Vista-only titles cracked to run on Windows XP

Wednesday 27th June 2007, 02:02:00 PM, written by Farid

Microsoft wants gamers running its new OS as soon as possible. One of the incentive MS pushed to seduce the gaming crowd, other than bringing its fee-based Live online community platform to Vista, was to propose DirectX 10-only, and thus Vista-only, titles. Without any DX10 title around, MS opted for locking the PC ports of Halo 2 (Xbox) and Shadowrun (Xbox 360) to the Vista platform. It was thus impossible to start and play these games on a Windows XP… Until some hackers had their words to say about that.

Indeed, a hacking group going by the name of “Razor911” released patches that allow these Vista only titles to run on DX 9 and Windows XP. Obviously, using these patches will make it impossible to log in to the Live platform and thus will make achievement unlocking, in both games, and cross platform play in Shadowrun impossible.A fact that should be a lukewarm consolation to MS who probably expected these games to remain Vista exclusive, by any means, for more than a few weeks.

Discuss on the forums

microsoft ± halo, shadowrun, vista, xp

Microsoft Releases C++ AMP Open Specification
Microsoft June 2008 DirectX SDK Update
Microsoft reports strong second quarter results
Microsoft licenses graphics technology to Weta Digital
Microsoft reports 4th quarter/year-end earnings
Peter Moore Steps Down
Xbox 360 hardware architect inteview on Channel 9
Microsoft announces new Xbox 360 model: Elite
Microsoft on the future of DirectX
Microsoft increases XBLA size limit to 150MB; announces larger memory card