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Speaking in an interview this week, Windows Gaming head Dave Lester has revealed that “Xbox 2 peripherals will all work on PC”.
The announcement will come as little surprise to some, as the current Xbox controllers use an altered form of the USB interface, which is standard on PC, and the fact that there are third party adaptors available for using an Xbox controller on PC.
This news has added to the ever-growing list of gaming benefits within Microsoft’s up-and-coming 64-bit compatible operating system, currently codenamed “Longhorn”. Their (ambitious) intention is to have the development process for Xbox 2 to be almost identical to that of the similarly XNA-based Longhorn development platform, resulting in almost effortless porting from Xbox 2 to PC
In conjunction with Longhorn’s ability to access the Xbox’s online gaming network, Xbox Live, this will supposedly result in gamers being given a choice between playing a game on Xbox or PC, and, with this newly-announced peripheral compatibility, being able to have an identical play experience on both platforms, including online play.
While some might consider these intentions to be unrealistic, even idealistic, should these plans come to fruition, it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to many gamers, for both the convenience and also the possible performance boost earned from having powerful enough a PC, as well as the fact that the choice between the two platforms will amount to little more than swapping the controller over from one box to the other.