Microsoft has been hard at work establishing the Unified Windows Platform, a program designed to make it easier for developers to port their software from the PC version of Windows 10 to devices like the Xbox One. Over the weekend, an update for Torrex Pro was released that began laying groundwork for such a jump.
Several years ago, it would have been unimaginable that a torrenting utility would be available to download via a major console storefront. However, the growing popularity of digital downloads has meant that the variety of content offered on these services has become much more varied.
Beyond that, there’s the growing sense that Microsoft is looking at the Xbox One as a PC for the living room, rather than just a traditional games console. With that in mind, it makes sense that the company would offer as broad a range of content to the system as you would expect to find for your home computer.
However, it remains to be seen just how much of Torrex Pro’s functionality will make the jump. The Xbox One is still a closed system, so we shouldn’t expect to be using the app to download and unpack torrent files as is possible using the PC version of the software.
Torrenting is still a leading method of illegally downloading copyrighted software like music, films and video games. By making this functionality available, Microsoft would have to run the risk of harming its own media distribution services — not to mention the capacity for unwanted content that could potentially target consoles.
Downloading will probably not be among Torrex Pro’s capabilities once it’s available on the Xbox One. However, the app also functions as a media player, which will probably be a tempting proposition for power users dissatisfied by the stock solutions pre-installed on the hardware.
Despite seeming like a rather unassuming app, Torrex Pro may well set the standard for future Unified Windows Platform software releases. Depending on what functionality the app loses and what it keeps, we’ll be able to determine a bit more about how Microsoft’s policies relating to this kind of software.
Source: VG247
