An interesting Xbox One proposition...
You know, there was a surprising fact that occurred to me.
With all of this talk about SteamOS and Steam Boxes taking down the PS4 and Xbox One, there is one incredibly relevant "possibility" overlooked; Xbox One could play PC games if Microsoft really wanted or needed it too.
I know this sounds bananas. But the hurdle historically was that consoles ran completely custom OS's and on completely different architectures from Windows based PC's.
However, neither applies here. The Xbox One uses an x86 architecture and supposedly runs on the same kernel as Windows 8. So, in theory, if you had terminal access on an Xbox One, the necessary Windows 8 libraries and a standard PC game on the drive you could run it from your Xbox One today un-modified.
This is, quite obviously, a very dumbed down view of things which ignores facts which I don't have. I don't know if there are differences in the HAL or driver layers between the two which might add additional pieces that would need to change to make this a reality. But, it definitely seems like such a change is well within Microsoft's capabilities. And logically, if their goal is to merge as many of their OS codebases as possible to improve development efficiency and supportability, then the OS is likely not far off of what it would need to do so. And that is among the reasons given for merging all of their OS's to the same Kernel.
I'm not predicting that they will do this. In fact, if I had to make a prediction I would wager that they absolutely won't. Or at least not any time in the near future. There aren't even rumours of this.
But, when you break it down, it isn't actually a terrible move. The platform and kernel support an awesome array of PC games. Adding this capability would immediately put its content library indefinitely ahead of PS4, even with Gaikai. Most existing computer games would actually run decently well on Xbox One hardware, even at max settings. And it trumps Steam Boxes in that content isn't streamed from a PC, the console is the PC. Zero added input lag.
If games were repackaged by manufacturers and distributed either via the Xbox Store or new game discs, this could even be accomplished while leaving the current Xbox One user interface more or less intact. And, it would also theoretically open up more price points for game buyers if last gen PC titles were delivered this way.
It would also makes games development more ideal for development studios. You wouldn't necessarily need an Xbox One port and a PC port to target both systems. You could opt to just do the PC code and deliver it in both formats. There would undoubtedly be performance impact of such a choice, but having that option available should draw more titles to the platform regardless.
Crazy thought... based in nothing. But cool to think on.
With all of this talk about SteamOS and Steam Boxes taking down the PS4 and Xbox One, there is one incredibly relevant "possibility" overlooked; Xbox One could play PC games if Microsoft really wanted or needed it too.
I know this sounds bananas. But the hurdle historically was that consoles ran completely custom OS's and on completely different architectures from Windows based PC's.
However, neither applies here. The Xbox One uses an x86 architecture and supposedly runs on the same kernel as Windows 8. So, in theory, if you had terminal access on an Xbox One, the necessary Windows 8 libraries and a standard PC game on the drive you could run it from your Xbox One today un-modified.
This is, quite obviously, a very dumbed down view of things which ignores facts which I don't have. I don't know if there are differences in the HAL or driver layers between the two which might add additional pieces that would need to change to make this a reality. But, it definitely seems like such a change is well within Microsoft's capabilities. And logically, if their goal is to merge as many of their OS codebases as possible to improve development efficiency and supportability, then the OS is likely not far off of what it would need to do so. And that is among the reasons given for merging all of their OS's to the same Kernel.
I'm not predicting that they will do this. In fact, if I had to make a prediction I would wager that they absolutely won't. Or at least not any time in the near future. There aren't even rumours of this.
But, when you break it down, it isn't actually a terrible move. The platform and kernel support an awesome array of PC games. Adding this capability would immediately put its content library indefinitely ahead of PS4, even with Gaikai. Most existing computer games would actually run decently well on Xbox One hardware, even at max settings. And it trumps Steam Boxes in that content isn't streamed from a PC, the console is the PC. Zero added input lag.
If games were repackaged by manufacturers and distributed either via the Xbox Store or new game discs, this could even be accomplished while leaving the current Xbox One user interface more or less intact. And, it would also theoretically open up more price points for game buyers if last gen PC titles were delivered this way.
It would also makes games development more ideal for development studios. You wouldn't necessarily need an Xbox One port and a PC port to target both systems. You could opt to just do the PC code and deliver it in both formats. There would undoubtedly be performance impact of such a choice, but having that option available should draw more titles to the platform regardless.
Crazy thought... based in nothing. But cool to think on.
Comments
Post a Comment