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[KonradLaw]

I think it should push separate exclusives for both. What they're doing right now isn't working well for anyone. The games ported to PC are mostly console-centric and they run on crappy UWP. So PC gamers aren't happy. And Xbox has zero exclusives, so console gamers aren't happy.

So I say make separate exclusives for both. Make Age of Empires IV as PC exclusive and Halo 6 as Xbox One exclusive. If you want more platforms at least give Xbox exclusivity period of 6-12 months. It's happening these days anyway, since for 3rd party exclusives most people wait till it's out on Steam anyway.

 

[Drazgul]

UWP is complete trash and the sooner it dies the undignified death it deserves, the better.

 

[Mister0079]

They should either release their games on Steam or fuck off and stick to consoles. They've done more harm than good with their "PC efforts" with trash like GFWL and UWP.

 

[Future PhaZe]

The problem is mattrick destroyed everything they had going for them. They had fantastic momentum before he got on board and fucked everything.

They haven't even tried to innovate on the software front since then. The PC stuff...I think they have to do it but they could have had a monopoly on that market had they been serious about it before steam got its roots in.

 

[Durante]

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

 

[Rad-]

Buy one, get two (platform copies) is the direction they should go. For me at least that would be a selling point more than doing them harm.

The problem is mattrick destroyed everything they had going for them. They had fantastic momentum before he got on board and fucked everything.

This is a bit of a double edged sword as he also brought Kinect and Kinect is what caused the massive sales boosts to 360. But that should have been dropped for XO.

 

[leeh]

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

I know you're only saying this because of UWP and your lack of modding it, which I find hard to believe, as there is aim bots for Gears 4.

 

[epeternally]

It's not as if a lot of PC gamers have actually bought MS first-party games on Windows Store so far.

Don't underestimate the number of people who did buy those games. Same as with Origin, people will still buy games if it's their only option, even if they resent it not being Steam. At the end of the day gamers first and foremost want to play games. I bought Forza Horizon 3 and the expansion pass on Windows Store and have had no issues with them. I'd happily purchase from there again. Cross-platform is pretty compelling, and all of the Xbox integration on Windows 10 is done pretty well. Games For Windows Live was a disaster but I feel like they got it right this time.

 

[oti]

The problem is mattrick destroyed everything they had going for them. They had fantastic momentum before he got on board and fucked everything.

They haven't even tried to innovate on the software front since then. The PC stuff...I think they have to do it but they could have had a monopoly on that market had they been serious about it before steam got its roots in.

I find it hard to believe that Mattrick was the sole person responsible. He wasn't. Microsoft as a whole made some terrible decisions. Now they're licking their wounds and going all in on services and Scorpio presumingly. Interesting times.

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

For Microsoft their UWP program makes sense. That's the best way to monetize the open platform PC, in their opinion. I think the strategy itself is good enough if the Win10 Store wasn't utter garbage.

 

[Quasar]

If they aren't going to drop the Windows Store and just embrace Steam, then PC gamers will continue to not care and they might as well be only on Xbox. It's not as if a lot of PC gamers have actually bought MS first-party games on Windows Store so far.

Well its not like MS has many 1st party games to sell.

I'd like all Xbox games to be on the MS store overall though. So I'd like MS to do all it can to make that happen and to get more Windows only games on the store too.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I'm not really seeing where they're pushing PC. They're throwing in a complimentary W10 download with digital Xbox copies and that's about it. I appreciate the gesture, although the W10 Store blows and I rarely bother with it.

 

[Frank Jaeger]

I don't think they pushed anything on the PC.

From GFWL to the recent windows store move, it all was so badly thought and done that it all feels like nothing is really being done other than to slap constraints and gating. It does not bode well for PC to have the mighty Steam ruling everything, but what MS is doing on this platform is ludicrous.

 

[Bioshocker]

As an Xbox gamer since the beginning I'm not entirely happy with Microsoft's PC focus right now. But as long as they continue to develop for Xbox I guess it's fine.

 

[ChryZ]

I couldn't care less. There's so little that makes any exclusivity worth taking into consideration.

MS is so flaky with their "efforts", it's always just the means to make progress on some other objective. They see a pie, want a piece, throw money at the problem, fail, abandon pie for a different pie. GFWL, Zune Marketplace, Win phones, Win10 app store, etc ... always chasing, never leading.

 

[Majine]

I hope for more console exclusives. Feels like i bought the box for nothing since all games get released on pc anyway.. Feels like a waste of money. Ps4 on the other hand at least has some interesting exclusives.

If you have a PC that can run these games and you intend to, I guess I can emphathize.

Any less than that, why?

 

[Ushay]

The CEO and Xbox head have already made this clear.

 

[ezodagrom]

Between UWP, which blocks modders from fixing/improving their games (I haven't followed it so dunno if it was ever fixed, but it wouldn't have been surprising if modders would have been able to fix Forza Horizon 3's stuttering issues if it was Win32), overpriced 70€ games, and the Windows 10 store exclusivity (not selling games in other digital stores, such as gamesplanet, greenmangaming and such), Microsoft can give up from PC gaming again for all I care (either that or swallow their pride and go Win32 + Steam).

 

[BaasRed]

Whatever they do, it needs commitment. They can't half-ass two things, focus on the one which brings more profit. That way people will be happy and MS pockets heavier.

 

[Sad Affleck]

There are two ways of attracting customers. One, withhold content in order to force your customers to buy into your platform. Two, don't withhold content and create a platform that customers willingly buy into. Not because "you can't play X anywhere else" but because "this is the best way to play X." You catch more flies with honey.

 

[michaelius]

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

Exactly - as long as their games are tied by UWP restrictions and distribution model they can go back to making console exclusives and most pc gamers won't even feel any loss.

 

[Dictator93]

Dump UWP and all of its resttrictions in comparison to normal win 32 distributed via the classic .exe format, fix the store so it is more functional like steam, origin, or GOG Galaxy, release all games on PC and offer play anywhere and cross-platform play. Basically unify and improve "xbox devices".

 

[therealbigrich]

. It looks like it is on here, but the average consumer, they are not even aware the games are on PC.

This is really true at least in my case . Ppl interact with that buy console's still think only game on PC is solitaire

 

[daninthemix]

UWP is complete trash and the sooner it dies the undignified death it deserves, the better.

Agreed - if pushing to PC means always locking everything into their own ecosystem, I'd rather they didn't bother.

 

[therealbigrich]

I understand stand the situation from MS side and consumers side and like many have said it's probably best to just focus on one. Problem now it would be another failure. Don't think maybe would care last the week of or so but some will bring it up like GFWL is brought up now. No real winning situation

 

[whalleywhat]

When you say "push" PC, do you mean, like, off a cliff?

 

[Yudoken]

It would be a good start to not exclusively release their games on the half assed windows store and maybe don't screw up the game so it can run on pc's like it should.

It's terrible how the company that created Windows is so bad at at this multiple levels.

Every other major 3rd party pc store does it way better than you and they do it for years.

Their store and most of their games are such a good example how MS doesn't really care about putting more effort into their store and port efforts.

 

[jelly]

Yes, they should continue on PC. More game sales, more games, maybe even a few risks because of it. We all want the games to sell well.

The problem they have is the Windows Store is complete garbage, Xbox is following Windows, they can't get a good experience that isn't tied to mobile apps and the quality of PC releases needs to be better for people to get on side.

I don't knock them for not publishing on Steam, any publisher deserves to do what they please but if they can't match that experience, push better features, you are doing it wrong and deserver constant flak.

Microsoft have all these tools, infrastructure but you just get a mobile app store with no features for modding, community etc. Xbox app is okay but come on, Windows, developers developers developers! Halo should be modded to hell and back, community creations, game types for all to see.

 

[AmFreak]

They aren't pushing PC, they are pushing their Store.

 

[horkrux]

Why should they stop? What would I gain? As long as they deliver competent ports (it's been hit or miss sadly), I'm happy. You can moan all day about the lack of freedom with UWP, meanwhile I'm just playing the games.

Ideally they would offer it all (and easily could), but they don't have to prove anything to me except giving me their bloody games and they're already doing that.

 

[daninthemix]

Just to be clear - I have no problems them using / pushing their own Store - that's their perogative. What I take issue with is the closed-garden that is UWP. For instance, you can't stream UWP games over Steam Link, so now I have to sit physically at my PC to play them. Well, of course I'm not going to buy their games with restrictions like that.

 

[Amir0x]

Abandon UWP, and then continue with the strategy of their exclusives being on both XBO and PC. Also, maybe develop a few games for PC in mind and then try to adapt them for XBO.

Personally I don't care how much value it gives to their console or not. They've been subverted by other companies in this niche, and so they can go this way and I'll get more benefit out of it. I don't care about their bottom line, only what games I can play. And on my PC, it's going to be the best experience.

 

[Killroyskbg]

Well they probably see it as more people playing their games and better numbers to show off to investors so I understand why they want a "unified" userbase. However this will probably lead to Xbox "console" division getting smaller when everyone and their kids can play Xbox games on their work or school PC a few years down the line when cheap PC catch up making investing in a console less likely if you get the same games in both places. Trying to get people on PC to pay for online or similar will not be an easy task either so they will probably loose a lot of money on people leaveing console for PC and I would guess that would be more likely than PC transitioning to console.

 

[N7.Angel]

Yes they should continue, I don't want to buy a Microsoft console ever again... but I'm a die hard GeOW/Forza fan, so as long as they come to PC, I'm fine with them pushing it, seriously, I don't care about other Microsoft IPs or hardware anymore so...

 

[LukasTaves]

240?? More like 15

Gdc info. Other than that 15 or so already announced, 16 was announced just on the 2 weeks leading to gdc, and from the 1000 id@xbox games currently in development over 200 are already play anywhere, and they receive new requests from the ones that aren't very often.

 

[Dictator93]

I don't care about their bottom line, only what games I can play...

This, IMO, should be the view of any person who is enjoying playing games. It is always super strange from my perspective to see people positively arguing for the bottom line of some of these massive corporations...

 

[sono]

MS are the authors of Windows and to have credibility that windows can continue to be a gaming platform it is important that MS write games for it

However for Windows 10 I dont like that there are xbox icons on the desktop by default (particularly when I dont even own an xbox)

I can see that also being a potential concern for some commercial companies for the general roll out of w10 for office staff using windows primarily of MS office, email and web browser

 

[c0Zm1c]

It would help if it felt like they were actually pushing PC. They're not fully embracing it like many other companies are. Windows Store exclusivity and UWP isn't helping either and is big part of the problem.

 

[jet1911]

Continue. The only negative I can see is that it brings alot of "butbutbutubut no need Xbox I have PC no true exclusives" types of comments/threads on message boards.

Personnaly I love it, I don't play MS games on PC but I buy digital codes on sales for Play Anywhere titles. Others will only play those games on PC. Others only on consoles. In the end there are more people buying games that MS publishes.

I wish MS would drop their UWP bullshit though.

 

[tracca]

I think they are doing the correct thing. Push play anywhere hard and try to get a lot multiplat in on it.

Exclusives are a great sale argument. But I cant see how Microsoft can beat Sony on exclusives for now, so they lose that comparison anyway. The market of people who buy multiple gaming consoles and have a high end pc are very small. I think they rather just sell games to the "I have a PS4, Switch and a high end pc, why would i buy a xbox?"-crowd than make xbox attractive enough to them.

I see two reasons to buy a console as a gamer with a high end pc.

1. Get more games to play
2. Be able to play in another place (their living room).

Having a shared game library might actually be a big thing for that second group. It is obviously not there yet, but if Microsoft keeps pushing it maybe it will be some day.

 

[Souless Squirrel]

I wouldn't care if tomorrow they were gone from video games forever. Used to really enjoy xbox games but nowadays I'd rather they just let go of it all. Haven't enjoyed anything put out by their first party studios since Reach. I also feel like there plans for the future of gaming are bad for the industry as a whole.

 

[petran79]

They cant even push Directx 12 forward. Lowest DX hype since DX10.

Or developers got tired of MS antics and prefer DX9, DX11, OGL and Vulkan instead.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

I love GAF it always brings me breaking news. I mean it is breaking news to me that MS is "pushing" PC gaming. As others have said right now Microsoft is half arsing both the Xbone and the PC (but PC gamers are used to that kind of thing from Microsoft).

I honestly don't think it would be a great loss to the PC platform if Microsoft went back to concentrating on their console again after all that is usually what they do, time after time after time after time.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

Your notion that Microsoft should forego lucrative (your words) incentives with their OS to appease games is absurd. Windows is not a gaming OS. Gamers are not their primary concern, by a long shot. Why are you even still using Windows if you despise it so much? Take a stand, move to a Linux based system if you feel so strongly about it. Win32 is not going to be around forever.

 

[Matt]

Don't underestimate the number of people who did buy those games. Same as with Origin, people will still buy games if it's their only option, even if they resent it not being Steam. At the end of the day gamers first and foremost want to play games. I bought Forza Horizon 3 and the expansion pass on Windows Store and have had no issues with them. I'd happily purchase from there again. Cross-platform is pretty compelling, and all of the Xbox integration on Windows 10 is done pretty well. Games For Windows Live was a disaster but I feel like they got it right this time.

That would be a hard thing to underestimate.

 

[Amir0x]

This, IMO, should be the view of any person who is enjoying playing games. It is always super strange from my perspective to see people positively arguing for the bottom line of some of these massive corporations...

The plausible argument I've seen is that if a company does poorly in their bottom line, they'll eventually have to stop making games. Given Microsoft hasn't been doing a particularly great job of making games these days anyway (if you're bored of Gears, Halo, Forza as I am right now, need a break), then it's not a real compelling argument.

So I understand why some might care. I just don't.

 

[Trago]

They aren't doing anything to really push PC though. UWP is trash and restrictive. The Windows Store lacks tons of features. Their PC franchises are dead.

They are literally leaving money on the table by not considering any of the feedback they've been getting from PC gamers for years.

 

[Tecnniqe]

2017

But this is a year ago,

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016...the-pc-is-the-worlds-biggest-gaming-platform/

Absolutely shook.

Spoiler

Early Access

 

[Dictator93]

The plausible argument I've seen is that if a company does poorly in their bottom line, they'll eventually have to stop making games. Given Microsoft hasn't been doing a particularly great job of making games these days anyway (if you're bored of Gears, Halo, Forza as I am right now, need a break), then it's not a real compelling argument.

So I understand why some might care. I just don't.

Even in that case, that means one really has to like those game series (and really love long running franchises at this point). That means you do not have franchise-fatigue as you mention and also think there are no equivalent games out there fulfilling similar niche genres and game types... which is hard to imagine honestly given how common the game-types are for MS's main line up (FPS, Racer, Third Person Shooter).

It is not as if MS has been just releasing tons of amazing and wholly unique exclusive games this gen. And even then, if you have liked those one off games that they did produce via third party contract (Sunset Overdrive), nothing precludes games of a similar style and even under the same name via that same third party developer on another platform. And you always have that original exclusive game there on your xb1 anyway, it does not disappear if MS stops making XB1s or starts bringing its console exclusives over to PC. As someone who is obsessed with certain games (Qauke 1 or Natural Selection 2 for example), I have no qualm with the idea that those could potentially the last games in those franchises. Not every game needs a franchise sequel coming from that same company! Niche genres tend to live on anyway in style and in form in the indie scene or even in smaller productions houses (Night Dive!).

 

[mrklaw]

As a console gamer primarily, this question breeds a lot of conflict.

I personally don't mind if MS pushes their exclusives to PC. Especially if it means that these titles will be crossplay. I have seen in the past people argue that MS should keep going this way, but the other argument is that there's no reason to own consoles if their exclusives go to PC, basically diluting the console userbase. Like I said in another thread, damned if they do and damned if they don't. Sony does a good job at keeping console exclusives on consoles and there is rarely a voice of opposition against this asking for Sony exclusives to be on PC.

Do you think MS is doing the right thing trying to expand their reach into PC or do you think they should focus their exclusives just for consoles?

Having all their games on PC doesn't remove the need for a box. There will always be people that will prefer to buy a premade box that plays the games you want

 

[Shari]

If Microsoft was actually "pushing PC" I would appreciate that and want them to continue. To me, that would mean creating PC-specific games or offering services that go above and beyond what we are used to as PC gamers, while not curtailing any existing freedom and features.

They are doing none of that. What they are doing instead is sacrificing both their console business and PC gaming on the altar of a desperate final attempt to get in on the lucrative "app store" model.

As far as I am concerned they can fuck right off.

I align with everything you say but this case is an exception.

I appreciate MS efforts to integrate the PC in their ecosystem, that didn't exist before.

Is the store bad? Yes. Is UWP bad? Yes. But also Uplay was bad and Origin was bad, heck even Steam was really bad a some point and they all improved.

And your average gamer also shouted Uplay is shit and Origin is shit and they came around and they're better than they were.

People have accepted that videogame publishers have their own storefront with their own restrictions but somehow that's not OK for microsoft, somehow.

And you're OK with jap devs you love throwing denuvo left and right which it doesn't stray that far from UWP.

I also find asking microsoft for PC-centric titles or offering services that go beyond (again, what publisher with a storefront does this?), why should Microsoft be ask for more when it has only promised so far to publish their typically console exclusive games on PC.

I for one played FH3 and Gears4 last year on pc without an issue from the windows store or its UWP. I'm aware of the problems but after the anniversary update I think GAF blows again things out of proportion.

I understand the complains to the Store and UWP and I find them fair, but saying "they only want a app store money printing model and they can fuck off" feels very childish since the company wants money, offers product but they dont offer it how you want it so your response is "to do that better not do anything". Strongly disagree.