dashboard with a controller. But it is not quick or slick to use on a non-touch input device such as the common laptop. In my case, I'll have a gaming laptop to replace my current one soon so I may install Windows 8 Release Preview on it once I do just to perpetually try out. Who knows.

A note on backwards compatability. I do not ever see Xbox games playable on PC and PC games playable on Xbox. It is the market seperation that also drives how the sales work and it is too segregated of communities to just integrate. It would be nice for combined accounts to allow a voucher to purchase a different system version for cheaper. Most likely, the NeXtbox will use Hardware Emulation for backwards compatability. Losing Xbox 360 backwards compatability would be a huge sales mistake. And Software Emulation is a pain to deal with because each game has to be specially modified with an update to work which leaves some games being left out. According to a leaked multipage document plan for the NeXtbox, which is still unconfirmed whether it is real or not, Microsoft will include a 3 Core 3.3GHz PowerPC cpu in the NeXtbox to allow backwards compatability. Thats is what the original PS3 models did with the Emotion Engine. It makes them more expensive but allowed fulled backwards PS2 compatability.

 

Oh thats a shema , I was just thinking of trying to install windows 8 on my laptpot. so what happenned when you tryed to isntall those drivers wrom the cd?? dind install or didn work properrly?? did you tryed those 9.0.0 7900 mod drivers to install over the ctosk ones on win 8?

 

Dual boot... You can always just change the graphics manually. Can't you also "launch with graphics processor" to select which one you want?