What PC Gamers can take from Microsoft’s Windows 10 Event
Today, Microsoft held its first large event for Windows 10. Though the livestream had a lot of technical difficulties, we were still able to catch most of the details via The Verge Liveblog and even had a gathering in our IRC channel to talk about all that was revealed.
There were no earth-shattering announcements as far as PC gaming goes, but there are definitely some huge positives and things worth highlighting from the event.
- Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 users for the first year of its release. This signals a welcome change in the Windows pricing scheme and brings the OS more in line with the Apple model of free, incremental upgrades. Although we don’t know what will happen after the first year, chances are good they won’t go back to $100+ pricing models for Windows.
- DirectX 12 is coming and it will be a huge improvement over DX11 from the sounds of it. Phil Spencer (head of Xbox) claims, “For CPU-bound games, DirectX 12 will increase the performance of those games by up to 50 percent.” This is huge for PC gamers on lower end rigs as well as those trying to livestream CPU intensive games. Furthermore, power consumption should also be cut in half in comparison to DX11. The Unreal 4 engine will also support DX12 out of the box according to Venture Beat.
- The Xbox app for Windows 10 is a thing. At its most basic (and most lackluster), it is a glorified Raptr/Nvidia Experience app. You can take screenshots, save moments and record snippets of gameplay. You can also interact with your Xbox Live friends through it. These features will work for any game. Perhaps the most interesting part is the ability to stream Xbox One games to your PC or Windows 10 tablet. This is interesting because this feature is cool and all, but if you are a primarily PC gamer without an Xbox One, it isn’t really a selling point for the app. You also cannot use keyboard and mouse, an Xbox one controller will be required for streaming gameplay. Finally, crossplay between PC and Xbox One players was announced, along with the promise of many more Xbox One titles coming to PC, RockpaperShotgun reports.
We didn’t get anything crazy, like Xbox One games direct to PC, but overall, Windows 10 is looking very promising. Many of us here at KBMOD have been using the technical preview and have enjoyed the experience. Windows 10 should be released in late 2015.
Let us know what you want in Windows 10, or your thoughts on what has been revealed, in the comments below!
Sources:
The Verge
RockPaperShotgun
Lifehacker
Venturebeat
nipnops
DanI put the OO in Swagoo. One of the founders of KBMOD. I stream on Twitch as well as writing and editing for the website.
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