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[MaulerX]

They talked about this a few minutes ago -- they are planning a combined approval process for windows phone, pc and xbox not separate processes.

Retail xbones will have to support sideloading anyway, since they will be used for the development/testing

For people questioning weather MS would allow emulators on XB1, this might be the best answer yet. Signing up to a free dev account, anyone would be able to sideload the apps they want. So even if MS does not allow it on the actual app store itself, who's to stop someone from side loading it anyways?

 

[CraZed]

I own both a Lumia and a Surface Pro and while the windows phone store has gotten better the Windows 8 store still lags behind. Badly!

So for those of us who have more than one Windows 8 device this could be a boon. Will be interesting to see how this actually works. I am guessing there will still be compatibility issues. So does this mean the marketplaces themselves will be integrated into one? So I'll see the same apps no matter what device I am using? Cautiously optimistic.

 

[gruenel]

yep. Might not have sold my xbone knowing that.
Why the hell wasn't this announced sooner ?

They talked about this a year ago...

 

[TrepValk]

Resulting questions:
When will we see it?

Universal apps become available with the Windows 8.1 update (starting April 8th). Windows Phone 8.1 whenever that gets released. No date on XBONE from the conference.

Will the apps have the same pricing across all platforms?

I would assume only one price for a universal app. Old apps would stay the same.

What apps will be excluded (ie. Plex)?

Each update to a Windows app goes through certification. So stuff could get through.

 

[StudioTan]

Not at all. For one thing, no rollovers. There's a lot to consider in controller vs mouse vs touch.

Please explain. The A button would just simulate your finger touching the screen. Why would an app designed for touch have rollovers?

 

[justsomeguy]

For people questioning weather MS would allow emulators on XB1, this might be the best answer yet. Signing up to a free dev account, anyone would be able to sideload the apps they want. So even if MS does not allow it on the actual app store itself, who's to stop someone from side loading it anyways?

XNA dev license was $99/year, and you needed to build and run from a Windows PC. Totally do-able, but enough to make it non-trivial for standard consumers.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I wonder if Microsoft will allow that on the Xbox One? Isn't Onedrive on the Xbox One limited to solely pictures and videos?



As an option. They said developers will have the choice for a cross platform purchase or set it up however they want.

At work so I can't check for sure.

However, OneDrive app != file picker with OneDrive support. We'll see what they do. They'll likely include some sort of file picker, and it would be pretty obvious to support OneDrive and pretty dumb to only support certain file formats, especially if a dev wants to create an app with a custom file format for something cool. It just seems unlikely they would have a whitelist of extensions since apps are sandboxed anyway so couldn't do any harm to the OS even if it was some nefarious file.

 

[MCD]

VLC VLC VLC

 

[DieH@rd]

I cant wait to see what their plans will be avout that ridiculous XBLive Gold paywall they set on all apps. I mean, how crazy they have to be to continue placing Skype, Internet Explorer, TV guide app and all multimedia apps behind stupid paywall.

 

[LukasTaves]

Apparently that's windows 9 not 8 (going by the thread in the OT)

They said an update to windows 8.1 in the conference, but it was as a preview of things coming further down the road.

Perhaps by then they will make W8.1 fully upgradeable to windows 9 if that's really how they are gonna call it.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

 

[nded]

How would they do that if the emulator doesn't include bios or games? Hell, OUYA has a bunch of emulators!

Presumably by finding ways to make it inconvenient for the emulator app dev to keep operating. I'm sure Nintendo's legal team can think of something.

 

[Garrett 2U]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

You are trying to downplay this hard.

It allows devs to self-publish to the Xbox platform. It's big.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

All they have to do is recompile for xbox...no extra coding (though they can)...game over playstation

LOL!!

 

[ghst]

maybe after this sony will reach the dizzy heights of PS4 functionality and allow you to play a fucking MP3 on it.

 

[FranXico]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

It still boosts the amount of available applications on the xbone.

tbh, I remember when they promised universal applications on W8 and WP8, but in the end they were just allowing us to share assets while porting, and not much more.

I imagine it will be similar to get an app running on the xbone.

All they have to do is recompile for xbox...no extra coding (though they can)...game over playstation

Like I said above, they promised as much before and it didn't quite work out like that... It is never as simple as "just recompile".

 

[StudioTan]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

You really can't see why a developer being able to make a game or app for Windows Phone and have it work on and be able to sell it on Xbox One and Windows 8.1 as well isn't a big deal?

 

[flkraven]

How much of a mind fuck would it be if the app store gets a Playstation Now app?

 

[Delusibeta]

Number of people who cares about Metro apps: zero. The Windows Store is a complete wasteland, and I don't think this will do anything to change that,

 

[tino]

Well if it supports emulation proper I might get a 'bone.

New CEO is already better than Baldmer.

 

[MaulerX]

XNA dev license was $99/year, and you needed to build and run from a Windows PC. Totally do-able, but enough to make it non-trivial for standard consumers.

You can already sign up for a free account. It's easy. Then you download the developer unlock app from the WP store that unlocks your phone and lets you do nifty things like side loading and getting early access to updates. I'm going to assume that the process won't be much different for XB1 and thus if someone REALLY wanted to do this then it wouldn't be that hard at all.

 

[StudioTan]

Number of people who cares about Metro apps: zero. The Windows Store is a complete wasteland, and I don't think this will do anything to change that,

There are a lot of great apps on Windows Phone that can soon be updated to also work across PC and Xbox. Some people are being very shortsighted.

 

[nded]

Number of people who cares about Metro apps: zero. The Windows Store is a complete wasteland, and I don't think this will do anything to change that,

I dunno man, lots of people in this thread seem convinced they're gonna get SNES emulators on their Xbone and Nintendo somehow won't do anything to stop it.

 

[Garrett 2U]

It still boosts the amount of available applications on the xbone.

tbh, I remember when they promised universal applications on W8 and WP8, but in the end they were just allowing us to share assets while porting, and not much more.

I imagine it will be similar to get an app running on the xbone.

I don't know what they had in place before, but they just unveiled the universal windows app at this build conference, so it's something new.

It looked extremely simple to support multiple devices. You share the code base between multiple UIs.

 

[Chettlar]

Well if it supports emulation proper I might get a 'bone.

New CEO is already better than Baldmer.

I was a fan of Nadella the moment he put Spencer in charge of Xbox.

 

[tino]

VLC VLC VLC

VLC is already on W8 store. It doesn't even support SMB or NAS. Its garbage.

 

[MCD]

VLC is already on W8 store. It doesn't even support SMB or NAS. Its garbage.

And it crashes every sec. But I have faith in the team so I expect things will get better with time.

 

[Lynn616]

Did they give a time frame? Hard to get excited without one.

Number of people who cares about Metro apps: zero. The Windows Store is a complete wasteland, and I don't think this will do anything to change that,

I like the Windows Store and use plenty of the apps there. They have a lot of great apps.

 

[Exploratory]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

That's taking a supremely negative approach unsupported by historical evidence. Developers go where the money is. YoY Windows Phone has done better and better in terms of market share and I think the WP market makes almost as much as the Android one despite Android having a ton of users. The developers will come. Windows Phone already has much better support than a year ago. The Windows 8 store having easy ports from the Windows Phone store is great and will drive Universal apps. And if its easy to do why not get your app on all Windows devices.

I absolutely see this as a megaton. I'm swaying between XB1 and PS4. I have a myriad of devices including a Surface 2 and the Windows store already has a great many apps I'd like to use a on a home console. From emulators (Pokemon on Xbox) to apps like Video Players or podcast apps. That's a ton of extra functionality being brought to the table.

Also yes first post!

 

[justsomeguy]

It still boosts the amount of available applications on the xbone.

tbh, I remember when they promised universal applications on W8 and WP8, but in the end they were just allowing us to share assets while porting, and not much more.

I imagine it will be similar to get an app running on the xbone.



Like I said above, they promised as much before and it didn't quite work out like that... It is never as simple as "just recompile".

Nope this time it is literally shared code, all using the same API - WinRT. It has never been that way before so is not like the old "shared" Phone/Win model.

You put all the common code in an "App.Shared" project, then add any platform-specific stuff in a dedicated project such as App.Windows, App.Phone - but again both are built using WinRT.

Then when you build you get output for both platforms (presumably all 3 once XBox is added) - here's my output log for a blank app.

1> App6.Windows -> C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\App6\App6\App6.Windows\bin\Debug\App6.Windows.exe
2> App6.WindowsPhone -> C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\App6\App6\App6.WindowsPhone\bin\Debug\App6.WindowsPhone.exe

 

[hoyalawya]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

IMO, this will turn the Xbox into a more complete computing platform and turn your TV into a more versatile device. The platform will of course be multimedia focus. I can see myself using a weather app, Viber, and Instagram on the Xbox One right away. Not all apps will be suitable for TV use but Microsoft is putting the infrastructure there for developers. It will be now be up to the developers' creativity to push the platform further.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

I dunno man, lots of people in this thread seem convinced they're gonna get SNES emulators on their Xbone and Nintendo somehow won't do anything to stop it.

In theory can Nintendo stop it? Emulators don't break any laws AFAIK. If you had legally dumped roms on a external HDD or PC connected via a network what could Nintendo do.

 

[FranXico]

I don't know what they had in place before, but they just unveiled the universal windows app at this build conference, so it's something new.

It looked extremely simple to support multiple devices. You share the code base between multiple UIs.

Yes, when they launched WP8, they promised app running seamlessly across W8 and WP8. In practice, what we got were facilities for making ports or "companion apps". The fact that WP8 could link to a subset of win32 actually was a big deal.

It will be simpler (as it should), but you still have some work porting your app. The claims that some people on this thread are making that "you just take the same exact code and recompile" are naive to say the least.

 

[LunaticHigh]

What is the point of this? As a consumer, I see zero value. as a developer, I see no potential. Does anyone take Universal Windows Apps seriously? That place is a barren wasteland and, to me, as a windows 8 user, worse than most spyware. Unless I'm misunderstanding.

This isn't going to allow emulators, or any sort of gaming advantage. It's just apps available on the windows store no?

 

[Miles Quaritch]

I would assume only one price for a universal app. Old apps would stay the same.

Cross buy finally makes it to the MS platform. Took them long enough....

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

You are trying to downplay this hard.

It allows devs to self-publish to the Xbox platform. It's big.

How the hell can I downplay something that isn't a reality yet. This whole thread is talking about emulators. Really? Bye with that.

The Xbox One will get the benefit of having the app however it's not going to be the platform that pulls developers first and foremost. Your kidding yourself if you think the Xbone one is ringing bells to all developers to create apps.

It still boosts the amount of available applications on the xbone.

tbh, I remember when they promised universal applications on W8 and WP8, but in the end they were just allowing us to share assets while porting, and not much more.

I imagine it will be similar to get an app running on the xbone.



Like I said above, they promised as much before and it didn't quite work out like that... It is never as simple as "just recompile".

As I said above its a benefit but not the self starter to kick this campaign up. So it's on everything Windows, but if people aren't buying Microsoft products then what good does this do?

You really can't see why a developer being able to make a game or app for Windows Phone and have it work on and be able to sell it on Xbox One and Windows 8.1 as well isn't a big deal?

It's a big deal for Xbox Fans but not a big deal for the general public who still aren't convinced that this vision MS is trying to create is good enough to leave their ecosystems for. I'm not looking at only Xbox for this and that's what everyone is failing to realize.

 

[Artex]

I suppose so, but it's ultimately just MS trying to save Windows 8, which isn't going to happen. Windows 8, Windows Phone, and even Xbox are all platforms the public are struggling to adopt.

 

[JaggedSac]

I wonder if Microsoft will allow that on the Xbox One? Isn't Onedrive on the Xbox One limited to solely pictures and videos?



As an option. They said developers will have the choice for a cross platform purchase or set it up however they want.

OneDrive has a simple ReST API, MS isn't going to limit http requests for Bone apps. There will be apps for OneDrive, DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc. Pretty much anything with a public facing API will see an app.

 

[FranXico]

This time it's one single API (specifically WinRT) across Phone, XBox and Windows Store... It has never been that way before... nothing like the old Phone/Win model.

WinRT is a pretty vast API.

In practice, the different kinds of devices will probably support variably overlapping subsets of it.

It is, of course, very much improved, but not a completely transparent virtual machine.

 

[NukeLaser]

And it crashes every sec. But I have faith in the team so I expect things will get better with time.

The app is in beta right now, so I would expect the performance to increase significantly as they collect more data from users.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Lol come on guys, there ain't gonna be no SNES emulators on Xbox One.

I'm guessing there will be. If MS heavily regulates what slips through, it nearly defeats the entire purpose of the endeavor. Where do they draw the line? Just blocking all clones of popular games would be a huge endeavor.

 

[FranXico]

You put all the common code in an "App.Shared" project, then add any platform-specific stuff in a dedicated project such as App.Windows, App.Phone - but again both are built using WinRT.e

I could do this in VS2012 already.

 

[mrklaw]

IMO, this will turn the Xbox into a more complete computing platform and turn your TV into a more versatile device. The platform will of course be multimedia focus. I can see myself using a weather app, Viber, and Instagram on the Xbox One right away. Not all apps will be suitable for TV use but Microsoft is putting the infrastructure there for developers. It will be now be up to the developers' creativity to push the platform further.

This. I don't think it is neccesarily huge for devs, but it could be huge for gamers.

Look at the threads screaming for various media functions on Xbox and PS4. Yet many of us have preferred apps we like to use. Having a more open platform for third party devs means a much richer potential for Xbox. And that is unique for an 'under the TV' box. Combine with TV passthrough and I think it's pretty exciting

 

[shandy706]

Maybe I'm not seeing this but why are people relating this announcement more for the Xbox than WP8 and W8? The Xbox One does not account for all window devices. It's apart of the ecosystem. Developers aren't just going to flock to the Windows platform because they are excited for the Xbox. Most of app purchases usage come from Phones, Tablets, Web. Consoles are not so much on that list unless it's streaming video apps so I'm still not getting why everyone is cheering this on as if they is something that will do damage for the Xbox. It's won't until everything else, where developers will get the most revenue which resides on mobile, starts selling starting with the WP8 and W8 the platform.

It's wishful thinking at this point if the Xbox is going to benefit from this. In the grand scheme of things, sure it will, but tbh the Xbox isn't the only Microsoft product and devs won't be convinced until they sell the actual devices they want to create them for.

You are trying to downplay this hard.

It allows devs to self-publish to the Xbox platform. It's big.

It's only his/her 3rd post in this thread saying this doesn't matter/it's nothing good for Xbox.

Is there a saying the same thing post limit? Lol

(I'm guessing 3rd...could have missed some)

 

[yuraya]

Is this a new skin for 8.1? If so than people need to put download link because I am in love with that menu I hope they go this route with win9.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I suppose so, but it's ultimately just MS trying to save Windows 8, which isn't going to happen. Windows 8, Windows Phone, and even Xbox are all platforms the public are struggling to adopt.

Well one of the reasons is because of the lack of apps compared to other platforms. This concept of universal apps should really help that problem as it greatly reduces the amount of work developers have to do to reach 3 platforms with a single app which allows them to reach a huge audience (especially on a game console, something that until this point has been a closed garden for apps). It will be interesting to watch how this unfolds though.

Is this a new skin for 8.1? If so than people need to put download link because I am in love with that menu I hope they go this route with win9.

No, it's an official thing by MS. They said it's for a future update, but didn't give specifics. I'm guessing it's the start of Windows 9.

 

[PG2G]

The potential of something with the capability of XBMC just kinda excites me.

As much as we like to rely on official video players, they will never have the format support that the third party offerings have. Imagine an Xbox One that will play any video you throw at it?

 

[GoofsterStud]

I think a lot of you are jumping he gun....

Imagine people playing SNES, GBA, N64 games before they are available on the Wii-U. Microsoft would be responsible for allowing that to happen on a competing device without Nintendo's consent or royalties. This will never happen. Nintendo would win this lawsuit in a heartbeat. Direct competition, copyrights, protecting intellectual properties and on a closed system.... Good luck with that.

PlayStation Now if Sony allows it could be a possibility. I doubt they would.

 

[FranXico]

Off topic, but I'm sure this will please some people:

That is very nice.

Windows 8.2 or 9?

More importantly, is it a free upgrade for 8.x owners?

 

[PG2G]

Is this a new skin for 8.1? If so than people need to put download link because I am in love with that menu I hope they go this route with win9.

it is an upcoming Windows update lol. Unknown if Windows 9 or update to 8.1