PC Advisor

OUTBOX
BRAD
CHACOS
Windows under threat
W “
£450. The Xbox One sells for less than £300. If
PC-to-Xbox streaming were enabled, that £299
would grant you access to not only the full
indows is under assault like it has never
been before, and Microsoft could have
used its sweeping Windows 10-powered
New Xbox One Experience update to cut a powerful
new competitor off at the knees. But it didn’t.
From the rise of mobile technology to the
tremendous slowing of PC performance increases
to Apple’s Mac surge, Windows has been looking
wobbly for five years or more. What’s worse (for
Microsoft), the titanic mistake dubbed Windows 8
sparked a mutiny of sorts inside the PC industry
itself, inspiring Valve – the company behind Steam
– and over a dozen PC makers to gamble on Steam
Machines: radically small PCs, powered by the
Linux-based SteamOS, designed both to usurp
Windows’ iron-fisted control over PC gaming and
to drag PC gaming into the living room.
After a long delay, the first wave of Steam
Machines launched in November, alongside Valve’s
Steam Controller and Steam Link. Make no mistake
about it: the appearance of a gaming-focused,
Linux-based threat to Windows, backed by the
largest and most beloved company in PC gaming,
is nothing short of a major threat for Windows.
We found our initial week in a Steam-powered
living room nothing short of intoxicating.
But Steam Machines are far from perfect. In
a nutshell, because they’re full-blown gaming
PCs in their own right, Steam Machines cost as
much as or more than an Xbox One, but they’re
still stuck running Steam for Linux’s limited
game library. In order to play your full catalogue
of Windows-centric Steam games, you have to
stream those games from your Windows gaming
PC to your Steam Machine using Valve’s slick
Steam in-home streaming feature.
It’s a glaring potential pain point. This is
where Microsoft could have struck with its New
Xbox One Experience, but it failed to do so.
Leaning on its shared Windows 10 core, the
Xbox One’s NXOE lets you stream your Xbox games
to any Windows 10 device in your house. Critically,
however, it fails to do the reverse. You can’t stream
PC games from your Windows 10 system to your
TV via the Xbox One, despite the fact that Steam
in-home streaming and nVidia’s GameStream
technology already offer that very feature.
If Microsoft had enabled PC-to-Xbox One
streaming in the New Xbox One Experience – which
was pushed out a mere two days after the Steam
Machine launch – it could have leveraged its
console to hit a major competitor where it hurts,
while that competitor’s still in its infancy.
Ignoring the bare-bones Link, the cheapest
Steam Machine available today costs around
Xbox One game library, but your full PC gaming
library as well. Note that I didn’t say your Steam
library: while Steam Machines lock you into
Valve’s ecosystem, Microsoft could theoretically
open the doors to your Origin, uPlay, and locally
installed games, as well.
But it didn’t. The NXOE’s game-streaming is
a one-way street, and it’s pointing in a direction
that does no good for PC gamers.
Maybe the Xbox One’s weak AMD Jaguar CPU
cores have issues decoding streams sent from
PCs. Maybe Microsoft has focused on maximising
the Xbox One’s utility, or perhaps it’s worried that
allowing streaming from PCs could cannibalise
Xbox game revenue. Arguably, that loss could
be worthwhile if it staved off a threat toward
Windows itself. Who knows?
For what it’s worth, Microsoft says it’s working
to allow Windows 10 users to stream games to the
Xbox One. Not having it ready in time to roll with
the New Xbox One Experience – to shatter the
Steam Machines before they get off the ground
– feels like a significant miss, though. If Steam
Machines rise in popularity during the upcoming
holiday season, and enjoy even mild momentum
in the years to come, this tardy Xbox One feature
could wind up proving costly indeed. J
Zotac’s tiny Steam Machine,
next to Valve’s Steam Controller
If Microsoft
had enabled
PC-to-Xbox One
streaming in
the New Xbox
One Experience,
it could have
leveraged its
console to hit a
major competitor
where it hurts
”
146 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/opinion February 2016