I remember hearing that MS has two VMs on the XBox one for games and one not. It’s a glorified PC anyway.
Why can’t I install Windows 8.1 in the other VM memory space and add a keyboard and mouse (or use Kinect). All of a sudden, I’d have a $500 truly awesome PC in my living room (with keyboard and controllers attached.)
That’s a LOT easier to sell to the wife than a $500 piece of gaming gear with a camera I’ll never use that’s watching her all the time.
The only argument against that I can think of is an argument that I’d install steam on it and cut into sales. The dedicated games should run better since they’re built for the XBox 1, so I don’t think that’s valid.
Can anyone knock holes in this idea?
I told you it was a crazy idea, but I kind of like it.
[FONT=Helvetica Neue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#3f4549]Ralph
You have that in reverse and thus miss the point: The XBox 1 is different, thus there’s no way MS sees an upside to you being able to modify it to be just like a regular PC. It gains them nothing. Potentially it loses them something due to increased support calls, fewer game sales (as you put non-Xbox1 games in the thing) and piracy. Their “argument you make to your spouse to justify buying a game console” is TV/Media Center functions.
I do actually, I was around during the Atari crash in the 80s. I’m not convinced that the circumstances are the same now as back then. For one thing, many titles come out to both PS3 and XBox (and sometimes PC.) That’s why so many companies are exploring DLC, Free to play, etc. The ecosystem would be just as closed, XBox1 content would run only on the XBox1. It would have the additional feature of being able to run some other Windows software. The could easily restrict it to only allow the Windows 8.1 partition 2 CPUs and 2 Gig of RAM max, or something like that if they wanted to. Enough to be able to do work and play older games in that partition.
Being a closed ecosystem is mutually exclusive to a user running other software. That’s the definition of ‘closed ecosystem.’
I mean, gee whiz, it’d be nice and all. But there’s zero chance of it happening because it’s not in their interest. They’re selling you a subsidized console so they can make back that loss (and eventually turn a profit) in part through platform fees on the games you buy.
As Sony discovered the hard way with the PS3, if you allow people to leave the closed ecosystem on a console, they’re going to buy your subsidized hardware and then not bother to give you any more money to make up the loss.
If you are lucky some Russian guys will make this work one day without the consent of Microsoft.
Their security better be airtight or the box will get hacked to pieces. VMs are well understood.
