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Microsoft will be pushing Media Center to the Pro edition of Windows 8, which user will need to purchase the feature as a separate Media Pack as an add on to the system.

Media Center To Work Only On Windows 8 Pro

Looks like consumers to want all the premium features of Windows 8 including Media Center, will need the Windows 8 Pro edition. Since RT is for ARM device manufacturers only, Enterprise is for the corporate and Windows 8 is the base, Windows 8 Pro seems to be the version to go for if you are looking for every possible consumer feature.

Microsoft has only announced the four main versions so far and there’s been no word on pricing. However, it is clear that the edition containing Media Center will cost higher because the company has made it clear that Media Center as a feature will have to be bough separately with the Windows 8 Pro version. Even though the company has not introduced any rationale behind this decision, there’s one very obvious reason why they could be doing this — cutting down the price of the actual OS.

Media Center has several expensive licensing fees attached to it, such as Dolby Digital and these costs are passed on to the consumer every time they buy the OS or buy a PC with the OS installed. By separating the Media Center altogether, Microsoft is possibly trying to bring down the cost of the base version of Windows 8.

Offering the new OS at a really low price would give Microsoft and also Windows 8 as a platform the one thing they really need — adoption. They need to rapidly create an install base to attract developers and other partners. A low, low price point would really work in their favor in such a case. Since most people would not miss Media Center, it seems like a fair trade off to bring the base cost down all across the board.