Xenon control pads will be compatible with Longhorn

[Love_In_Rio]

In a separate address, Microsoft Senior Vice President Will Poole, who oversees the company's Windows Client Business division, discussed various Longhorn features...Poole talked about how a "virtual registry" feature will provide backward compatibility with legacy applications in the new environment. And he revealed that the game controllers for the next-generation Xbox 2 will be Longhorn compatible, providing a single controller for both video game consoles and PCs

Source: http://www.windowsitpro.com/windows...rticleID/46173/windowspaulthurrott_46173.html

 

[rabidrabbit]

As the xbox360 controller seems to be wireless, that is very likely they'll be usable in PC's, unklike the current xbox controller that were essentially usb but with the connector shaped so that it wouldn't go in standard usb port.

Or will it be just the button layout that'll be "compatible", will MS rather sell separate controllers for xbox360 and PC?
At least the PC would need a wireless receiver that needs to be sold separately unless motherboard manufacturers start to include it in their boards as standard.

 

[Acert93]

Makes sense. I remember MS saying this a couple months back when talking about XNA and Live how they specifically wanted to bridge the Xbox and the PC, where LIVE and the controller would be the same, whether you got the PC or Xbox version of the game.

Obviously wont work for all games, but could be a nice bridge to bring certain Xbox 360 games over to the PC and have them play just as well... and on the reverse in 5 years when Xbox3 is getting ready to ship they can reverse it and leverage the PC some. I think it is MS way of slightly blurring PC/Xbox gaming and also giving the PC a shot in the arm so to speak. MS obviously views the PC as the "Windows Gaming Platform" so they are trying to leverage their strengths across the board. The controller will be a small perk (nothing big in most PC games) but the Live on the PC would be a welcome change. TeamSpeak and Ventrillo are OK but very few PC gamers use them... and the voice chat in games (like CSS) has a lot of problems. Sounds like BF2 will have a nice system, but that is more the exception than rule.

Anyhow, I am hoping they "leverage" the KB/MS to the Xbox 360

 

[Iron Tiger]

As the xbox360 controller seems to be wireless, that is very likely they'll be usable in PC's, unklike the current xbox controller that were essentially usb but with the connector shaped so that it wouldn't go in standard usb port.

Or will it be just the button layout that'll be "compatible", will MS rather sell separate controllers for xbox360 and PC?
At least the PC would need a wireless receiver that needs to be sold separately unless motherboard manufacturers start to include it in their boards as standard.

My guess is that there's USB connections under the X360's front hatch. If wireless controllers are standard, they should provide a means to recharge them instead of forcing people to buy batteries. USB would enable that, as well as cross compatibility with PC.