Microsoft won't cater to 'traditional desktop PC gamers' with first-party strategy

Remember when Microsoft used to make games for PC? However, with their Xbox business thriving, the company has long shifted focus away from PC gamers. That attitude will continue in the Xbox One generation, it appears.

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Remember when Microsoft used to make games for PC? With their Xbox business thriving, the company has long shifted focus away from PC gamers. That attitude will continue in the Xbox One generation, it appears.

At its Xbox One reveal event, the company announced 15 exclusives coming to the console in its first year. When asked if PC gamers could possibly get access to some of that content, Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms told us that "the Windows 8 gamer is certainly going to participate in some of that content," but not in the way you might expect or want.

Speaking on Microsoft's strategy on Windows 8 gaming, Booty said that "we have got everything from very, very casual games, like our very much improved and reimagined Solitaire, all the way to graphically complicated games like The Harvest."

But I interrupted him, pointing out that people could argue that The Harvest is not AAA-tier like Gears of War. I asked if he felt that, from a first-party perspective, Microsoft's focus on Windows 8 is on the lower-end.

"We're talking about console games, but there could be some franchises that also end up with a PC game," Booty responded. "When I think about more connected experiences across those platforms, it's things that show up within that family of devices where we've got Xbox Live, like Windows Phone and Windows 8," and "not what you might consider a more traditional desktop PC game."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    May 21, 2013 5:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Microsoft won't cater to 'traditional desktop PC gamers' with first-party strategy.

    Remember when Microsoft used to make games for PC? However, with their Xbox business thriving, the company has long shifted focus away from PC gamers. That attitude will continue in the Xbox One generation, it appears.

    • reply
      May 22, 2013 5:58 AM

      This is a shame. MS had some pretty good PC games back in the day.

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        May 22, 2013 6:00 AM

        They are dropping the ball on their own operating system. It's disappointing.

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          May 22, 2013 6:11 AM

          Sounds official to me. Can we all move to pack our steam and move to linux now?

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            May 22, 2013 6:13 AM

            wow, that sentence made no sense...

            What I'm trying to say is that since Microsoft clearly doesn't care about gaming on Windows anymore it should be an obvious sign for all the other developer to Rally behind Gabe and move to Linux.

    • reply
      May 22, 2013 6:06 AM

      This isn't much of a suprise, they haven't really done anything for the PC platform since the original Xbox came out. Which is fine, the PC market has thrived on other developers and publishers for the games that we have now as well as a huge selection of independent developers/games.

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        May 22, 2013 6:08 AM

        The announcement of Kinect for PC offered a bit of hope, but I guess not.

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        May 22, 2013 6:40 AM

        no supriise but I thought they might offer some WIn8 exclusive games or the like to give Win8 another selling point and have it be more of a whole interactive thing between PC/Xbox. Guess not.

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        May 22, 2013 7:02 AM

        Yeah no surprise here it just sucks because they are missing out on a great platform they helped create. Oh well

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      May 22, 2013 7:04 AM

      This news plus the kinect for PC kinda shows that MS is no longer wants to be a software company (bc it appears there's no money in that) and is focused on being a hardware company. So why would anyone put any merit in their 15 exclusive games and/or content for that matter? (i'll bet they will all suck) . I miss the old MS (even if they did screw me for money)

      Hardware wise MS gets my +1 , however content wise I think they will have to rename this console to Xbox Lost

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      May 22, 2013 8:18 AM

      Microsoft if you aren't willing to make the games then at least license them out to people who would. You are sitting on so many classic PC IPs its not even funny. I would love to see proper revivals to Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Flight Simulator, and so on.

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      May 22, 2013 8:21 AM

      Probably just a matter of return on investment. Compared to the Xbox, the pc gaming market doesn't make nearly as much easy money for MS. PC game prices routinely get slashed in half within a year of their release, there's no XBL subscription money, and the volume certainly can't compete with the number of titles the Xbox moves. The pc market just isn't worth it for MS. Fortunately other pc game developers have stepped up and more than made up for any loss MS represented. No big deal.

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      May 22, 2013 9:47 AM

      and nothing of value was lost. all the good things they did on the PC ended many years ago.

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      May 22, 2013 12:58 PM

      keep in mind a lot of those 15 games are going to be throw away kinect games like wreckateer and soccer goalie pro or whatever that was called. It's obvious they are going to label those as exclusive "games". Really they are just tech demos.

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      May 22, 2013 2:29 PM

      Really, the best we can hope for at this point is benign neglect, that Microsoft doesn't do anything to actively screw over PC gamers.

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