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.
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."
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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.-
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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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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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2007: FASA. http://www.shacknews.com/article/60207/fasa-founder-microsoft-destroyed-dev
2008: Ensemble Studios. http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble
2009: ACES. http://www.shacknews.com/article/56901/microsoft-layoffs-hit-ms-flight
Also, I would count the launch of Games for Windows Live, which initially required Gold to play multiplayer. It was then quietly sunsetted during the run up to Windows 8, and recast as "XBox Games for Windows", and only covered Windows RT games that were made to run on the Surface as well as x86 Metro. That hasn't been doing well versus Steam. So like a petulant child, Microsoft has decided that they'll never make a true PC game ever again.
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Windows 8 / Windows RT is arguably the first signs of a negative position toward PC gaming, enough for developers to start looking at Linux gaming a lot harder.
Gabe Newell has an obvious agenda behind the message, but he spoke about Windows 8's effects on PC gaming last year: http://www.shacknews.com/article/74979/windows-8-is-kind-of-a-catastrophe-valve-boss-says
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