RIP Nvidia - PC Gaming ?

[LoadsaMoney]

The latest builds of Windows insider indicate that Microsoft is working to unify the infrastructure of Windows 10 and the Xbox OS. This makes it possible to play Xbox console games on PCs with Windows 10, which has already been demonstrated with the survival action game State of Decay.

This is not a good development for PC Gaming as they could become console standardization running on the PC. By making this 'port' compatibility, basically, Microsoft seems to indicate that it would like to release console games on the PC.

Microsoft has not announced these changes just however in Windows 10 Preview Build 18334 the company implements a free version of State of Decay to download to report issues. When downloading this (trial) version, the game is no longer sourced from the Microsoft Store servers, but rather from the Xbox Live servers, which typically ship only pure Xbox titles.

The installation file obtained through this server uses the .xvc file format developed for the Xbox One but plays the normal game through PowerShell. The conclusion is obvious: The Xbox version of the Survival game is playing, not the PC version. Ergo, the games are emulated.

So in the future, chances are that if you purchase a PC Game in the Windows Store, you might end up with an emulated XBox One version.

https://www.guru3d.com/news_story/m...to_run_xbox_one_games_on_your_windows_pc.html

Better get buying those AMD cards lads and lasses

 

[JediFragger]

Good, nv need a kick up the arse to say the least.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

Good, nv need a kick up the arse to say the least.

AMD GPU division much more so

 

[Poneros]

Microsoft's gaming division - lol

I have no faith in them being able to tie their own shoe laces let alone in them delivering these sort of platform shifts.

What I read from this is simply that there's one more reason amongst the thousands of why MS Store & therefore their exclusive titles are a hard AVOID!

 

[Randomface74]

Let me know when they remaster Freelancer.

 

[opethdisciple]

Hang on. The article makes this out to be not good news.

But does that mean the PC will be able to play console exclusive games? (Xbox one at least)

If true this is epic news!

 

[Gregster]

Emulation generally requires some grunt and knowing how lazy M$ is, I can see people with UW screens having nice big black edges. I will hold off on judgement though til I try for myself.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Emulation generally requires some grunt and knowing how lazy M$ is, I can see people with UW screens having nice big black edges. I will hold off on judgement though til I try for myself.

We'll just have to use our tellys

 

[Maldoror]

This seems like potentially good news for gamers and fantastic news for Nvidia.

Right now the Xbox games are split between two tiers: Xbox and 'Play Anywhere' (which means Windows 10/Xbox). There's no reason to suppose games like Forza won't continue to push the envelope on graphics and with each recent PC release of Play Anywhere games we've seen an ever greater wealth of graphical options and fidelity catered for PC.

What this announcement means would be that the other tier of Xbox development will also be playable on PC, albeit via emulation of XBox hardware. There's no reason to assume Play Anywhere games will sudden stop having PC features - if that was the case they could just have emulated those titles in the first place.

All the Play Anywhere games thus far (e.g. the new Gears of War or Forza Horizon 4) are dominated by Nvidia hardware. Sure, the arrival of an emulated second tier should suit AMD just fine but none of it changes the fact that the news further cements the PC as the central gaming platform and Nvidia presently dominate the market for that platform.

Of course, whether any of it really matter if Windows Store doesn't get its act together... (and no sign of that yet).

 

[willhub]

So what is the performance of the emulated state of decay vs Windows native?

 

[Zefan]

It won't be emulation, current consoles are x86 so it should be extremely simple to bring Xbox One exclusives to PC with no performance difference.

 

[Simon Belmont]

Microsoft's gaming division - lol

I have no faith in them being able to tie their own shoe laces let alone in them delivering these sort of platform shifts.

While I see your point, this will be just the beginning. Others will start using this as well. This is not good news for any gpu maker.

Nvidia you're screwed

 

[willhub]

Why is Nvidia screwed? Don't Xbox one games require GPU acceleration?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

As the Xbox ones got AMD inside, just like the PS, Nvidia, are only in the Nintendo Switch.

 

[Panos]

Why is Nvidia screwed? Don't Xbox one games require GPU acceleration?

Given that are written for AMD GPUs they might perform worse on Nvidia, regardless the GPU. Let alone RayTracing & DLSS which is not used on XboneX

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Yup, we won't get an Xbox version, a Playstation version, or a PC version now, we'll just get an Xbox version, and a Playstation version, as the Xbox version, will also be runnable on the PC now too, via the emulator.

 

[Panos]

https://www.guru3d.com/news_story/m...to_run_xbox_one_games_on_your_windows_pc.html

Better get buying those AMD cards lads and lasses

Tbh that's something MS & AMD are working with since forever. We saw at CES how close both worked to port 360 games in the One platform and the reaction of the MS Director. Next natural step is that. Bring Xbox platform games to PC directly. Especially those of us with AMD CPUs & GPUs won't have to "emulate" anything.
Already all Xbone games are using DX12 API and are dead easy to directly port.

 

[elmuzzy66.]

Locked in to xbox live? Feels like its going to be a sideways move, just going to get shafted by MS. Yes I m still salty about games for windows fiasco and the support pc gaming got from MS.

 

[Panos]

Yup, we won't get an Xbox version, a Playstation version, or a PC version now, we'll just get an Xbox version, and a Playstation version, as the Xbox version, will also be runnable on the PC too, via the emulator.

As wrote above, for AMD GPUs & CPUs might not need the emulator, as all native Xbone games (not the 360 ported ones) are using DX12 API.

 

[Rroff]

Goodbye decent keyboard and mouse support or actual menus, etc.

Can't really see it happening to any significant degree though MS falls flat on its face when it comes to following through on these kind of things and usually does a half-arsed job like GfWL.