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Microsoft bullish on PC gaming, another entry for the list

A

aeolist

Banned
Paco said:
They hired Jason Holtman (former Steam Director of Business Development for 8 years) back in August, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them give a go at it again with a little more structure this time.

If KLobb is involved then we may see more cross-platform games from internal studios that were previously just Xbox focused. They could start by bringing the previous Halo, Gears, Fable, and Forza games to PC.
Click to expand...

they had good, passionate people who cared about the platform before but management did not let them do anything substantive
 
A

Azure Phoenix

Member
So dedicated that they haven't shown any indication they can be bothered about removing GFWL from their PC titles and put them on Steam.

Losing access to Carneyvale Showtime and Viva Pinata is a seriously bitter pill to swallow.
 
O

Orayn

Member
Azure Phoenix said:
So dedicated that they haven't shown any indication they can be bothered about removing GFWL from their PC titles and put them on Steam.

Losing access to Carneyvale Showtime and Viva Pinata is a seriously bitter pill to swallow.
Click to expand...

They don't necessarily have the power to remove it from other peoples' games, and there's some indication that it may be removed from a few of theirs.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Banjo-Kazooie said:
Really wouldn't hold your breathe, especially now that Southend Interactive is no more...the IP seems to have a big question mark above it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't seem to find anything definitive on that front. The store page states "© 2012 Microsoft Corporation", however the same is said on Skulls of the Shogun's page even though it's 17-bit that owns the IP, as per the official site:

copyright © 17-BIT : "Skulls of the Shogun" and the skull logo are trademarks of 17-BIT
Click to expand...
 
S

Sydle

Member
Anticitizen One said:
Why would Microsoft be interested in PC gaming when they have a console brand they need to support??
Click to expand...

Because they're a devices and software company across multiple screens? They already release Xbox games on mobile/tablet for Windows 8. Additionally, the X1 isn't all that dissimilar to PC architecture.

The better question is why not?

aeolist said:
they had good, passionate people who cared about the platform before but management did not let them do anything substantive
Click to expand...

Ballmer and Mattrick are gone now. : )
 
H

Herne

Member
When Microsoft talks about pc gaming, they are blowing smoke and nothing more. They're only relevant so long as most games continue to run on Windows. If SteamOS takes off, so many gamers will only be too happy to leave them behind.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
RPS: Do you have any major PC games or exclusives on the horizon?

Lobb: I can’t make any announcements. But we are very dedicated to that space.
Click to expand...

In other words, DirectX 12 will be exclusive to Windows 9 when it's released next year.
 
U

Unknown Soldier

Member
Opiate said:
In seriousness, I think Microsoft's handling of Windows gaming would actually be a pretty good analysis on how platform choices are made in general.

More commonly, people look at Nintendo platforms and see how little software comes to them from third parties. There's some meat there, but Nintendo is such a distinct company that there is less information there that can be transferred over to other situations.

In the case of Windows, however, there is no doubt it sells software. There is no doubt it has a large audience of 16-35 male gamers. As such, figuring out just why some companies have weak presence on the platform is legitimately interesting.
Click to expand...

Is it? It seems pretty straightforward that MS is trying to push the Xbox. The PC is viewed by many as a competitor to consoles for the attention of gamers even though in recent years the kinds of games that console and PC gamers tend to play has diverged quite a bit.
 
S

Sydle

Member
animlboogy said:
I honestly don't care anymore. Maybe fake Gears will be good. Fake Halo was mediocre, Forza is an IAP shitshow (and PC already has a couple amazing new racing Sims), Fable was never great... I gave a shit when they had FASA, Ensemble, and Bungie, but now? I'd rather they stay away. Windows 9 being some kind of Xbox-style piece of shit gaming experience is not a tradeoff I'm willing to make for mediocrity like a 343 Halo game.
Click to expand...

Erm, thanks for that opinion.

Obviously if they're going to compete in the PC game market they're going to have to match Steam at the very least. It wouldn't hurt to add a few Xbox franchises as choices.

Unknown Soldier said:
Is it? It seems pretty straightforward that MS is trying to push the Xbox. The PC is viewed by many as a competitor to consoles for the attention of gamers even though in recent years the kinds of games that console and PC gamers tend to play has diverged quite a bit.
Click to expand...

They're trying to push gaming on multiple platforms, you can buy some previous XBLA games on Windows 8 devices now. Additionlly, they have Team Dakota with Project Spark is a Windows 8 and Xbox game. Lift London is focused on mobile and tablet community-driven experiences, set to reveal several games soon. Rare's most recent job posting even calls for experience with responsive design across multiple devices. I'd bet my left testicle that Lionhead's MMO will be cross platform.

Lots of entry points to Xbox.
 
O

Orayn

Member
Odrion said:
You haven't even announced any Xbone controller adapters for the PC, you turds.
Click to expand...

It doesn't need an adapter to work as a wired controller since it can actually communicate over micro-USB. What we're waiting for is an official driver.
 
E

EGM1966

Member
You could almost believe the MS team supporting PC marketing & PR had managed to wrest control of the XB1 launch reveal under their control. Almost.
 
A

Almighty

Member
No thanks Microsoft, I for one like the current status quo. So far every big push MS has tried to do for PC gaming since their release of the Xbox has been down right awful. So yeah keep your gaming focus in the console space.
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
JaseC said:
Yeah, I can't seem to find anything definitive on that front. The store page states "© 2012 Microsoft Corporation", however the same is said on Skulls of the Shogun's page even though it's 17-bit that owns the IP, as per the official site:
Click to expand...

Yep, it's very deceiving, since I know Southend owns Ilomilo IP, so like Skulls, I'm not sure why the store page says that :/
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
Such bullshit. 'bu..bu...we can only do so much"..bullshit. You have dozens of billions of dollars in the bank and you're telling me you can't hire two or three outside studios to do PC exclusive follow ups to your classic franchises?

Taking page from Nintendo's book I see
1388135904156.jpg


When Sony is bigger player in PC gaming then a damn company who makes the damn OS that owns 95% of pcgaming you know you've fucked up completely
 
M

massivekettle

Member
leadbelly said:
They have absolutely no interest in making PC gaming 'better' they are only concerned with how much money they can make out of it.
Click to expand...

You realize that you could switch Microsoft for Valve and that sentence would be just as true. A company's in to make money; news at 11.
 
SenjutsuSage

SenjutsuSage

Banned
PC gaming will be fine, and they're well aware of that. Microsoft needs to focus on Xbox, which is exactly what they're doing. They'll keep doing what's necessary on their end for the PC gaming space, and that'll be to improve DirectX. They may even release a few PC titles here and there, but only after they've already been on Xbox for a suitable amount of time. It wouldn't be wise to give everybody the impression that any and every game they see on Xbox One, is something they'll end up seeing on the PC in a year's time, for example. Wouldn't be the smartest of ways to drive demand for the system, even if I think it's certainly debatable on a game by game basis what the ultimate impact on Xbox sales would be.
 
J

jaundicejuice

Member
Same song and dance that they've given for nearly a decade but given what their half-assed efforts have been I'm glad they never turned their full attention back to PC gaming.
 
U

U-R

Member
ksharp said:
You realize that you could switch Microsoft for Valve and that sentence would be just as true. A company's in to make money; news at 11.
Click to expand...

Are you comparing a company whose biggest revenue is tied to having a healthy PC gaming market with one that wouldn't even notice if pc gaming disappeared overnight?

EDIT: In any case, Microsoft can't help the PC gaming market as long as it owns a console brand that would greatly benefit from ruining that market. It would be like IBM in the '80-'90 pumping resources into helping the home PCs outclass mainframes. We're just somewhat lucky they don't care enough about PC gaming as to completely kill it off.
 
CharmingCharlie

CharmingCharlie

Member
MS PR said:
Lobb: I can’t make any announcements. But we are very dedicated to that space.
Click to expand...

That is a mighty long way of saying NO. Any PC gamer will know that whilst the Xbox/Xbone division exists they will continue to treat PC gaming as a competitor rather than looking into ways of catering to the PC gamer.

I would say I find it ironic that the PS4 controller works with the PC but the damn Xbone controller doesn't. Yeah that says a lot about how Microsoft see PC gaming. The fact that Sony do more for PC gamers than Microsoft tells us all we need to know about MS and their "efforts" on the PC platform.
 
S

Syphon Filter

Member
CharmingCharlie said:
That is a mighty long way of saying NO. Any PC gamer will know that whilst the Xbox/Xbone division exists they will continue to treat PC gaming as a competitor rather than looking into ways of catering to the PC gamer.

I would say I find it ironic that the PS4 controller works with the PC but the damn Xbone controller doesn't. Yeah that says a lot about how Microsoft see PC gaming. The fact that Sony do more for PC gamers than Microsoft tells us all we need to know about MS and their "efforts" on the PC platform.
Click to expand...

MS said the xbox one controller will come to PC. Who cares when Steam controller is coming anyways.
 
S

Syphon Filter

Member
AdrianWerner said:
Such bullshit. 'bu..bu...we can only do so much"..bullshit. You have dozens of billions of dollars in the bank and you're telling me you can't hire two or three outside studios to do PC exclusive follow ups to your classic franchises?

Taking page from Nintendo's book I see
1388135904156.jpg


When Sony is bigger player in PC gaming then a damn company who makes the damn OS that owns 95% of pcgaming you know you've fucked up completely
Click to expand...

They might be putting their titles on Steam which will be good. AOE and Lococycle is incoming. Halo trilogy has been on the registry for a while so that should be coming.
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
U-R said:
Are you comparing a company whose biggest revenue is tied to having a healthy PC gaming market with one that wouldn't even notice if pc gaming disappeared overnight?

EDIT: In any case, Microsoft can't help the PC gaming market as long as it owns a console brand that would greatly benefit from ruining that market.
Click to expand...

Steamboxes also could greatly benefit if they were the only place where you could play pc games.

In reality that's bullshit excuse. There's nothing stopping Microsoft from supporting pc with plenty of games. Especially since before their most successful PC franchises were ones that simply wouldn't work on consoles.

Blaming Xbox for lack of Age of Empires 4, Rise of Nations 2 or new Microsoft Flight Simulator is completely bogus excuse. If Sony can support PC gaming with high quality big budgeted titles then so can Microsoft.
 
I

Imperfected

Member
Microsoft really is the deadbeat dad of PC gaming. Never there when you needed him, never seemed to care when you were growing up. Went off and had a new "kid" he lavished with support and affection, and now that it's become clear that kid's growing up to be a fuck-up he's ready to "make things right" and become part of your life.

Sorry, bud. PC gaming grew up just fine without you. Stepdad Gabe was always nicer, anyway.
 
L

lazorexplosion

Member
Be a PC software company, have domination of a gaming platform due to OS monopoly; try to make console hardware. Fail at making money from gaming.

Oh, Microsoft.
 
A

Angelus Errare

Banned
MS is like that parent who never attends their kid's sporting event but makes the promise they will every time, and some of you are those kids who after being promised for like 8 years straight still hold out that mommy will show up.

Saty said:
Most interesting:

Suggests that previous attempts were half-hearted, unfocused and the higher-ups didn't really care one way or another. Hope it's different now.
Click to expand...

Jennifer-Lawrence-Saying-Whatever.gif
 
CharmingCharlie

CharmingCharlie

Member
Syphon Filter said:
MS said the xbox one controller will come to PC. Who cares when Steam controller is coming anyways.
Click to expand...

MS say a lot of things. I have lost count of the things MS have said with regards to PC gaming that have never transpired. However it is pretty damn telling that right now I can use a PS4 dualshock controller on my PC running a Microsoft Operating system but I cannot use an Xbone controller on my PC running a Microsoft Operating system. All that exists is a "vague" promise from Microsoft.

I finally succumbed and read what Lobb was saying and it is a carbon copy of the same shit they said several years ago. He literally repeated word for word saying how it is "advantageous" to keep some games exclusive to the Xbox. Basically the interview is saying "expect the same shit MS have been doing for the past several years"
 
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