Xbox 360 games on your PC?

The internet is abuzz with a rumour that seems too good to be true and yet is so bizarre it may actually come to pass.

Earlier this month Microsoft announced that it was merging Games for Windows Marketplace with xbox.com.The post on gamesforwindows.com stated, "Games for Windows Marketplace willfully transition over to Xbox.com. Now you can get all of your gaming needs in one place. It's convenient, it's concentrated, and it's a whole lot of great games." This merger is scheduled from 11 July, so it should be live in NZ any moment now.

It seems that Microsoft may not be stopping there. Back in May, Insideris reckoned they had word, apparently on good authority, that Microsoft were planning to allow Xbox 360 games to play on Windows 8-laden PCs. This news seems to have been resurrected by the folks at Teknylate and then rebroadcasted around the internet.

As grand as it may sound, the big question is, why? Why would Microsoft want people to play Xbox 360 games on a PC? Sure, expanding the 360user base to include Windows 8 PC users may sound grand on paper, but who is really going to want to buy and play console games on their PC?

For example, shortly after the astoundingly gorgeous JustCause 2 came out on the Xbox 360, Valve's Steam service was offering the game for half the price of the Xbox 360 version. On a top-end PC, the game runs with visuals that would give a 360 a red ring of death. Add a wireless dongle and an Xbox 360 controller and you can have the full 360 experience at half the price with twice the on-screen resolution.

No disrespect to the Xbox 360, but who's going to want to play a cranky-looking Xbox 360 game, running at a paltry 720p resolution, on their swanky new Direct X god-knows-what Windows 8 machine? It'll give you the same bad taste you get when sticking a PSOne game in a PlayStation 3. Sounds like a good idea, but ends up being sort of underwhelming.  It is unlikely that anyone is going to pay Xbox 360 prices when a cheaper, better looking PC version is also available.

Whilst it would be an interesting idea, and would certainly provide this writer with yet another method of wasting time, it's doubtful that it will actually come to pass. That being said, stranger things have happened.