Microsoft Plans To Make Windows 10, Xbox One Game "Crossbuys" A Habit (pcworld.com)

Gamers who preorder Remedy's upcoming Xbox One game, Quantum Break, will receive a free digital copy for Windows 10 PCs -- a "crossbuy" strategy that Microsoft's Xbox chief plans to make a "platform feature" of the gaming console.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft has worked to tie its Windows 10 and Xbox One operating systems closer together, sharing features and data. The Xbox One includes versions of Skype and Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft has said that universal apps written for Windows 10 can theoretically run on the Xbox One, as well as Windows 10 PCs and Windows 10 Mobile phones. Eventually, Microsoft envisions a world where PC and Xbox One gamers will drift between platforms, and where gamers on each platform will be able to compete with one another.

Comments

In related news: Steam

[blind biker]

I bet the news will motivate Steam to port even more games to Linux. And who knows, we might see some Linux-only blockbuster exclusives soon.

Re:In related news: Steam

[Anonymous Coward]

A game can't be a blockbuster and Linux exclusive. The simple fact of tiny marketshare ensures this is simply not a possibility at the moment and the only way a company would do this is if Steam gave them massive funding (10's of millions) which I doubt is on the cards given how poorly steamboxes have done.

Re:In related news: Steam

[Dutch Gun]

You know, even as a Windows user, I'm happy Linux is getting more games, but let's please not kid ourselves. A Linux-only blockbuster exclusive is right up there with "year of the desktop" wishful thinking. Windows still has 95% of the desktop market, or something thereabouts. Its only real competition is other platforms which are eating up previously desktop-exclusive functions. The closest we'll get to a Linux-exclusive AAA game in the near future is if it's released exclusively on Android.

Anyhow, the notion of different platforms competing against each other ignores a pretty obvious issue that gamers and most game designers have known forever. It's not a technical limitation that restricts PC games and console gamers from playing together. It's a difference in control hardware, which ends up making console and PC games very different games with respect to control schemes, and thus game design. For instance, pit a PC FPS player against a console player, and everyone knows who's going to generally have a huge advantage. Same thing with a RTS. It's not a knock against consoles - it's just a reality that a mouse and keyboard is a far more precise and flexible input device, so has a massive advantage in most cross-platform play that's geared to those devices.

And as far as making cross-platform games... again, the biggest hurdle is not really technical, assuming you're working with a decently designed game engine. It's one of adapting the game design to different form factors and control schemes. My game engine is written in *very* portable C++, with just a very thin layer for OS-specific stuff. It's actually pretty straightforward to port it to new platforms, so long as they have comparable APIs for rendering video and audio, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of cross-buying games across platforms. Many Steam games already do this, so I'm glad they're joining the party.

Re:In other words

[im_thatoneguy]

Xbox and PS4 are both x86 PCs. If anything every console game is just a specific quality setting that's been well polished. This notion of controls being crappy is ludicrous--it's been 10 years since console controls have seen any major change for first person shooters. It's been 30 years since there's been a major change from WASD and Mouse+Keyboard. It's not like developers have to spent a ton of time refining controls these days. Some games play better or worse with a control pad. I enjoy Rocket League with a control pad and I play Fallout 4 with a control pad... and I just use an XBox One controller on the PC for both. Steam works great with a control pad. I play Battlefield 4 and TF2 with a mouse and keyboard.

Porting for Windows 10 takes nearly no work. You're developing either a DirectX12 game for Windows or you're developing a DirectX12 game for Windows. Create your art assets at multiple detail levels. Polish your shaders to run at levels that run smoothly on the XBox One. Then for the PC give people the option of cranking the settings and resolution to the Max.

I don't like to buy Xbox One games anymore because I want to also be able to play them on my laptop with a controller plugged in when I'm on a plane or in a hotel while traveling. I like to be able to play games on my PC at work during lunch. But I also would love to be able to play my same games on my Xbox at home which until recently had a better video card and cpu.

The Xbox One is just becoming one of many reference PCs like the Surface Pro line. The Xbox One Controller is now available for PC and Xbox One. The Oculus Rift is shipping with an XBox One controller. I can't see how you can defend lock-in with consoles. Why wouldn't you want to play your PC games on your XBox? Why wouldn't you want to play your Xbox games on the PC?

Re:In other words

[im_thatoneguy]

Why would a PC game that happens to be running on a console run badly on a PC? I've got breaking news for you: PC games also manage to run on lower spec crummy desktops. The Minimum System Requirements are usually a few generations *older* than the latest consoles. So if you're going to make a cross-release game you just make the PC version and then hardcode the resolution to "1920x1080" and the quality settings to "Textures: Good, Models: Better, Shaders:Best,Lighting: Good." And hit ship.

Also, this might surprise you but every PC Game you probably play today will work great with an Xbox One controller. Just plug it in and you're good to go. The controls don't suck.

Re: Too much gathering and sharing "data"

[Dutch Gun]

You know, every time I try to seriously use Linux, I end up hitting a brick wall of some sort. A few years ago, it was a driver issue that accelerated my laptop's pointer to about 10x faster than I could control, and this was on the lowest setting. Could never figure it out after half a day's research and tinkering, and that was enough for me. Off it went.

My latest attempt was with Linux Mint (which I really like, btw) in a VM. The most up-to-date version w/ Cinnamon crashes immediately on startup, so I have to use an older version (not a confidence-inspiring start). Initially, my machine connected to my NAS share fine using Samba. Unfortunately, Mercurial can't actually seem to lock files (Windows and Mac have no issues), so I can't push patches to the NAS shared repository, which I use to sync my development machines. Setting up an actual web-based repository - the recommended approach - doesn't look trivial for a Linux noob. Then, my network connection to my NAS disappeared (maybe after an update? not sure), and it won't come back for anything. It's just gone, and a few hours of research and tinkering hasn't brought it back. I looked at trying an alternative protocol (NFS), but had no luck figuring out how to get that to work either. Very frustrating.

This is how my experience with Linux goes. Every few years I get a hankering to try it, get beaten back by glitches, and think "ok, maybe I'll try again in a few years."

Re: Too much gathering and sharing "data"

[Billly Gates]

You know, every time I try to seriously use Linux, I end up hitting a brick wall of some sort. A few years ago, it was a driver issue that accelerated my laptop's pointer to about 10x faster than I could control, and this was on the lowest setting. Could never figure it out after half a day's research and tinkering, and that was enough for me. Off it went.

My latest attempt was with Linux Mint (which I really like, btw) in a VM. The most up-to-date version w/ Cinnamon crashes immediately on startup, so I have to use an older version (not a confidence-inspiring start). Initially, my machine connected to my NAS share fine using Samba. Unfortunately, Mercurial can't actually seem to lock files (Windows and Mac have no issues), so I can't push patches to the NAS shared repository, which I use to sync my development machines. Setting up an actual web-based repository - the recommended approach - doesn't look trivial for a Linux noob. Then, my network connection to my NAS disappeared (maybe after an update? not sure), and it won't come back for anything. It's just gone, and a few hours of research and tinkering hasn't brought it back. I looked at trying an alternative protocol (NFS), but had no luck figuring out how to get that to work either. Very frustrating.

This is how my experience with Linux goes. Every few years I get a hankering to try it, get beaten back by glitches, and think "ok, maybe I'll try again in a few years."

Here here.

The rapid anti Windows 10/8 on slashdot has many users screaming the world is coming to an end and I am switching to LINUX!

In reality I experienced the opposite by 2011 and gave up. Back then Windows 7 was amazing and aero was everything I wished gnome 2 would turn into when gnome3 came out :-( At the time I never had the wildest claim that MS would ever release a bad GUI so Windows fanboy I became after years and years of anti MS hatred.

What the changed me was my exwife. She said get this garbage off your system and go get a better job. I said excuse me?? She said her Vista works just fine but funny how I can't ever get Linux to just work. I went on saying WINDOWS SUX LINUX RUX etc etc. She claimed well how is it that you re-install that OS each time an update comes and xorg breaks? How about that time you tried to get ngnix working and forget how to fix it? Sigh

She was right. I was a freebsd fan at 1st and felt Linux to be more grown than designed and after 10 years gave up on Linux.

Folks I know this is a pro Linux website and I am serious not a troll as I read my posts from 2002 threatening to leave IT forever if Windows Server takes :-) ... but, let's face it. Why do people need to be liberated? Windows most of the time is reliable and works thanks to NT/XP replacing 98. The 1990s are long long over and MS is not based on DOS anymore people! If you haven't ran Windows in 15 years this maybe surprising but for gamers like my exwife she wants ventrillo and World of warcraft to always work and not have an update break something or use a hack in WINE.

The only arguments I hear is spyware (but you all run smart TV's and use Android phones and Chrome) , reliability (Windows is more reliable on the desktop for about 10 years now), GUI (Windows 10 is fine and it is fear of change and familiarity). It is the same start menu but the icons now are more animated. OMG END OF THE WORLD. So take the tiles off and bam you got XP style start menu again.

I love FreeBSD and yes Linux. No really it has it's use as VM for development work and for certain servers. But I hate it on the desktop. I prefer Windows or MacOSX for the desktop and Unix for the Vm's. Let's face it who the hell wants to replace Excel, Witchers 3, and Photoshop for OpenOffice, TuxRacer, and the Gimp or kIllustrator? You love screwdrivers and that is fine. But hammers are needed too