Typically when you mention PC gaming, it doesn't bring up visions of World of Warcraft locally installed and running on a tablet. But with Intel and Microsoft gearing up to invade the scene with Atom-based Windows 8 tablets later this year, lugging around our favorite MMORPGs and shooters won't be a figment of our imagination. Still, how will they play without the trusty mouse and keyboard?
Overwolf is working on such a solution. The company announced during GDC 2012 a new collaboration with Intel to help make PC games playable on Windows 8 tablets. Little else was said about the touch-based solution save for that a fully functional demo will be introduced to the public during the conference.
"We found it frustrating that while tablets can technically run games smoothly, many games aren’t playable because they’re designed to be played using a mouse and a keyboard, and not a touch interface," said Uri Marchand, CEO of Overwolf. "In the near future, owners of Intel Atom processor-based Windows tablets will be able play PC games they install on their machine, after installing Overwolf. We feel that this will have a huge impact on tablet purchasing decisions made by gamers."
As seen in the video below, the user taps on the Overwolf app which launches a virtual Windows 7 desktop. Inside is what appears to be World of Warcraft and the Overwolf toolset, the latter of which includes means to take screenshots, movies, chat on Skype, chat on Facebook and more within the virtual desktop (and WoW itself). Overwolf also provides in-game overlays that allow the user to move the character, rotate the camera, configure hotkeys, chat within the game and more.
"We’re committed to delivering industry leading compute performance on our Intel Atom processor platforms to provide the very best gaming experience on tablets," said René Torres, Director of Marketing, Mobile Communications Group at Intel. "Overwolf’s technology introduces a sleek and flexible solution that provides a great gaming experience in multiple gaming genres and truly brings PC gaming to tablets in a whole new way."
The public launch of the product is expected later this year. Both Overwolf and Intel are working to make every PC game playable on Intel-powered Windows tablets, Intel said. We've requested for more information from Overwolf about how all of this will work, so stay tuned. In the meantime, have fun with the demo video below.
