A few months ago rumours began to emerge that it will be possible to play Xbox 360 games in Windows 8.
The speculators are at it again, with teknylate.com claiming that Windows 8 owners will “be able to play Xbox360 games by simply placing the game disk into your DVD tray.” Sadly, Teknylate is far from a credible source, and Microsoft has said nothing which even vaguely suggests that this will be possible.
Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox Live will be coming to PC, but that hardly means a thing as it is already available on Windows phones, and we’re a long way off being able to play Gears of War on a cell phone.
Metrowny also claims that Xbox Live on PC will allow people to simply pop any Xbox 360 game disk into a PC and play.
The biggest problem this rumour seems to face, is that Xbox 360 games are built specifically to run on Xbox 360 hardware and software. To get Xbox 360 games running on PC in this manner would require an emulator, and the general consensus is that such an emulator would be extremely system intensive, although theoretically not impossible on higher-end modern PCs.
Another concern raised by many, is that integrating Xbox 360 games with the PC environment could potentially open the platform up to piracy even more than it already is. Then of course there are various issues surrounding online play between Xbox 360 gamers playing on PC with the keyboard mouse combo, and regular Xbox 360 players using a less precise console controller. The distinct advantage that the mouse gives gamers when aiming in FPS games could potentially ruin online gaming on Xbox Live.
Another possibility being thrown around, is that Microsoft will create a streaming service, similar to cloud gaming service OnLive, where PC users can log into Xbox Live and play Xbox 360 games remotely over a broadband connection. If this is the case, then South Africans can forget about it all together thanks to our limited broadband infrastructure. OnLive typically requires a solid 5Mbps connection to stream 720p gamiing content without any trouble.
Then of course there is the possibility that Microsoft will release a separate “Xbox Live for PC” version of every Xbox 360 game – although this is hardly the same as being able to pop an Xbox 360 game disk into your PC and play.
While it’s an exciting idea, it seems highly unlikely that Microsoft will allow people to play Xbox 360 games on PC. We’re brushing this off as a wild rumour until Microsoft provides official comment.
Do you think this is a rumour we should be paying attention to? Or are we wasting time even thinking about it? << Let us know in the forums
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