Rumor: Windows 8 to Play Xbox 360 Games

It is possible that gamers will be able to play Xbox 360 games on their PC with the release of the Windows 8 OS.

[Seijoru]

If this is true than there is absolutely no point in buying an xbox. In fact, the only reasons left are for gears and forza.

[tehpees3]

I could finally play DoA 4 if this were true

[captain-obvious]

dont think its true
BUT

if MS rolled out a new console before windows 8 is out
could happen

but other than that no

if it does happen then it would be great

[smoothdude]

Maybe not in the sense of sticking your Xbox game in your PC, however, they might create a PC version of some of their more popular franchises like Halo.

I would love you see this happen. :)

[somerandomdude]

This article is vague, Does anyone have a better source maybe with some quotes so I know its for real?

[Menech]

Ermmm any idea the kind of hardware your going to need to emulate 360 games?

A 360 will be a far cheaper option to anyone with children or who doesn't own a gaming rig.

Not to mention by the time Windows 8 hits Microsofts next console will be out.

[Dark_king]

You wouldn't need to emulate the 360 it pretty much runs like a PC.

[Menech]

Dark_King you clearly know nothing about hardware if you think that's the case.

No modern day computers use anything like the IBM processors found inside the 360.

The general rule is you need 5x the power of a console to emulate it. PCSX2 and Dolphin are a fine example of this.

[slyrunner]

No dark_king is right, the PC to 360 to 30 to pc is easy as counting to 123, they used the exact same tools as well as instruction sets for the cpu. Coding for the pc is just like the 360's. So you are wrong sir, 360 and pc are almost like siblings , the PC is the older brother while the 360 is the youngest. Also, emulation is totally something different, emulation is harder because for one, the PS2 has a complete revamped instruction set than a average computer (the emotion engine) which has to be duplicated twice, which is why emulation depends on the CPU rather than the gpu.

[Dark_king]

You clearly know nothing about software.
or about the 360.Feel free to think what you want because it would take to long to explain why you wouldn't need to emulate the hardware to play the games that are basically built for PC.

[slyrunner]

and i prob know a hell much more than you since it would be more of a hardware issue than software. So explain your knowledge so i may back hand it and teach you something new.

[Dark_king]

@slyrunner you talking to me because I was replying to him.You pretty much said what I said,that 360 games are PC games.Besides if I need to learn about either hardware or software I would just ask my buddy.

[Menech]

@Slyrunner

If it was as easy as counting to "123" someone one would of done it by now as the emulating scene is massive.

Your talking shit now stop it.

[El_Colombiano]

PPC =/= x86

There. Solved.

[Dark_king]

well its not as easy as he makes it seem you do need to write code to optimism the games for different hardware.However were talking about MS here they are sort of good with programming.

[Theonetheonly]

i have about 100X the processing power of the ps2 and the games are still shoddy. support by the engineers of the hardware could make this very plausible.

I cannot play any xbox game on emulation given the software has not been created and perfected. however i can emulate the wii at 1920x1200 >60fps when framelimiting is off , w 16x aniso and 4x aa

i think it can be done on less. :)

especially if microsoft give their emulator very low level access to the hardware perhaps direct access just above the hardware abstraction layer.

[HenryFord]

Well…this one is easy: Seeing that the PS2 is actually working on a modified version of the MIPS-technology, it is “hard” to emulate the hardware (reasons you easily can find by yourself), you need a lot of horsepower to emulate this efficient on the x86(-64)-platform.

Talking about the XBox? Well that is a PowerPC-architecture which is designed for consoles, but it runs on nearly identical code as the x86-platform. You wouldn’t even need to emulate it…

Why it can’t be done by free programmers today? Because they have to reverse engineer everything and have to use different codes then MS does. That is really hard to accomplish without getting your ass sued off this planet. MS however has direct access to the platform-code and could easily port it.

[SkullBlade169]

Those who say it would be simple to emulate a 360 on the PC are just being silly.

Yes, the 360 is source compatible with the PC. That does not mean that the games will be able to run without emulation on a PC. It simply means that code can be compiled on either a 360 or PC with very little (or no) modification.

Since compiled code is stored as machine code, and machine code for different platforms is very different, you WOULD need an emulator on the PC to run these games. Unless of course this "Xbox 360 game compatibility" feature re-compiles the 360 game code to run on a PC, which I doubt, since I don't think MS would like their source code being transmitted between users' computers.

[HenryFord]

Nope, wrong again... with the platform-code at hand, MS could build another binary from the game and run it... of course this would take a little bit (it would be "recompiling", although technically it is more like deassemble > convert > assemble and compiling isn't needed any more, since you already have the machine-code at hand), but after a initial waiting period, Windows could be able to launch the binary nativly. I am not saying that this will happen, but this is technically possible.

[Oner]

What if MS does something like a dual boot option? Where you don't use Windows to run the game at all? Would/Could that help at all?

[iagainsti120]

you wont need very much it is easy to emulate PPC on x86 since there ar not very many instruction sets you have to deal with (like in x86 you have MMX, SSE, SSE2 etc.) these guys already have OSX running through emulation on x86 http://pearpc.sourceforge.n... remember x86 does not always = windows. If you have an AMD x3 cpu < you should be able to run 360 PPC code fine (with emulation) Intel cpu's will need quad or better. And since Xenon only runs 1 thread per core at a time this is even easier. All Microsoft has to do is write a VM to get the code running and get all the graphics commands running properly which wont be a problem at all since its is all Direct x

[xtremexx]

why are you guys talking about emulating it? would you need to emulate it? or could they just simply port the game for pc without the whole ordeal of emulation. Also im sure it would be easy if the mind at microsoft tried

[somerandomdude]

Can xbox 360 games run on a PC. I'm not sure who is right about this argument, but I'm guessing a lot of you don't know what you are talking about.

I am sure that if this rumor is true (360 games on PC) than the emulation is easy on a pc otherwise why would MS even bother. So the real question is whether this rumor is true or not?

[Tachyon_Nova]

then not than

[soljah]

i've always said xbox 360= pc in a box.

[ChronoJoe]

It'd be cool but as you say, this is true. There would be little point for many, many consumers.

Also there wouldn't be much control, on PC. Microsoft don't have control of the platform so hackers would figure out a way to boot 360 ISOs fast and conveniently.

Online play would need to be either segregated, or not available. If half of Halos players started being able to use KB/M, then that's the community dead in an instant.

Any way you look at it, this would kill their consoles sales figures.

[L6RD7BLU3]

most of the 360 (3rd party) games are already for windows, well I guess so I see no point to this.

[kneon]

Perhaps the rumor is a little off and it's the Xbox.next games that will work on Windows 8.

This is something I've been saying for a while. The next Xbox could be a PC. You could buy the branded Xbox as you always have, which would be a micro PC in a living room friendly case, or you could buy an "Xbox certified" PC with windows 8.

It would drastically cut the hardware R&D costs for Microsoft, eliminate the porting costs for devs and result in a more reliable Xbox.

[Pandamobile]

Well, that'd be cool, but it would completely cripple Microsoft's Xbox division.

[fluffydelusions]

Not if a new Xbox comes out. PC could play 360 but not 720 games.

[Brash_Attack]

It could be a great way to get last minute revenue off of the 360 before it's predecessor is released.

[Pandamobile]

True

[Dark_king]

If it allowed it would take 10 minutes to have it running pirated digital copies.Just not gonna happen to much money would be lost by MS.

[SilentNegotiator]

"If it allowed it would take 10 minutes to have it running pirated digital copies.Just not gonna happen to much money would be lost by MS"

Thus why the comment that you're RESPONDING TO is saying that it would play old 360 games and not games for whatever new system that they launch.

They wouldn't really be TRYING to sell the old titles, they would just be using it as extra incentive/a gimmick.

[llMurcielagoll]

I was thinking the same thing plbelanger. I think if that really happened it will be my chance to play gears 2 and 3 since I do not own an xbox 360

[BattleAxe]

Its a smart way for MS to get back into PC gaming in a big way. I'm just not sure when I'll actually switch over to Windows 8. Seems like only yesterday that Windows 7 came out.

[CrimsonEngage]

I'm not paying $100 for Windows 8 when Windows 7 is good enough.

[slyrunner]

Thats silly, people said the same with Xp when they moved to 7. why Stay further away with advances that can make your average task easier, especially if your a gamer.

[Shackdaddy836]

Personally, I will wait till at least Windows 9. I hate buying many versions of things when the one I have is just fine. It's one reason why I have a year old cell phone...

[CrimsonEngage]

Windows 7 hasn't even been out for 3 years. (released in Oct 9th 2009)
I just recently upgraded from XP. Because at the time XP was doing it's job. I plan on using 7 for many more years. I'm not the type of person to drop money on a new iPad every year just because the iPad 23 has one new feature the last version didn't.

[pr0digyZA]

Rather wait till the version after that, unless windows 8 has some huge advancements that justify the price.

[narked]

it may be good enough yes, but you never know what features might warrant a purchase of windows 8.

if they have gamer centric features which are guaranteed to improve pc gaming, say a new api, then it would be well worth buying the new windows

[aGameDeveloper]

I'm not paying $100 for Windows 8 when Window 3.1 is good enough.

[mightylucky]

This wont happen :P

[bodybombs]

why wont it. if it comes out when the new xbox does they could have bc integration in the new xbox as well as cross plat for windows 8, either way microsoft wins as they wont have to spend as much money on overhead for manufacturing costs and they can still sell games as well as making people want to purchase the new windows.

seems like a good idea to me

[pr0digyZA]

I don't know if it won't but it sounds like a good idea. If I got the new xbox and it couldn't play 360 games then i would love that it would give me the options to. By that time those games might be cheap and I could pick up more than I usually do. I already have 4 consoles in my house plus a couple gaming PCs, this would allow me to not clutter up the place as new consoles release. You must also remember that windows 8 would be more expensive than the 360 at that time, as I am sure there will be a price drop.They won't be cutting off that section of the market as it is still cheaper and therefor more apealling to the masses, this just gives choice to the consumer.

I would love it if it happened.

[RockmanII7]

I could see this happening because by the time Windows 8 comes out the next Xbox should be close to release.

[earbus]

Good idea should do it .

[OC_MurphysLaw]

It's an interesting thought/concept. I think the only way this makes any sense if MS makes a bold move and makes Xbox a software gaming platform instead of releasing a new box. They allow xbox live like steam to run on any computer with Windows 8, but then they run into the issue of paid service vs free.... Then again if they open xbox live up to a Onlive type system and have it compatible with existing 360's. Stream games or download them... it just might work.

[dragunrising]

Bubble up. Great speculation. With the release of Portal 2 on PS3 with Steam code included, what you detailed wouldn't be unprecedented. It would actually be a huge incentive to buy games on Xbox 720- therefore not eating into the Xbox business model. The value of being able to play your game on console OR PC is a pretty cool idea. I hope dedicated consoles stick around, however its only a matter of time before an OnLive/digital solution dominates the industry. If Xbox became a software program, it would be "future proof" in the sense that friends lists, achievements, downloaded content, etc would be tied to an account and not hardware. Guess we'll have to wait and find out.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Then why do you need an Xbox?

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

You're right, but you would still need Windows.

[cmoyano]

what? windows 8 is scheduled to hit holiday 2012...not that far away...as the article says, it would expand current gen life a lil longer till next gen comes...this isnt happening and if it does, steam better be worried cause with it they can take the gaming market...

[spicelicka]

Makes no sense but only on one condition will I allow this, if the 360 shares it's games with the PC then all the PC games should be playable on the 360.

[caboose32]

I lol'd out loud.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Great, cross game chat on two platforms. Others still playing catch up in that area. Windows gaming and 360 gaming together = unstoppable. MS getting into PC gaming? Oh wait, they been there for the past 30 years.

[subtenko]

Yea but I like what Sony is doing better with PS3 and Steam. PS3 owners can play with windows AND Mac owners. THAT, is what I call an alliance in gamers! That was just awesome for them to do. Almost put a tear in my eye when I first heard the announcement

[MasterCornholio]

Exactly and i wouldn't be surprised if more games follow suit. Imagine the PS3 with steamworks built into the OS. It would be much better than anything else on the market. Only Sony with their open network can make it happen. Because we all know that Valve wants to do it. SO its up to Sony in the end.

[DigitalRaptor]

MS's part in PC gaming has only been good or half-hearted especially as of late.

But oh my gosh.. this changes everything!!! :O

I mean why would I need a PS3, when I can play 360 games on my PC?

... OH WAIT!

[subtenko]

whats the point in even having an xbox360 when M$ does all this crap? You would play game on PC for free instead of paying for something that should be free. Theres only but so many exclusives on the xbox360 anyway, why doesnt M$ pump out more exclusives for the xbox360? :/

[YodaCracker]

Because it's outselling its two competitors without any. Did you see Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo's Q1 2011 financial reports? Worldwide, the 360 sold 2.7 million, the PS3 sold 2.1 million, and the Wii sold 1.4 million.

[subtenko]

Thats not a point...

Your saying the point in buying a kinect is because you say its outselling its competitors? Wow, with that logic if dog crap was selling more than the xbox360, then everyone should buy that instead of a gaming console.. Either your a biased fanboy or you care ALOT about money and have stock in M$

Kinect can try to outsell what ever it wants but if its got no game and doesnt even cater to the hardcore gamer, then me and millions or gamers arent up for the kinect.

At this rate Im interested in playing virtualboy than kinect, at least it has more games.

M$ needs to step it up!

[HuGi]

Yoy say the only reason for Xbox is Forza and Gears but the only reason i see for Ps3 is Uncharted.

So not that far away... im cool with this, by that time Xbox 3 will be out already.

[MasterCornholio]

Strange i thought the PS3 had way more games than just Uncharted 3.

I guess Little Big Planet 2, Infamous 2, Resistance 3, The Last Journey, The Last Guardian, Ratchet and Clank All 4 One, Twisted Metal, Killzone 3 are not exclusive PS3 titles. Thanks for stating that i am pretty sure all of N4G was misinformed until you stated the truth.

Also you know that the 360 has a lot more exclusives right? You just didnt list them because they are Kinect titles. But they still are exclusive 360 games.

[palaeomerus]

This rumor is total bullshit.

[hassi94]

I don't believe it unless a new console is scheduled to release before Windows 8 so then it is just playing games of an old console. But I don't believe that will happen, so I don't think Windows 8 will play Xbox 360 games.

Imagine, microsoft would get so little money. Gamers are more likely to pirate windows 8 then sell their xboxes and so play their xbox games on PC with microsoft getting nothing but the commission from the software sales.

[LNDCalling]

Wouldn't supprise me, always imagined that MS were trying to converge Console Gamers and PC, and 360 is so close as to be a simple low spec gaming only PC :/

If they can get Console Gamers on to PC then its all good for them and shareholders as it will mean additional sales of Windows and thats where the money is. Its why MS havent bothered with 1st party studios...

[ATiElite]

When consoles games are made they are made on PC's that are running the same software as the console so basically emulation except these "Game Making" PC's are NOT running a commercial OS like Windows 7 or OSX!

They are powerful PC's (high end Gaming PC) running the Emulation software and game engine along with SDK and whatever else the Dev needs to create and debug! This software is tightly secured cause if it got out it is some how labeled/tagged and Sony/Microsoft would know exactly what Dev team it came from and sue them.

Now 360 games on Windows 8 would be M$ integrating such code into the OS and making the transition very easy to just download a 360 game or install one from a disc. The 360 architecture is the same as a PC and thus a very smart move by M$ to make cash on Software Licensing (which is what they are the best at) while not loosing any money on Hardware because most people have PC's anyway besides Windows 7 and it's Windows Experience Index has already been sending M$ so much data about how many PC's are capable of running 360 games. So this was already in the works.

Now as far as any other console emulation many will disagree but high end gaming PC's can already Emulate the PS3. You do not need 2x or 5x the processing power but only the same power with slight over head if the SOFTWARE is written correctly. PS3 Emulation is not possible right now because a PC would have to run an OS plus Emulation software thus slowing it down.....but with the advancement of EFI..Extensive Firmware Interface your PC parts are able to be coded for without an OS running thus freeing up resources.

Basically turn your PC on and go to an EFI Bios and select Emulation Software to boot-up instead of an Operating system to run PS3 games. Only problem is getting the same Emulation Software that the Devs have unless some genius out there can make one.

[Psychotica]

If true it makes me wonder why they didn't do this with the original Xbox for the current PC OS's.

[sickpup]

If the writer of this article knew anything he would know it has to do with the way the DVD's are written and how the drives read the disc that does not allow the games to work on a normal PC. With the multitude of DVD drives out there for the PC is highly unlikely people will get a firmware update which can read an Xbox games.

[cdland]

Oh the days of booting up your computer from a floppy disk... wow. Ya I don't see the point of accessing your hardware with 2 operating systems, boot from a disk or a special drive.

And the IBM processors use to be in the MAC,G4 powermac I think. Ya so 3 IBM power shit things against a HT 6 core, or what ever AMD has their 6 core doing. And there can me multiple GPU's too... wow that should beat the shit out of the 720... lol. You have to buy a new consold, can't just upgrade pieces... Wow that sounds like a proprietary system, oh ya just like a MAC. I like my PC, it can do alot for ya... Have fun... :-)

[Vip3r]

Why bother? Most PC games are 360 ports these days anyway.

[broomhead123]

never going to happen.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

This probably isn't true, unless MS is making a new xbox by the time Windows 8 is out.

[Pizza]

It does not make sense, some PC gamers will pirate the game and play on PC.

[Mutley416]

that would be sweet...i would buy windows 8

[tiphanycufflink]

It seems like you guys haven't played a game with GFWL. *puke*

[Rikan]

Its hard to see the point. HOWEVER:

If MS did this, it would mean Xbox exclusives (There are not many) would be playable on a Windows 8 OS based Pc, rendering them no longer exclusive.

So, a PC gamer like me who only bought an Xbox for it's exclusives like Halo (Take so long to get to PC, they are practically an Xbox exclusive), Gears of War (ditto), Alan Wake etc, would no longer have the need to get a console. This would mean this move would really hurt the MS Xbox division.

This move would be pointless unless it Xbox Exclusives were playable on PC as well.
Just based on the points I mentioned above, I doubt there is any real weight to this rumor....

[Dogswithguns]

Will not happen..

[fullmetal297]

This is gonna fall so hard. I though Microsoft learned their lesson when they tried charging a subscription for Games for Windows and now they are trying to do it again. *SMH* Getting my popcorn to watch the fireworks.

[gcolley]

not cool