Windows 8 to Play Xbox 360 Games?

Windows 8 to Play Xbox 360 Games?
28th July 2011

According to a recent article in Tecnylate, Microsoft’s forthcoming operating system will play Xbox 360 video games. Windows 8 is expected to be released around summer of 2012 and will be geared for tablets as well as desktops and laptops.

Reports suggest that any Windows 8 user will be able to play an Xbox 360 game by simply popping the CD into the CD tray – i guess that rules out tablet owners unless the games can be downloaded or playable over a solid state device like a USB stick. Microsoft have been opening new markets and bringing in new users with the Xbox Kinect, so it comes as no great surprise if they use Windows 8 to open up more new markets.

What this move does to sales of Xbox 360 consoles is anyone’s guess, but it sure can’t help, unless….there really is a new Xbox console coming next year. My guess is that the Xbox 360 may live on as a reincarnation for Windows 8 whereas the new Xbox 720 (or whatever it will be called) will be the new line and front-runner for console gaming.

With Windows 8 expected in summer 2012 and the next E3 conference just before that – it kind of makes sense that Microsoft may announce a new console and plans to continue support for the Xbox 360 in Windows 8.

Video Game Sales Declined in US

Video Game Sales Declined in US
27th July 2011

A research company NPD Group recently issued a report, saying that unfortunately the American video game industry isn’t getting better in terms of sales.

The report in question mentioned some figures, demonstrating that overall video game industry sales in the US, including hardware, software, and accessories, declined by 10% to $995 million within the last year. Thus far, software sales fell steepest – 12% – to $469.5 million. At the same time, sales of accessories declined by 11% to $158.9 million, and hardware sales dropped 9% to $366.6 million. A couple months ago there was another report published, which showed that overall American game industry sales slid 14% to $743.1 million, with May 2011 being the worst month in almost 5 years.

As for the particular companies and their products, it came as no surprise that Xbox 360 still topped the sales chart. According to Microsoft, there were over 500,000 Xbox 360s sold in June 2011 only. Microsoft was also bragging that Xbox 360 was the only console which reached year-over-year increase in sales.

At the same time, Nintendo published their own statistics. In comparison with Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii console sales were almost twice lower – the company sold a bit more than 270,000 units. But the company also sold 386,000 units of Nintendo DS family of systems, which gave it the right to claim that those figures represented double-digit growth from May for each of its product lines. Besides, Nintendo mentioned that the Wii console has sold over 36 million units so far.

Unlike its rivals, Sony Corporation didn’t make any public announcements about the sales of its different consoles and portable game electronic devices. The only reference made by Sony spokesperson Patrick Seybold related to software sales like those of inFAMOUS 2. Meanwhile, inFAMOUS 2 was made by the company exclusively for its PlayStation 3. The company also noted that according to the recent NPD report, Sony PlayStation keeps seeing growth in software because of a strong demand for various exclusive PlayStation 3 franchise titles.

As for the most popular video games of June, they appeared to be Take 2 Interactive’s L.A. Noire and Duke Nukem Forever.

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Xbox 720 To Have Avatar-Like Graphics According To AMD

Xbox 720 To Have Avatar-Like Graphics According To AMD
19th July 2011

According to AMD’s Neal Robison Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox console will be able to create graphics on par with James Cameron’s Avatar.

Robison, AMD’s director of ISV relationship is one of the first industry insiders to speak about the yet-to-be announced console – and has suggested that it will include AMD-manufactured graphics technology in order to push graphic quality to level of Hollywood special effect blockbuster’s like Avatar.

This is quite believable as the head of Crytek who makes Crysis said that he felt that console should already have Avatar-like graphics and that consoles were way behind where they should be considering PC capabilites that are already on offer at the moment.

Robison made the comments to the US arm of the Official Xbox Magazine. While Robison didn’t go into great detail on specifications or technical aspects of the new chip set – but he did say that the graphics would be on par with Avatar and physics would see a major overhaul in the next generation too.

Interestingly AMD now owns ATI which is the current graphics power-house for the Xbox 360 – so can these comments be taken that ATI and AMD will be doing the next graphics chip for the Xbox 720 ? Almost certainly.

It’s not that much of a leap: the Xbox 360 uses a Xenos graphics processor developed by ATI, which is now owned by AMD. The original Xbox, by contrast, used a NV2A chip from rival graphics specialist Nvidia.

Robison’s comments don’t only suggest that Microsoft is sticking with its decision to move to AMD-manufactured graphics, however: they also hint that the hardware of the Xbox 3 is finalised, suggesting a launch could be closer than previously thought.