microsoft xbox 360 wireless receiver for windows

Complicating the matter further for those so inclined is the fact that very few games natively support gamepads or joysticks which leaves players, at best, with the hassle of manually assigning commands to the controller buttons, and at worst, unable to use a controller at all due to the game not recognizing the analog sticks. Genres that would require one, like fighting or platforming games, have never made much of a splash on the PC, and there are few who'd choose a gamepad over a mouse and keyboard combo for FPS titles. Support for, and the desirability of, a gamepad for the PC has traditionally been pretty questionable.

Since launch, the wired USB Xbox 360 controllers have worked with Windows XP via simple driver installation, which was a nice, if rarely used, feature. The project is still in the works, however, but the building blocks are already starting to be put in place, specifically in terms of accessory inter-compatibility between the Xbox 360 and PC. The planned uber-network of Xbox Live Anywhere will tie PC gamers into the cohesive online service that many see as the 360's most desirable feature. Microsoft will also aim to parlay the success of the Xbox 360 into the Vista experience. That's actually only the surface of a broader 'Games for Windows' push that Microsoft is only just beginning to ramp up, which will shortly include a lot of marketing, unified design for game boxes and more prominent retail placement in stores. As we discussed in Part 2 of our Windows Vista Journal, Vista's Games Explorer consolidates installed games and offers features like parental control. Windows Vista will be Microsoft's warmest embrace of gaming yet. A couple of OSs and a decade after Microsoft's first attempt to call one of its operating systems a 'gaming platform,' the dynamic may finally be about to change. Though Microsoft first gave gaming a nod when it began hyping the release of Windows 95 and a collection of APIs dubbed DirectX, PC gaming has never approached the simple and cohesive experience possible on a dedicated gaming console.

Until pretty recently, PC gaming was very much an exercise in harnessing the power of hardware and an operating system designed for general productivity and applying it to a hobby far less business oriented.

Microsoft xbox 360 wireless receiver for windows