chance of microsoft releasing a 360 OS for PCs?

[tommo123]

just thinking about this now.

you could reboot into a gaming OS that would read 360 disks and still use a 360 controller. in some ways it's kinda being done now with 'games for windows' since i play those games with my 360 controller anyway. would be good to not have to wait for the PC release of those games. would love to play COD4 on my PC since the graphics are sooo much better

 

[Rage187]

not gonna happen. The 360 itself is easy enough to hack why would they even chance it on the most open platform ever?

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Rage187
not gonna happen. The 360 itself is easy enough to hack why would they even chance it on the most open platform ever?

The 360 is actually remarkably hack resistant in terms of running your own code.

As for the OP's idea, I could go on all day why it wouldn't happen, but here's the technical reason: your 360 is using PPC instructions. Your PC is using x86 instructions. Case closed.

 

[Auryg]

Absolutely 0. While it's a cool idea the games would have to be coded to be able to use any combination of parts, and since 360 games don't have any sort of performance sliders you'd need a computer that was better than the 360 and blah blah. No chance. Also doesn't really make any business sense.

 

[tommo123]

well, it would save some money i would imagine - assuming they still make a loss on each console. a cheap PC with a 3000 or 4000 series ati card is far far far superior to a 360 also.

 

[darkswordsman17]

While a gaming only OS is an interesting idea, I think it would actually be a step back. Games ported between the two already feature many of the advantages (higher resolutions, eye candy, AA, etc) only you can actually just alt-tab out of the game and go do something else on the fly. I admit it would be nice to be able to just throw your 360 games in your PC and play them there, but its not that big of a deal. Sure Microsoft might sell more if they had a base gaming platform that could run them for the PCs (so if your PC met them you could just buy 360 games and play them on it) but I don't know.

 

[Fox5]

The 360 uses a completely different cpu architecture than the PC, so there'd be little benefit in making a 360 OS for the PC. It wouldn't play the games without recompiling anyway.

The 360 dev kit does support cross development for the PC and 360 though. It's relatively easy for any 360 developer to pop out a PC port. Not necessarily a good one, but they can get one out.

 

[Injury]

Among many other reasons, the variance in hardware would ruin any chance of this. Windows has enough problems trying to support all sorts of hardware, why would it be any different with any other crazy-assed OS?

By having games on consoles, developers get the benefit of knowing the limitations of hardware and what they can and can't do with some games. Think of it as servicing cars. If someone deals with all makes and models of cars, then you have more room for problems because there aren't many people that know every car type inside and out. Sure, there are some things that are consistent, but not many. If someone only deals with one type of car then you're more likely to do a better job, know the ins and outs and not cause problems.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Not practical due to architecture differences (as mentioned above).

Plus there is no need as the Windows Vista + DirectX 10 + Games For Windows trio is Microsoft's gaming answer for the PC.

 

[mugs]

0

 

[tommo123]

carp

would still have been nice i think though. wouldnt be so bad if more games came out of the box with controller support and the PC games came out sooner. the delay between GTA4 on the consoles versus PC was nuts. I have a 360, but i would like some better graphics from time to time

 

[Queasy]

Before the 360 came out, there were rumors of a version of the 360 that was essentially a PC box. Obviously, this never came to fruition but it was an interesting thought.

 

[DarkThinker]

I can't speak an opinion about the Xbox being a PS3 owner but none the less, since I am a heavy PC user and play my games on my console instead of the PC (well spare Battelfield 1942 ) I have the PS3 hooked up to my KVM box. When I am playing a game, my PC is one click away any time. Additionally, whatever savings Microsoft makes in hardware they will loose in software R&D. Now granted the software can be reproduced at no cost after development (virtually) this still doesn't handle all issues of why we need consoles to begin with. This is an apple like approach. Give everyone the identical hardware and software so that the same piece of software runs identically on any machine. And that's without forgetting that PPC ---> X86 software emulation would take a lot of performance overhead due to emulation layers that would need be present it would be pointless to boot.

Matter of fact I have found the opposite to be a better approach. Why not make the Xbox and the PS3 personal computers instead? The PS3 does it in a decent way (has some shortcomings like RSX blocking, hypervisor yada yada yada) I run Fedora Linux on my PS3 and I enjoy it to certain extent.
But what I would have really really loved to see, is a piece of software that could run inside Linux on the PS3 that would give direct access to the PS3 features. And if Microsoft does the same sales would boom.

But I understand why companies don't want people to find the consoles that good, they are concerned of people buying consoles with no intent of buying games much since consoles are sold either at cost or loss it would be a bad idea to open it up to others. I hate that fact but that is the nature of the business.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Rage187
not gonna happen. The 360 itself is easy enough to hack why would they even chance it on the most open platform ever?

The 360 is actually remarkably hack resistant in terms of running your own code.

As for the OP's idea, I could go on all day why it wouldn't happen, but here's the technical reason: your 360 is using PPC instructions. Your PC is using x86 instructions. Case closed.

Hmm... one would think your logic is sound, until one remembers that Windows NT 3.51 shipped with an x86 kernel, as well as a MIPS, DEC Alpha and PPC kernel on the disc.

It won't happen however, because of the amount of customization involved at the hardware level, and the specific support the OS has for the platform. If you're interested in programming for an XBox platform, take up XNA.

 

[StageLeft]

never

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Why would they do that?

 

[Looney]

That would be dumb. Why pay $200 for another OS when you can just grab a 360 for $200? And you get all the hardware that goes along with it.

Not to mention all the problems that come with a PC such as hardware and driver issues (not to mention security).

If anything, they'll make a console more PC like. They'll make one with a web browser, and include a real keyboard. That's pretty much what 95% of home computer users need these days.