Microsoft May Talk About Windows Gaming In January

By Kevin Parrish
published

We already know that Microsoft has plans for a Windows event on January 21. We also know that Phil Spencer, the head of the Xbox division and Microsoft Studios, will be in attendance along with Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. These executives plan to reveal the "next chapter" of Windows 10, and now we know what Spencer is going to talk about.

"I'll be focusing more on what we are doing on Win10 in January, it's time for us to talk about gaming on Windows," Spencer said via Twitter. He responded to a question regarding possible footage of Windows 10 running on Xbox One.

PC gaming has seemingly been put on the back burner while Microsoft scrambles to make the Windows platform more tolerable to the general consumer. The company closed its Games for Windows Marketplace back in August 2013, forcing PC gamers to get their fix on Steam and other digital distribution platforms. However, Microsoft reassured gamers that the company is making Windows the ultimate platform for entertainment and gaming.

"We're getting very strong support internally. So we're really going after PC," said creative director Ken Lobb back in February.

The statement seemingly points to the upcoming DirectX 12 API, which will be included in the final version of Windows 10 that's scheduled to launch in late Q2 2015 or early Q3 2015. This version of DirectX will be "closer to the hardware," which in turn will provide better performance due to a lighter overhead load. DirectX 12 will run on many GPUs currently on the market.

There's speculation that Spencer may show compatibility between Windows 10 on the desktop, the Xbox One console, tablets, and smartphones during the event in January. This would fit within the "consumer features" that Microsoft plans to reveal. The company is also supposedly set to showcase Windows 10 for mobile devices that works on both x86-based and ARM-based hardware, thus presenting a unified platform.

Are you looking forward to the January reveal? Will Microsoft finally talk about what's going on with Games For Windows Live? We can't wait to see what Microsoft has up its sleeve.

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Kevin Parrish
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • red77star
    DX12 is all about what Mantle already does.
    Reply
  • Lmah
    Microsoft has been saying they are adding more focus to PC gaming for years. I wouldn't be to excited about anything other than DX12, maybe I'd be excited if they completely scrapped GFWL.
    Reply
  • Merry_Blind
    Definitely curious and eager to see what they have to announce! I know I'll get some flak here from "PC-purists", but I think it would be great if they announced native (xbox) controller support for Windows 10. By that I mean being able to control Windows 10's interface with a controller natively. Sure it would be limited compared to mouse and keyboard, but such a feature would still be very useful and would definitely make me upgrade to Windows 10 right away.
    Reply
  • everlast66
    Just to say, this time I am not buying any new hardware just to be able to use DX12 !
    They better make sure it works with current graphics cards.
    Reply
  • Lmah
    14798175 said:
    Just to say, this time I am not buying any new hardware just to be able to use DX12 !
    They better make sure it works with current graphics cards.

    DX12 will be 100% backwards compatible with DX11 GPUs is what they have been telling us since they announced it.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    lol, when did microsoft get popular with their own games?

    I'm curious as to what DX12 will be like, both benchmark wise and looks.
    Reply
  • yumri
    DX12 is all about what Mantle already does.
    It is called " competition it is good for the market and it is good for technology to advance. In this Mantle prompted Mircosoft to make DX12 better and on a more timely schule if at all making it..
    But Mantle only does GPGPU compute for CPU functions and graphics processing while DirectX does CPU compute, Graphics processing, Audio processing, redirecting of variables from one computer to another in a master server, and a few other things so DirectX is much more compahenive of what it covers.
    With that said the new parts of DX12 is basicly a competeing software to Mantle yes.
    Reply
  • soccerplayer88
    14798175 said:
    Just to say, this time I am not buying any new hardware just to be able to use DX12 !
    They better make sure it works with current graphics cards.

    DX12 will be 100% backwards compatible with DX11 GPUs is what they have been telling us since they announced it.

    IIRC, GTX 400 and newer as well as HD7000 and newer. So just about any GPU made after 2010.
    Reply
  • Avus
    MS (the biggest software company in the planet EARTH): you are 10+ years too late to build up your digital distribution network on your own ****ing OS. Good luck... I just stay with Steam for my games (some are even support multiplatform between Win, Linux and Mac) and iTune for my media files. MS should be embarrassed that most Windows users are actually using Apple software to buy music/movies.

    Do you think MS new "GFWL" will support Linux and Mac like Steam?

    MS OS is still the (only) choice for PC gamers because...
    - DirectX (but take a look how LONG for MS put some actual effort to bring it to next level?? There are not much development from DX9-11. Why? Because Xbox!!)
    - Apple is still not care about gaming

    In the other words, MS Windows is only one API away for PC gamers to give up gaming on Windows. IF another OS (hints: SteamOS) has developed something similar to DirectX (OpenGL? Mantle?) and most AAA game developers start using them, I don't see why people have to stay with a gaming OS that is always held back by a console.
    Reply
  • chibiwings
    meh! They never kept their words.
    Reply