By Nelson Schneider - 01/25/15 at 02:05 PM CT
On Wednesday, January 21, Microsoft played host to tech writers and enthusiasts at a special Windows 10 event in the company’s hometown of Redmond. While it is unsurprising that the Xbox console brand wouldn’t receive much attention at an event specifically focused on the launch of a new version of the operating system that runs 90% of the world’s computers, what is surprising is just how many amazing things MS revealed with regard to the new Windows.
The first shocker announced at the Windows 10 event is that the new OS will be a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.x for the first year after launch. Giving away the new OS for free is huge, and an even bigger move in the direction of consumer friendliness than when MS sold Windows 8 for a hefty discount for a time after it was released. Plenty of paranoid folks have raised questions about whether or not this free upgrade period is just a way to draw customers into a trap and start charging them an Office 365-style subscription after that first “free” year, but MS spokesman Terry Myerson spelled it out in black and white: Windows 10 is NOT a subscription. I, for one, can’t wait to upgrade my Steambox to Windows 10 (and my laptop, and my Windows tablet, and my phone).
Along with being free, Windows 10 will take yet another bold step in the direction of unifying the Windows experience across multiple devices. Since MS first started dabbling in smartphones, Windows Phone has been a separate breed of animal from standard Windows (though Windows Phone does share some similarities with Windows RT, even those two versions of the OS run different versions of the same Modern UI-style apps). Windows 10 aims to unite all Windows touchscreen devices with universal binaries for Modern UI apps. It’s true that Windows 8.x’s Windows Store is overpopulated with crapware and missing a lot of essential apps that are on both iOS and Android. Making it easier on app developers who will no longer need to support multiple versions of the same app for Windows should improve the situation. The Xbox consoles have also historically been left out in the cold as Windows devices that don’t really run Windows, which will likewise be changing with the revelation that universal Windows 10 apps will also work on the XBONE. While it’s not terribly exciting the think about running MS Office and the like on a game console, I’m hoping that this revelation means that the code will start flowing both ways and more of the rare diamonds in the rough that come out of Microsoft Game Studios will find themselves on Windows 10 instead of being trapped in a stagnant console ecosystem with a paywall.
Last year, Microsoft played a cute little trick of naming its Windows Phone 8.1 Siri competitor after Master Chief’s digital assistant in the ‘Halo’ videogame franchise. With Windows 10, the cuteness of naming non-gaming software after things from the Halo-verse will continue when MS releases a new web browser to take the place of the long-in-the-tooth and much-reviled Internet Explorer. I hated IE back in the day, but have come to embrace the newest version (IE11) for touch devices, as it is simply a great experience on a Windows tablet. But marketing is everything, and MS just can’t stick with the IE brand, as it is too tainted from the IE 6.x era. With the new browser, dubbed ‘Spartan’ after the space marines of the ‘Halo’ series, MS is taking the bold step of adding real plug-in capabilities that will supposedly be on-par with the plug-in/extension ecosystem of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome instead of the half-assed system currently employed by IE. Considering how much IE improved between version 6 and version 11, I have faith in MS’ ability to actually get Spartan right on the first try.
Of course, the biggest, most exciting announcement at the Windows 10 event is highly significant in the world of gaming. Whereas we’ve been hearing about Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus virtual reality headsets for a year already, MS had been content to fiddle with augmented reality via the misbegotten Kinect Xbox peripheral instead. Now MS has jumped fully onto the augmented reality bandwagon with a Windows 10 feature called “Windows Holographic” that works with a special “HoloLens” headset to project virtual objects into the real world. Aside from the productivity and gaming potential of such a device, clearly the best part of Windows Holographic and HoloLens is that it is coming to Windows 10, NOT XBONE! MS made a mistake when they decided to focus all of their Kinect development around their unnecessary game consoles – Kinect on Windows really suffered for it and never had a chance to develop into anything meaningful. Hopefully things turn out differently this time!
Of course, the XBONE wasn’t entirely left out of the fun (as it should have been). In addition to the announcement that the XBONE will be able to run universal Windows 10 apps, it was revealed that the XBONE will be able to gamestream to any Windows 10 PC on the same network. This is truly a bafflingly useless new feature. I could maybe understand someone wanting to stream a PC game that is not available on the XBONE from their Windows 10 PC to their XBONE, but streaming the other way around…? In-home computers are often not hooked up to an entertainment center, making streaming a matter of convenience. Is streaming from an XBONE to a PC supposed to allow folks to pretend they’re working on their office PC while they are actually streaming “The Master Chief Collection” from their console in the other room? I honestly don’t see the point in in-home streaming no matter what form it takes, but this particular version seems even more extra-useless than normal.
Comments
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/01/15 at 02:55 PM CT
Gentlemen, I have just conceived of a possible reason to stream an XBONE game to PC: If you want to play Halo games using an awesome motion controller, streaming them onto a PC, then controlling them with a Hydra or STEM is the only way to do it.
That's a lot of hardware commitment just to get motion support in Halo, though. Maybe MS should just port them to PC and be done with it.
Chris Kavan - wrote on 01/31/15 at 05:43 PM CT
I'm still waiting for my Holodeck... baby steps, right?
Jonzor - wrote on 01/25/15 at 07:14 PM CT
I've been wondering what Microsoft would do to counter the Oculus and Morpheus devices. Honestly, I figured they would just cut someone a huge check and start locking down Oculus support for games. This... maybe feels like a better fit with Kinect, so I'll give them a nod for not just building another VR helmet.
I'm hoping the slivers of crossplay mentioned turn into more of a trend.
