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Play Anywhere

Viral Maze

Verb the adjective noun
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Location
Canada
Surprised (read: Not surprised) that one has mentioned this. Xbox's Play Anywhere feature allows you to own both an Xbox and Windows 10 copy of the game if you purchase the game digitally for any one of the platforms. Not only does it give you two platforms to play the game+DLC on, your save file moves with you, so you can play on the Xbox, and continue playing where you left off on the your PC.

So far the confirmed Play Anywhere games are:
Gears of War 4
Forza Horizon 3
ReCore
Sea of Thieves
Halo Wars 2
Sclaebound
Killer Instinct
State of Decay
ARK Survival Evolved
Cuphead
We Happy Few
Crackdown 3

So what do you guys think about this feature? Good/bad/neutral?
I'll post my thoughts later.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Considering my Xboner and my PC are in the same building, this feature is completely useless to me. But I can see it being useful for people with multiple homes, for people who live with mom in one house and dad in another, and other similar situations.

Also, this retroactively made the Xbone completely useless if you have W10.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
Considering my PC is on life support, runs on Windows Vista and not used for gaming, I am neutral on this.
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
What I don't get is that, can you download the game on the Windows 10 and play in Xbox or what?
 

Viral Maze

Verb the adjective noun
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Location
Canada
What I don't get is that, can you download the game on the Windows 10 and play in Xbox or what?
You'll buy the game once, for either the Xbox or Win10 PC, and you'll be given a digital copy on the other device. So you buy it for the Xbox, and you get a PC copy free (or vice versa). The important thing is that your saves and achievements are saved to the cloud, so if you're playing your Xbox and your mom/dad/gf/bf/genderneutralcompanion/dog want to watch TV, you can switch to the PC and be right where you left off.

I feel like this is a good thing. Its Microsoft shifting the Xbox brand as a platform, not just a console. People say it dilutes the Xbox console but I don't think so. Quantum Break required a beast of a rig to run, and I assume Gears 4 and Forza H3 will be similar. If you don't have a PC gaming rig, it won't benefit you, BUT you will still have the game for any point in the future where you may want to play it.

I'm sure its all part of Microsoft's backwards and future compatibility campaign. They stated they want all your games to move console generations with you, so the next step is obviously platforms as well. You buy Gears of War 4 now, and get a PC version of it too. If you ever have to sell your Xbox, you still have the ability to play your games. If you are a PC gamer first and foremost, you'll get the Xbox copy of the game too, so if you ever decide to get an Xbox Two or Seven, because of backwards compatibility, your games from the PC will be available on the Xbox. Its a big problem with early adopters of systems that there are very few games at launch, and even less in your library. You buy a new console, and you have one or two games with it most likely. Play Anywhere, coupled with backwards and forward compatibility will guarantee that your library stays relevant - that even if you move from console gaming to PC (or vice versa) your games are with you, and you can still play with your friends (thanks to cross-platform play).

I feel like it really gives power back to the consumers as it doesn't cost a damn cent.

The only problem though? Windows 10 Store needs to better. PC gamers are fickle (no offence to any, but you know its true). They'll ***** and moan about a lack of features, modding ability, etc. If Microsoft can do right by their standard, I think this could be a very positive thing.
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
Considering my Xboner and my PC are in the same building, this feature is completely useless to me. But I can see it being useful for people with multiple homes, for people who live with mom in one house and dad in another, and other similar situations.

Also, this retroactively made the Xbone completely useless if you have W10.
I think this is a subtle hint to force people to upgrade to W10. You want to play your favourite Xbox games you bought digitally on your PC? Sure you can but please upgrade to W10 first. There is nothing bad about this cross platyform feature. If you can't take advantage of it you are no worse off. But if you can take advantage of it, it's great. The only barrier is W10.

MS need their W10 adoption rates to increase. This is one way they are doing so.
 
I'm cautiously optimistic about this. Play Anywhere reminds me of Games for Windows, except better. Xbox and PC have different audiences, so I don't think Windows 10 will suddenly cannibalize the Xbox brand. I'm hoping Microsoft ports some of its older games onto PC as well. I would like to play Halo 3 with a mouse and keyboard sometime.
 

Viral Maze

Verb the adjective noun
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Location
Canada
I remember reading somewhere, someone's opinion was that Microsoft is blending their gaming into a big super platform, under Windows 10 and UWP. Entry level gaming would be the Xbox One, while mid-level would be the Scorpio (as far as consoles go, Scorpio would be the high-tier as well) and their Windows 10 PCs would be high tier gaming. Kind of like having 3 different models of the same product for 3 different demographics.
I feel like some people are fairly short-sighted when it comes to this, and see it only as the Xbox loosing exclusives.
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
I think this is a subtle hint to force people to upgrade to W10. You want to play your favourite Xbox games you bought digitally on your PC? Sure you can but please upgrade to W10 first. There is nothing bad about this cross platyform feature. If you can't take advantage of it you are no worse off. But if you can take advantage of it, it's great. The only barrier is W10.

MS need their W10 adoption rates to increase. This is one way they are doing so.
Yeah, nice try M$.
 

Lozjam

A Cool, Cool Mountain
Joined
May 24, 2015
I think this is a subtle hint to force people to upgrade to W10. You want to play your favourite Xbox games you bought digitally on your PC? Sure you can but please upgrade to W10 first. There is nothing bad about this cross platyform feature. If you can't take advantage of it you are no worse off. But if you can take advantage of it, it's great. The only barrier is W10.

MS need their W10 adoption rates to increase. This is one way they are doing so.
Maybe they should just not have made a terrible operating system then...
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
A stupid thought just occurred to me, if the Windows 10 version of Xbone games are exactly the same as their console version, does this mean that we can finally play Batman Arkham Knight(plus other bad PC ports) in the PC without sucking?
 

Viral Maze

Verb the adjective noun
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Location
Canada
A stupid thought just occurred to me, if the Windows 10 version of Xbone games are exactly the same as their console version, does this mean that we can finally play Batman Arkham Knight(plus other bad PC ports) in the PC without sucking?

So far its only MS Game Studio published titles, so there won't be Batman unless WB gives the green light, but I believe the XBO and PC copies are separate. So far, the way its been for Quantum Break and Gears of War UE is that the PC version is a PC game, and XBO version is an Xbox game. So, for example, if the title is also released on Steam, or GOG or Origin, the Win10 free copy will be the same copy as the Steam/Origin/GOG copy.
And no, the Win 10 and Xbo versions are not exactly the same. The Win10 versions are PC games, with variable graphical options afforded to them by being a PC game.

Perhaps when UWP apps take off a bit more, there may be differences between the PC copies of the Win10 version and the other PC versions, but I don't know.
 

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