Microsoft Has State of Decay Running on PC Using Xbox Assets

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Microsoft is getting serious about bridging the gap between the PC and Xbox ecosystems. According to a report from Brad Sams at Thurrott, Windows Insider build 18334 introduced "new technology to Windows 10" and offered "State of Decay for free." Nazmus S Khandaker offered this tweet where he disclosed that the packages used the .xvc format which is native to the Xbox. Not only that, the download servers for the game are using the Xbox servers instead of the Microsoft Store server. This will certainly make creating games between the Xbox and PC ecosystems much easier and cost effective. Remember 66% of developers are developing on the PC while only 28% said they are working on a Xbox One title.

On the surface, what it looks like Microsoft is doing is collapsing any differences between PC and Xbox gaming to make it the same experience on both devices. The company is in the process of making the delivery mechanisms based on the Xbox infrastructure, appears to be making it possible to run Xbox games on the PC, and replacing the existing Store PC games infrastructure on that of what Xbox has built. And this isn't some half baked port to the Windows ecosystem either. Much like the Xbox does, this updated mechanism supports delivery optimization too.
 
I mean it's cool and I appreciate the bridged gap, but in the end doesn't this mean we will just have software that is at lower end quality, it would be like taking a go-cart and putting it on a Nascar track or using a ZR-1 Vette as a Sunday grocery getter, it just means we are getting a different type of crappy console port rather than an optimized polished game experience, It's cool for smaller indie studios that can't have the resources to allow a broader market. For large AAA studios it's just an easier way out to pad sales and make gamers rage more.
 
1Nocturnal101 said:
I mean it's cool and I appreciate the bridged gap, but in the end doesn't this mean we will just have software that is at lower end quality, it would be like taking a go-cart and putting it on a Nascar track or using a ZR-1 Vette as a Sunday grocery getter, it just means we are getting a different type of crappy console port rather than an optimized polished game experience, It's cool for smaller indie studios that can't have the resources to allow a broader market. For large AAA studios it's just an easier way out to pad sales and make gamers rage more.
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The thing is, even this is progress with Microsoft. We had a good 15 year gap where they put out a lot of titles that can't even run on Windows. Never mind how outrageous it is that a company had to be convinced to release games on its own goddam platform, the fact that they're not doing that anymore makes me not want to complain, as the bar has been set low enough already.
 
I'm torn how I feel about this.

On the one hand more titles could come to the PC, on the other hand, devs could become lazy and just optimized a title for the Xbox and take advantage of the fact that PC's can run it as is, and never do a proper PC version.
 
The Forza and Gears of War series have great visuals. Capcom has a new appreciation for the PC. Hopefully we will be fine. ;)
 
tetris42 said:
The thing is, even this is progress with Microsoft. We had a good 15 year gap where they put out a lot of titles that can't even run on Windows. Never mind how outrageous it is that a company had to be convinced to release games on its own goddam platform, the fact that they're not doing that anymore makes me not want to complain, as the bar has been set low enough already.
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It's definitely interesting.
Aireoth said:
Soooo, what most are basically doing now?
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I know we get half-baked ports already, but it will be worse if it's literally just running the xbox version. No resolution options, keyboard/mouse, xbox-live gold required for multi-player, etc. Fortunately it didn't sound like that was the plan. Rather optimizing content delivery and re-using common assets and stuff. It sounds good, except it's tied to the windows store - which I've successfully avoided so far.
 
tetris42 said:
The thing is, even this is progress with Microsoft. We had a good 15 year gap where they put out a lot of titles that can't even run on Windows. Never mind how outrageous it is that a company had to be convinced to release games on its own goddam platform, the fact that they're not doing that anymore makes me not want to complain, as the bar has been set low enough already.
Click to expand...

Lol, yeah that is all pretty much true, it's sad when someone disapoints people that much that even shitty progress is good progress.
 
I was wondering why State Of Decay 2 lacked any text chat support on PC and I guess this is why.
 
parks closed. moose out front shoulda told ya...

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I understand the doubtful thoughts some have about this, but the fact is it's not that hard for a dev to provide higher detail assets like textures for a game alongside lower console-oriented ones. What this exercise DOES mean however, is that it may make things easier going forward to allow for parallel console/PC development and releases even whilst maintaining a higher visual quality on PC. Note I use the word 'may' - no guarantee of that of course.
 
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