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Microsoft's cunning plan to save the Xbox from Apple

Apple doesn't take over whatever market they enter. I don't see them making huge waves here either, as they're entering a very crowded market with a lot of pre-established brand loyalty. Might it get non-gamers to use an Apple TV gaming thingy? Sure......maybe. But it's not going to push anyone out of the market.
 
Krejlooc said:
streaming from the xbox one to windows 10 using a wired connection is pretty great, but their wireless streaming experience is awful currently. Even with a good router and a proper surface tablet that can take advantage of a wireless ac connection, the experience is still poor. By constrast, what I do from my PC to my Nvidia shield is a much better experience currently.

Ironically, I use the xbox streaming to do the exact opposite of what this article suggests. I integrated the Xbox streaming app into steam so that my gaming PC can launch and run xbox one games and steam games.

t1dSA6g.jpg


Until my Xbox One can run steam, and gog galaxy, and origin, and even uplay, it'll never be a proper replacement for a gaming PC.
Click to expand...


Please share how you did this. Some of us would like to do the same!

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/541907675759647418/
 
Wtf was this crap, almost all of it sound made up.

What is all this talk of apple taking over the world? Isn't the only good product they make a smart phone and even then there are better alternatives to it. Anyone who dabbles only in apple products is really missing out on a richer experience, it's like only using the internet for the youtubes.

ryan299 said:
Well all the people who bought the wii have abandoned the console space in favor of smart phones. If apple can bring them in the living room and let them play all their phone games as well as console level games then yes, the apple tv will challenge the systems.
Click to expand...

Dayum, I didn't realise I had switched to smart phone gaming over consoles especially when i've never played any games on my smart phone! When I 'abandoned' my Wii I distinctly remember a Wii U taking it's place, but what do I know? I bet those peeps over at Ouya are kicking themselves that they didn't come up with this idea first....oh wait....
 
Apple isn't pushing anybody out of the living room so long as they continue to run that shit show they call the app store.
 
Bizzquik said:
Please share how you did this. Some of us would like to do the same!

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/541907675759647418/
Click to expand...

Really not that complex at all. It's just a giant macro-driven batch file. First, I launch the xbox streaming application on windows 10, using the following command:

start xbox:
Click to expand...

next, I launch a program from the batch file called AutoSizer, this lets me save the position and size of the Xbox Streaming window so buttons will be in the same place every time. I have autosizer automatically make the xbox streaming app full screen then close.

Next, I launch an autohotkey script that uses MouseMove to move the position of the mouse and send mouse clicks. (EDIT: One tip - when you do this, use CoordMode to make the XY coordinate you feed your mouse relative to the entire screen, not just active window. This way, even if you lose focus of the xbox streaming window as the batch files open and close, it'll still be clicking in the correct spot of the screen.) I just figured out where the "Xbox streaming" button was, moved the mouse to that button, then clicked, then moved to the "turn on Xbox" button and clicked that, then moved to the "stream" button and clicked that. I saved my autohotkey script as an executable and launch it from my batch file after resizing the xbox streaming application with AutoSizer.

After all that, I took my batch file, and using an online batch to exe converter (like this one: http://www.f2ko.de/en/ob2e.php) turned it into an executable, added it as a non-steam game, then gave it a custom steam banner.

Voila, one click xbox one streaming. I can go from playing a steam game to playing an Xbox One game without ever putting down the controller or changing the channel.
 
Non-gamers only really bolstered Wii sales, and they're the target here. Core gamers, casual or otherwise, won't even notice this. My mom might think it's cool though, when they talk about it on the 6 o'clock news.

Seriously though, Apple isn't even beating Samsung in its formerly impenetrable mobile stronghold, and now it wants to stand up to MS? Turtleneck, please.
 
just now i decided to check and see if the windows 10 store even has anything that anyone would want on xbox but i forgot that mobile storefronts are terrible and i can't tell whether it's any "good" or not

so i guess good luck microsoft
 
Wagram said:
Apple isn't pushing anybody out of the living room so long as they continue to run that shit show they call the app store.
Click to expand...

What is shitty about the App Store?

If Apple iterates on this box every year like they have with everything else I can see the under the hood power in this thing beating out a PS4 in a few years.
 
I find the free upgrade line amusing. Who in their right mind would offer a priced update for a video game console. :O that would be a first. (The n64 expansion doesn't count) :3
 
Krejlooc said:
I don't think you know what a steam machine is.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what a Steam machine is. And every time they've been announced, people have always been disappointed with the pricing because people expected a cheap PC subsidized by Valve. The one exception is maybe the Alienware Alpha.

No one is going to subsidize PCs, or an Xbox that is completely open to any software.
 
lighthouse777 said:
Microsoft's cunning plan to save the Xbox from Apple

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-xbox-one-vs-apple-tv-2015-9#ixzz3lFGcYaK8

TODAY

Tomorrow, Apple will reportedly introduce a new version of the Apple TV with a new focus on gaming and a Nintendo Wii-like motion controller.

It's seen by many, including the New York Times, as a move to push the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 video game consoles out of the living room.


The good news for gamers is that Microsoft has already put a cunning plan to completely change the Xbox One into motion — a plan that would save it from whatever Apple comes up with.

The bad news is that it means killing the very concept of the game console as we know it.

The fact that the Apple TV will likely cost $149, versus the Xbox One's $349 and PlayStation 4's $399 doesn't hurt, either.


Microsoft's cunning plan

In the next few months, Microsoft is planning on releasing Windows 10 as a downloadable update to every single one of the 15 million Xbox One consoles it's sold.

To understand why this is so diabolical, here's a little Microsoft history lesson: The whole reason that the Xbox came into being in the first place was to make it super simple to take a console game and also sell it on Windows.


With an Xbox One that's also a Windows 10 PC, it means that it's a games console that could theoretically run any Windows 10 game, too — though Microsoft hasn't yet shared many details on what Windows 10 will enable on the new console.

In other words, the Xbox One won't just be a games console. It's your new living room PC — just like Microsoft wants the Surface to be your laptop. If there was any question whether Microsoft was serious about becoming a PC maker, that question should be long gone.

At first, Xbox gamers won't notice much difference, except that Microsoft may add a Windows Store that would let you download casual, smartphone-style games from its own cross-platform app store.

But over the next few years, if the Apple TV does diminish the demand for a dedicated video game console in the living room, the Xbox One (or its successors) could turn from a game console into a cheap, effective PC, optimized for gaming and multimedia.

And with the Xbox One-to-Windows 10 streaming, it means that the console is well-positioned to turn into your home's gaming hub.

It means you don't need a super-high-end PC to play the latest titles: Just stream them over the network to your Surface Pro tablet or Lenovo superthin ultrabook and you're playing this year's Batman: Arkham Knight with the best of them, without compromises.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-xbox-one-vs-apple-tv-2015-9#ixzz3lFHm5tln
Click to expand...
Unleash project xboat.
 
Only way apple can disrupt the xbox and sony console business is with aggressive marketing... and i mean sega genesis vs. super nintendo style aggression.

the xbox one and ps4 provider super gaming experiences over the apple tv with the former hosting many apps that apple doesn't have for their apple tv.

Sony needs to step their app game up... but this reveal isn't a do or die for anyone.
 
This brings me back when there were doom stories of console gaming dying.

If MS and Sony face extinction, they shall form forces though. The PlayXtation/BoxStation will prevail.
 
pastrami said:
So...no proof. That's all you had to say. No proof.
Click to expand...

Have you lost track of the point you are trying to make? If you can't build a PC like the alpha for the price they sell it at, that falls right in line with your claim about people being "disappointed."

The alpha is already in Xbox One price range. You can walk into walmart and buy one right now for less than what the Xbox One launched at. With windows included.
 
Krejlooc said:
Really not that complex at all. It's just a giant macro-driven batch file. First, I launch the xbox streaming application on windows 10, using the following command:



next, I launch a program from the batch file called AutoSizer, this lets me save the position and size of the Xbox Streaming window so buttons will be in the same place every time. I have autosizer automatically make the xbox streaming app full screen then close.

Next, I launch an autohotkey script that uses MouseMove to move the position of the mouse and send mouse clicks. (EDIT: One tip - when you do this, use CoordMode to make the XY coordinate you feed your mouse relative to the entire screen, not just active window. This way, even if you lose focus of the xbox streaming window as the batch files open and close, it'll still be clicking in the correct spot of the screen.) I just figured out where the "Xbox streaming" button was, moved the mouse to that button, then clicked, then moved to the "turn on Xbox" button and clicked that, then moved to the "stream" button and clicked that. I saved my autohotkey script as an executable and launch it from my batch file after resizing the xbox streaming application with AutoSizer.

After all that, I took my batch file, and using an online batch to exe converter (like this one: http://www.f2ko.de/en/ob2e.php) turned it into an executable, added it as a non-steam game, then gave it a custom steam banner.

Voila, one click xbox one streaming. I can go from playing a steam game to playing an Xbox One game without ever putting down the controller or changing the channel.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's really creative!

Is the end result just an exe file?
Or are AutoSizer and MouseMove operating in the background? (...waiting to be called upon by the batch-file-turned-executable)
 
Bizzquik said:
Wow, that's really creative!

Is the end result just an exe file?
Or are AutoSizer and MouseMove operating in the background? (...waiting to be called upon by the batch-file-turned-executable)
Click to expand...

MouseMove is a command in autohotkey. I have autohotkey set to start when windows starts, because I use it and eventghost to remap some buttons on my MCE remote. I just send it scripts to execute when I need to. However you can use autohotkey in a variety of ways - it's a very powerful windows macro and remapping tool. You can create macros that themselves compile into executables that you can open from your batchfile if you don't want to keep autohotkey running at all times. In that case, once the macro finishes executing, the autohotkey program closes. Autosizer is installed on the system, the batch file that I turn into an executable opens and closes it as necessary.

I use the following commands pretty extensively, they are very useful for controlling windows through batch files:

Taskkill - Lets you end programs in windows from a command.

Start - lets you run and execute programs from a command line, very useful. You need to properly set up the command, point to the correct startup folder with the /D flag. You can use /wait to make the batch file halt until the started task has ended, which is useful if you want to make sure something finishes before moving on.

within autohotkey, I use the following commands:

MouseMove - moves the mouse cursor to specific locations on an active window or the entire screen. I use CoordMode to make sure the mouse locations I am sending are relative to the entire screen, not a particular window. The command can be instant - i.e. the mouse cursor moves instantly to the desired location, or you can set a movement speed. Using the movement speed is handy if you want to delay an action. Example - because it can take time to connect or turn on my xbox one, I will move the mouse slowly from button to button, exceeding the timeout period, so that the correct actions will be complete by the time I am ready to move on.

MouseClick - This clicks at a specified location relative to either a window or the entire screen. This is the command I use to click buttons on the Xbox One streaming app. A general tip - if you launch the Xbox One streaming app from steam, it'll appear for a moment, then you'll return to the steam interface. This is because what you are actually launching is an executable that is sending batch commands, not the xbox one streaming app itself. When the executable is done sending it's commands, steam thinks the program has ended and returns you to the menu. You can get around this by sending a mouse click command to an area of the screen where the Xbox One streaming app appears, so that it steals focus away from steam. This way, when the command line executable program ends, the Xbox One streaming app still has focus.

In the end, everything is activated from one executable, which I add into steam. If I open the shortcut in steam labeled "Xbox One" it'll run my batch file to open the xbox streaming app, open the streaming tab, turn on my xbox, and set the client to start streaming.
 
Krejlooc said:
MouseMove is a command in autohotkey. I have autohotkey set to start when windows starts, because I use it and eventghost to remap some buttons on my MCE remote. I just send it scripts to execute when I need to. However you can use autohotkey in a variety of ways - it's a very powerful windows macro and remapping tool. You can create macros that themselves compile into executables that you can open from your batchfile if you don't want to keep autohotkey running at all times. In that case, once the macro finishes executing, the autohotkey program closes. Autosizer is installed on the system, the batch file that I turn into an executable opens and closes it as necessary.

I use the following commands pretty extensively, they are very useful for controlling windows through batch files:

Taskkill - Lets you end programs in windows from a command.

Start - lets you run and execute programs from a command line, very useful. You need to properly set up the command, point to the correct startup folder with the /D flag. You can use /wait to make the batch file halt until the started task has ended, which is useful if you want to make sure something finishes before moving on.

within autohotkey, I use the following commands:

MouseMove - moves the mouse cursor to specific locations on an active window or the entire screen. I use CoordMode to make sure the mouse locations I am sending are relative to the entire screen, not a particular window. The command can be instant - i.e. the mouse cursor moves instantly to the desired location, or you can set a movement speed. Using the movement speed is handy if you want to delay an action. Example - because it can take time to connect or turn on my xbox one, I will move the mouse slowly from button to button, exceeding the timeout period, so that the correct actions will be complete by the time I am ready to move on.

MouseClick - This clicks at a specified location relative to either a window or the entire screen. This is the command I use to click buttons on the Xbox One streaming app. A general tip - if you launch the Xbox One streaming app from steam, it'll appear for a moment, then you'll return to the steam interface. This is because what you are actually launching is an executable that is sending batch commands, not the xbox one streaming app itself. When the executable is done sending it's commands, steam thinks the program has ended and returns you to the menu. You can get around this by sending a mouse click command to an area of the screen where the Xbox One streaming app appears, so that it steals focus away from steam. This way, when the command line executable program ends, the Xbox One streaming app still has focus.

In the end, everything is activated from one executable, which I add into steam. If I open the shortcut in steam labeled "Xbox One" it'll run my batch file to open the xbox streaming app, open the streaming tab, turn on my xbox, and set the client to start streaming.
Click to expand...

AutoHotKey is good stuff. I use it to control my audio outputs and Afterburner overclocking. Sounds like you're far more advanced than I am, though!

You should make a new topic with an Idiot-Proof guide to making this work. (I mean really, really, dummy it up).
[1] "install this program (link to program)
[2] open up AutoHotKey and copy & paste this text (insert text) and save as ___."
[3] etc

I bet GAF would be interested!
 
This is more than just spearheading Apple, they are also going after Valve as well with this. Yeah they are trying to combat Apple TV and Steam Machine's at the same time. Wouldn't it be something if users could install Steam on their Xbox One? SteamOS is slowly growing into a Linux powered gaming platform, this could be a problem for Microsoft and Windows down the road in a longer term. Apple is trying to position Apple TV to compete with the PS4 and XBox One.

It makes me wonder if Steam will be installable on Windows 10 for XBox One? Or if this will be a version that has a walled garden level of functionality that will be mandated by Microsoft?
 
Bizzquik said:
AutoHotKey is good stuff. I use it to control my audio outputs and Afterburner overclocking. Sounds like you're far more advanced than I am, though!

You should make a new topic with an Idiot-Proof guide to making this work. (I mean really, really, dummy it up).
[1] "install this program (link to program)
[2] open up AutoHotKey and copy & paste this text (insert text) and save as ___."
[3] etc

I bet GAF would be interested!
Click to expand...

Honestly, a lot of this autohotkey stuff won't be necessary in about a month once steam controllers arrive. At that point, controlling your mouse from your couch with a controller becomes trivial. The xbox one streaming app is completely navigable with a steam controller, meaning all you have to do is create a batch file that launches the streaming app and nothing more. Sure you'd have to put down your steam controller and pick up an xbox one controller but that's just a minor inconvenience if you can't be bothered to do what I describe above. I have my PS4 running to an ExtremeCap U3 so I can stream my PS4 to my PC as well, and basically play my entire library from one device without ever changing the channel, but I have to switch controllers in that case. So having to switch to the xbox one controller isn't a big deal for me.

You can use the method I described, however, to add all sorts of things to steam. It's really useful if you want to add, say, netflix or hulu or any other type of website-based streaming content to steam through an actual shortcut in your games list. That's how I have the ESPN3 shortcut in the image I posted earlier.
 
MrCunningham said:
This is more than just spearheading Apple, they are also going after Valve as well with this. Yeah they are trying to combat Apple TV and Steam Machine's at the same time. Wouldn't it be something if users could install Steam on their Xbox One? SteamOS is slowly growing into a Linux powered gaming platform, this could be a problem for Microsoft and Windows down the road in a longer term. Apple is trying to position Apple TV to compete with the PS4 and XBox One.

It makes me wonder if Steam will be installable on Windows 10 for XBox One? Or if this will be a version that has a walled garden level of functionality that will be mandated by Microsoft?
Click to expand...

Valve would jump at this. That is basically valves goal. Valve isn't pinning their hopes to any single method of using steam, their grand plan is the steam universe. Steam being everywhere, on every machine. Steam on the Xbox One would be a huge valve victory.
 
Krejlooc said:
Valve would jump at this. That is basically valves goal. Valve isn't pinning their hopes to any single method of using steam, their grand plan is the steam universe. Steam being everywhere, on every machine. Steam on the Xbox One would be a huge valve victory.
Click to expand...


It would be a huge victory for valve, but it would also be a victory for MS as well as it would be a good way to suppress a competing OS like SteamOS and by proxy, Linux. I realize Linux is still not the biggest threat on their list in the immediate future, but with Valve curating it as a gaming platform, it could be. Here's some pretty interesting performance benchmarks comparing the performance of Dota 2 Reborn on Linux to Windows 10 pro. Of course this is still OpenGL to DX11. I agree with you that Valve's grand plan is to make Steam as widespread as possible. But they also want to do it without being locked down into other companies OS's.
 
Art Vandilay said:
The timing of this article is a bit peculiar. It's titled "The Xbox One is a Windows 10 Device". While this could very well just be marketing bullshit so MS can say they have X amount of devices with Windows 10 installed, it will be interesting to see what could come of this. I, for one, would definitely be on board with playing scaled down PC exclusives on the XB1.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/10/the-xbox-one-is-a-windows-10-device
Click to expand...
It's not marketing bullshit, but it doesn't mean xbox is going to be able to run any desktop app, like steam and its games.

It's a windows 10 device, but it's still a curated one and you be only able to install games and apps from ms store.
 
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