We have all seen the obvious inclusion of gaming into the upcoming Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft. It has an entire portal on the OS dedicated to gaming either via Xbox Live games or those developed by other software companies as apps on Windows 8.
We have also seen a significant transition of the Xbox 360 Dashboard over the last year or so into its own modern theme, aka Metro, and create a lot of similarities as we navigate the dashboard and the new Windows 8 Start Screen.
Well there is also additional integration that happens if you are running Windows 8 and have an Xbox 360 on your home network.
For example, when you start up your Xbox 360 you will see a pop-up that invites you to interact with the console via the Xbox SmartGlass app in Windows 8:
Clicking on that takes you to the Windows 8 SmartGlass app:
Of course you have to be using the same Microsoft Account on your Xbox 360 as you do on your Windows 8 machine. I think for the majority of folks this would be the norm anyway.
Another area that you will see your Xbox 360 console is in your PC Settings>Devices screen:
That dialog box allows you to rename the default Xbox 360 to whatever you want it to use as the name of your Xbox 360 throughout the OS. You will also see a link to the Xbox SmartGlass app in the Windows Store. Apparently that links appears whether you have already installed it or not.
Just as Microsoft has been saying for a few years they want to make the movement between all three of our major screens, which include our phones, PC’s and tablets as transparent as possible and integration like this is helping to accomplish that goal.
