Microsoft Not Doing Enough for PC Gaming, Says Blizzard Executive

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Blizzard Entertainment COO Paul Sams criticized hardware manufacturer Microsoft's stewardship of the PC gaming market, suggesting that the company could do more to advance the platform.

"Well, their gaming focus is very much on the [Xbox] 360," Sams told Gamasutra. "And that makes sense, cause they're a hardware manufacturer as well as a software developer. And so they've got a lot of money and investment tied up in that system."

Sams referred to remarks made by Blizzard design VP Rob Pardo, who said at last week's Paris GDC that Microsoft's involvement in PC gaming amounts to "lip service", and that the company is more closely focused on supporting the Xbox 360.

"And I kind of look at it and say to myself, and I think similarly to Rob, is that it would be great if they put more emphasis on the Windows operating system... and they would say that they are, but I think that there's more that can be done."

"It makes sense to me, what they're doing, they're putting their energy and focus against the 360. That's where their huge R&D dollars are that they have to earn out on and that's where I think their gaming bread and butter is right now," Sams concluded.

From The Chatty
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    June 30, 2008 5:42 PM

    they should put all the 360 exlcusives on the PC too (like Fable 2 :] )

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      June 30, 2008 5:48 PM

      That's exactly what I DON'T want. When they develop for the consoles first, us PC gamers get goofy menus, bad controls, simplistic gameplay, and bad performance.

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        June 30, 2008 5:52 PM

        agreed; it happened with Bioshock (X360 took priority) and UT3 (PS3 took priority).

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          June 30, 2008 6:00 PM

          Is that why the Unreal Engine doesn't support antialiasing?

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            June 30, 2008 6:11 PM

            No, UE3 doesn't support antialiasing because of the lighting technology used by default.

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          June 30, 2008 8:36 PM

          I thought bioshock ran great on my computer... too bad I found it generic and... dare I say it kinda boring.

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            June 30, 2008 9:00 PM

            Shhh... they'll hear you!

            I agree though, it was a poor successor to the systemshock series. There were unnecessary holes in the gameplay ostensibly placed for the sake of simplicity. What, praytell, is so intuitive about not being able to see how many of what invention items I'm carrying around? Bah!

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          June 30, 2008 9:02 PM

          Don't forget Oblivion!

          And assassin's creed. I had the good sense to stay away from the PC port, but did you see that horrible video showing how many steps it took to exit the rutting thing?

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      June 30, 2008 6:04 PM

      that's not really up to MS, unless you're suggesting they spend the effort to find and finance a separate developer to port each 360 game (because the original developers aren't likely going to want to if they didn't plan to from the outset)

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      July 1, 2008 6:45 AM

      Remember Deus Ex: IW ;)

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