Xbox Anywhere: Microsoft’s grand PC Play
by tunechiray
Since Microsoft first dipped its toes into gaming during its early expansionist days in the mid to late nineties - think Age Of Empires, and its surprisingly good online games portal The Zone - Microsoft has struggled to reproduce its successes with the Xbox on Windows. A series of horrific mistakes with design, DRM and cohesive branding with “Games For Windows Live” destroyed its opportunity to overtake Valve’s Steam and has left it sitting at the back of a long line.
It didn’t have to be this way – Windows is, and will continue to be (along with Direct X) the primary operating system for PC gaming. Microsoft has had ample opportunities to refine its offerings and make them native to the OS, and until recently, it hadn’t even incorporated Direct X directly into the core of Windows. Nor had it created a storefront or collaborative friend system to work alongside one of its most popular brands – Xbox. Windows 10 finally came through with the promise to support games that it had made with XP, Vista and 7 by doing all of the above.
Direct X? Baked in. Xbox? There’s an app that allows console streaming, messaging, screenshot and video capture right out of the… box. Store? The anniversary edition update refined the process of finding and installing premium Xbox branded titles. But the most exciting addition came in the form of Xbox Play Anywhere – Microsoft’s grand plan to merge Xbox and Windows PCs into one tidy little package. Combined with the updated storefront and Xbox apps, your PC and Xbox can now synchronise saves and progress, join live parties, join (supported) games and so on.
But where Anywhere excels is within Universal Apps. This is Microsoft’s new way to consolidate all software between its platforms – Mobile, Desktop and Console – meaning games that are developed for the Xbox One should be almost instantly portable to Windows 10 as they now share the same X64 codebase. The first set of games are now starting to roll out, starting with Forza Horizon 3, Re-Code and, most excitingly for me, Gears of War 4 – a series I was worried I would not be able to continue playing as I had chosen a PS4 over an XB1 for my lounge room.
Installing Gears was a piece of cake; the Microsoft store is a native app, so it was a matter of running it, putting in my code (Supplied by Microsoft) and choosing a download location for the software. That code is also universal – if I turned on my Xbox One, for example, Gears would show up there as an available download as well. Everything, from saves to achievements, would be sorted on Xbox (Azure) servers and delivered via Cloud wherever I logged in with my Microsoft Account. I tried this out on a friends’ Xbox One and it worked exactly as claimed – everything was there as if it was my primary device.
The PC application was interesting – unlike most X32/X64 applications, it uses Microsoft’s native app (just like, say, the Store or Mail apps) which means it boots fast and is comfortable switching between Full Screen and Windowed, or being Alt-Tabbed. It doesn’t seem to gobble as much RAM or CPU as a non-native app either – there wasn’t that lag when it was closed or opened. I could easily Alt-Tab the window and close it immediately. It detected my XB1 controller and provided the full range of Vibration and button compatibility, which isn’t as common with Steam games.
"... if I turned on my Xbox One, for example, Gears would show up there as an available download as well."
The game ran well, looked good, and both control methods were accurate and responsive. The cross-platform multiplayer was also great – there was a definitive gap in accuracy between players which was attributed to the keyboard/controller.
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