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Future of gaming and Windows 8: Consoles step aside, PC is back?!

Windows 8

One of our readers from Europe, Vincenzo, has just sent me this interesting article (translated version here, if you’re like me and have an Italian vocabulary that is limited to the words you picked up from Assassin’s Creed!) talking about bits of code in Windows 8 programming that mentions the Xbox 360.

It is mentioned in the article that there are several possibilities, from the next generation Xbox console running as a branch off main Windows code to native support and/or emulation of Xbox console titles on your Windows-running machine. Having been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember, I must say I am excited! I have never bought or owned a game console before, ever (though of course I haven’t been living under a rock and have used consoles belonging to friends and family, but I still find their controls clunky to use and graphics to be watered down compared to the PC version of game titles)… and what Windows 8 could potentially bring might solidify the fact I may probably never need to get a console anyway.

The folks at Windows 8 Italia also mention that their speculation is based on the fact Microsoft has already brought over their Xbox Live service on their Windows Phone platform and have Kinect SDK out (albeit in beta form) for Windows… so having Xbox Live and/or emulation on Windows would be the next logical step.

The potential demise of consoles in favor of handheld… and now, PC… gaming?! You’d better be ready for it! If you take a couple of steps back and look at the big picture, you’ll see why this all makes sense. PC gaming was quite dominant before things like the Xbox and Playstation came along, but back then, consoles were invented to cater to the mass market. And consoles made gaming accessible, cheaper (in terms of machine investment) and easier (installations and patching supposedly ‘easier’ than on PC, no graphics or resolution settings to tweak) to pick up. PC hardware has also been comparatively expensive versus buying an ‘all in one box’ like a console (though you might also realize PCs are much more versatile and do more than just ‘gaming’). But now…

• Intel is coming out with a much more powerful Ivy Bridge processor line next year along with integrated graphics. This is a good start since if Intel’s Ivy Bridge integrated graphics are powerful enough to drive most ‘real’ games (real games as in stuff like Left4Dead and Crysis 2, not Angry Birds) at low to medium settings at 720p resolution at smooth frame rates (comparable to the ‘console experience’), that simplifies shopping for hardware and picking out a ‘gaming capable’ machine for the average consumer/non-hardcore gamer.
• More and more games that were originally ‘console exclusive’ or ‘console only’ are making their way towards the PC platform. Metal Gear Solid Rising for instance, is the first game in the Metal Gear series in years to be announced for the Xbox and… wait for it… PC platforms! The folks behind LA Noire also recently announced the availability of the game for PC too. And even more recently, I came across an article about the folks at Ubisoft expressing the complexity in developing games for consoles (but who, ironically, release A list games like Assassin’s Creed 4 to 5 months later for PC, after the initial PS3/Xbox debut!)
• And once again, we’re talking about Apple. I’m a big time HP fan but I’m somehow always delighted to hear about the ‘PC gaming love’ being spread to Macs… because there are many young people out there using Macs (If you don’t believe me, go to your local public college and prepare for a surprise!) and it’s always great to give them a taste of gaming (Valve has been doing a great job at encouraging this by releasing many of their PC titles like Left4Dead and Team Fortress for Mac). Who knows? These kids might be impressed by the small sample of games they can run on their MacBook and go out there to grab a HP Pavilion desktop for a better gaming experience at home, versus sitting on their couches running their Playstation/Xbox.
• Windows 8 Interface… and this might be the biggest deal breaker of them all. If Microsoft chooses to go back to supporting PC as THE gaming platform (instead of their Xbox consoles), they might want to do things right and make games almost or just as easy to install, patch and play as on a console. Power users like you and me don’t mind hitting ‘Setup.exe’ and tweaking things like anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and graphics card clock speeds, but the ‘average Joe’ doesn’t want to, or even knows how to. Easy of use! Microsoft’s already done it on Windows Phone, let’s hope they do the same for Windows 8.

And with all that being said, it’ll be great if HP starts gearing up now and getting some high-end gaming machines out there. Some folks would like to see the Blackbird 002 back, some would like to stuff a Z800 Workstation with triple SLI gaming graphics and that AMD announcement from last night is just *hint hint*!

Fun stuff: Blair Waldorf and her Windows-branded ThinkPad

Blair Waldorf and the Windows branded ThinkPad T410s (Screenshot from Gossip Girl, Season 4, E16)

As the weekends approach, it’s a good time to start to unwind from the hectic week and look forward to about 60 hours of blissful, non-weekday time. Now I know some may be starting to see a trend here, after last week’s muse, the $34,000 HP mouse… and I’ll try to have a weekly “Fun Stuff Fridays” post, depending if I come across anything amusing during the week.

This week, we have Blair Waldorf and her Windows-branded ThinkPad T410s from Season 4, Episode 16 of Gossip Girl… who may set a “good example” to younger kids and college students that they don’t NEED a MacBook to be stylish or supposedly ‘successful’. That’s always a good thing since I frequently come across and read about how young people nowadays think they MUST HAVE a MacBook Pro (but ironically, most of them are buying it purely for ‘the looks’, have little idea how to use OS X and plop Windows onto their machine shortly after/during purchase)

Microsoft is definitely an active product placement participant in many TV shows; I’ve seen Bing being used and Eleanor Waldorf asking someone to “Bing it” before… but this is a definite first: sticking a Microsoft Windows logo at the center of the laptop lid, similar to how Apple builds in their glowing logo it with the MacBooks (though I’m surprised Microsoft didn’t take the time to outfit said ThinkPad with a glowing backlit Windows logo, that would have been really cool, don’t you think?).

This actually brings up an interesting idea. Instead of Microsoft slapping on a Windows sticker onto almost every Windows laptop (with the exception of the HP Envy series and Linux equipped EliteBooks of course), I’d think making selected ‘Microsoft co-branded’ laptops like this one would be really nice! If they can do this for TV show laptops and the HP EliteBooks in Microsoft Stores (I first noticed this at the San Diego Microsoft Store), albeit with stickers, why not have actual laptops with built in logos for retail (either at a discounted price or marked up price, whatever floats Microsoft’s boat)?

Analysis: Microsoft releases Kinect for Windows SDK beta

Kinect for Windows SDK beta

This is just in: Microsoft has just made available their beta Software Development Kit (SDK) for their Kinect for Windows. With the recent trend of more games that used to be “console only” having sequels that are being developed to include PC (such as Metal Gear Solid Rising in 2012) and game companies we thought would go the “console only” route but didn’t, instead opting to continue to develop titles for PC as well (such as the Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty series), it’s pretty apparent that the PC platform still stands strong for people who want the ultimate productivity and gaming machine. I think Microsoft is starting to take note and hence released this SDK for Kinect for Windows.

It could also be that Microsoft wants to make Windows ‘more appealing’ versus the various variety of mobile operating systems as well as ‘more fun’ and appealing to the average consumer, to prevent Apple OS X from eroding their marketshare. And there are other practical applications for Kinect such as simulation and action-mirroring remote control of limbed-machines; but I’d say it’s mostly going to appeal to games and gamers.

What’s interesting is this could be the beginning of the end of game consoles, and such a move could be triggered by Microsoft. Microsoft’s XBox 360 has mostly been a game machine and never looked at as a multimedia/all in one entertainment system as much as the Playstation 3. Instead home theater PC’s are Microsoft’s separate answer to Apple TV and Playstation 3′s being used as Blu-ray players. With Microsoft spreading the ‘XBox Live’ branding across to their Windows Phone, could it be that one day we will see the ‘XBox’ brand as nothing more than a feature for conventional Windows and Windows Phone, instead of a make of ‘game consoles’?

It is plausible, since PC’s have always been THE platform for the definitive high-resolution, immersed gaming experience, with increasing PC users hooking up their machines to large TV’s to double as movie watching/couch surfing solutions AND the Xbox 360 being in the market for ages now (and time for a predecessor), now could be a good time for Microsoft to ‘kill off’ Xbox as a piece of hardware, and move the brand to be a ‘gaming ecosystem’ on their phones and desktops/laptops. Also, many mainstream laptops nowadays have more than enough power to beat consoles at detail and frame rate levels, at similar resolutions.

But well, we won’t jump up and down with utter excitement just yet until Microsoft officially reveals their true purpose/intentions/plans for rolling out an SDK for Kinect on Windows, which also begs the question whether we will one day see a similar SDK for Kinect on Mac OS/iOS. Meanwhile, if you’re interested, you can head over to the portal Microsoft has set up for Kinect for Windows SDK, take a look and maybe grab a copy of that SDK if you feel like developing something.

HP joining venture with Microsoft to launch ‘Courier’ tablet

HP will team up with Microsoft to launch a tablet this Wednesday

Hot off the press is an article by the New York Times highlighting the impending launch of the “Microsoft Courier” (or at least something based off the concept) tablet this Wednesday by Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO) at the Consumer Electronics Show. Looks like there’s gonna be quite a bit of drama as HP (as in Hewlett Packard) and Microsoft team up to launch a tablet way before Apple’s tablet even comes out of ‘vaporware speculation’ status! Go team Microsoft! This upcoming tablet will be a ‘HP device’ (although what sort of branding it will receive is still a mystery. Will it be branded with Microsoft or HP’s name?) will have multimedia functions, including a reader feature, and a touchscreen (size unknown) supporting multi-touch input.

HP Pavilion dv7 featured in Microsoft’s latest ad

The HP Pavilion dv7 was recently featured in Microsoft’s latest “Lauren and the under-$1000 17 inch laptop ad“. As usual, many Apple/Mac fanboys are screaming and trying to enforce “Windows PCs are rubbish”, yet again. Is that not surprising? Somebody actually said the $699 HP Pavilion dv7 is a, quote, “crappy budget notebook”… excuse me? The HP Pavilion dv7 is a very capable notebook – you can watch videos, play games (intensive ones included) and do a whole lot of things on it; it’s nowhere CLOSE to being a “crappy budget notebook”. Did anyone read about a certain brand’s PC hard disks failing because of using the built-in speakers at a loud volume (hint: it’s not HP); now they are the real makers of really cheap notebooks, in all senses of the word.

Back to the point… people should just face the facts: ANY other notebook PC is priced much lower, with better specifications, than an “equivalent” Apple Mac/Macbook computer. True, even I would agree that the advertisement may be somewhat “stretched” in the sense most people won’t shop for their notebook based on screen size alone, but here’s a real life experience from me: A friend of mine, Steven, has been looking for a decent notebook PC priced around $900. He’s in college right now and wants something that he can use for documents, surfing the web and also for watching movies as well as some gaming (he wants to be able to run games like Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty 4 and 5 at decent quality settings and frame rate).

He’s not asking for a massive screen (in fact he prefers a 14 to 15 inch LCD as a nice compromise between portability and screen viewability) but he’s quite particular about the graphics and gaming part there. Here’s a comparison of the HP Pavilion dv4 notebook PC versus the unibody Macbook (click for larger):

Upper left: HP Online Store, Lower left: Apple Online Store, Right: Excel comparison table (As of March 30, 2009)

A HP Pavilion dv4 with a 2.4 GHz processor, 3 GB of RAM, 320 GB hard disk, 512 MB Nvidia GeForce G105M graphics and 14 inch screen would run you roughly $925.
A Macbook (Unibody model) with a 2.4 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, 320 GB hard disk, 256 MB Nvidia 9400M graphics and 13 inch screen would cost about $1600!!!

Turns out a *similar* Macbook would cost almost $700 extra while having inferior graphics, a smaller LCD and 1 GB RAM less than the HP. Hey, point proven. And the higher you go, the larger the price difference between a Windows computer and a *similar* Apple computer.

He’s already checked out other “Windows PC” options and likes the HP Pavilion dv4′s build quality and design better versus the others; and is currently waiting for any additional/potential “summer specials” before springing for the notebook.

UPDATE (April 2009): Steven finally bought a laptop after much comparison and shopping around; he got a good deal on a HP Pavilion dv3000 and went for that, instead of the dv4 he was planning for.