Microsoft: More Must Be Done With PC Gaming

[Wierdo]

forgot to add: @ $50 per year thats roughly $550,000,000 a year. So im sure that MS would love to tap into Steams 75 million subs. I can see this by offering exclusive titles and other content.

I was more curious about Steam competition like Uplay and Origin numbers, not sure if there are other major ones beside those two, probably is. I think there's also Asian brands out there that host a ton of F2P games and such, and they're pretty big too.

 

[Wierdo]

The market as a whole (- gamers, or otherwise).

Well, there's some disagreement in that area, who knows. But here's some other opinions:

http://www.techspot.com/news/53536-pc-gamers-fuel-hardware-sales-in-otherwise-stagnant-market.html

Overall -- save for a year-on-year drop from $18.3 to $17.8 billion in 2013 -- the global PC gaming hardware market is forecasted to grow every year throughout 2016, reaching a $20.8 billion valuation

This one's even more optimistic, and hints at new consoles being x86 being a factor to consider:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-market-to-exceed-USD25-billion-this-year-dfc

DFC Intelligence sees core gaming sector doing even better than expected as more crossover between consoles and PC occurs
...
DFC estimates the addressable market for high-end gamers outside of Asia to be 285 million people. That is the target market for both PC and console gamers who overlap heavily.

I wouldn't be too worried, it's such an absolutely huge market to begin with either way.

 

[Flogger23m]

Maybe the Xbox One flopped so hard they are coming back to PC gaming?

More than likely, they want to copy Steam and run an integrated Win 8 Metro UI garbage client program geared towards 2D phone games.

 

[Blown 89]

Releasing a console like the Xbone 720p Kinect sets back both console and PC gaming quite a bit.

God forbid they try and change gaming by offering something new. Gamers are never happy with anything.

 

[tetris42]

]God forbid they try and change gaming by offering something new. Gamers are never happy with anything.

Well in this case, "something new" was the most anti-consumer gaming platform since basically, ever?

 

[rudy]

Well in this case, "something new" was the most anti-consumer gaming platform since basically, ever?

Every console gaming platform is anti consumer. The entire industry is 100% about 1 and only 1 thing screwing the consumer over by locking them into closed platform full of BS. Consumers such as yourself were just too stupid to see there could have been some big pushes forward in the industry and instead freaked out. Consoles will always be anti consumer the one thing they can do better than a PC is rollout a new input device or capability. Well so much for that right?

 

[urbanman2004]

Anytime Microsoft says anything about PC gaming be sure to remember this (From Angelus Errare at NeoGAF

When it comes to PC gaming, M$ is a living contradiction and contribution to its demise for integrating GFWL. I hope they finally discontinue GFWL and stick with the Xbox.

 

[Wixard]

Years ago when MS PR would get a fire under their ass i'd think "oh cool, finally some new MS PC games coming!"

Now when I see a quote like this it strikes me as pathetic.

PC gaming continues to live (or thrive, depending on your view) despite Microsofts poor management of the ecosystem. They left untold billions on the table by abandoning the platform. They could have had the steam market but were too short sighted/inept to catch the wind at the time.

It's surprising that MS entirely missed the boat considering how eager they have been to throw money down black holes. Unfortunately for them, steam is so ingrained in the PC as a platform within a platform, that it will be difficult to wrestle any of that away.

One way to start would be to offer a "buy once, get on both xbox/pc platforms for older games". I could see this being popular with primarily console games who would like to check out pc game mods for their favorite games. (I cannot count the number of people who bought say, skyrim for xbox only to watch youtube videos and wish they could check out mods for it.)

Whatever they choose to do, they are so far behind in the hearts and minds of regular PC games they're need to need to open the check book to make any meaningful progress. Otherwise they'll keep rebooting half assed failed services over and over.

 

[Blown 89]

Well in this case, "something new" was the most anti-consumer gaming platform since basically, ever?

MS listened to what people wanted and gave it to them but the chicken littles got a hold of it and started screaming that the sky is falling and making mountains out of mole hills. People like you did the gaming industry a great disservice. Congratulations.

This article sums it up perfectly:
"Ultimately, the end result of the widespread pressure for uniformity in the industry will be a perpetuation of the more malignant undercurrents entrenching console gaming in its bloated, risk-adverse traditions. Instead of fresh takes that incorporate new technologies and take bold chances, we're now likely to get more of the same: more cycles of selling sequels and turning riffs on established game genres into franchises, all for what have become overly marketed PCs that just happen to be plugged into our TVs.

The fight for the living room, for fully realized next-generation entertainment that transcends gaming, has been reduced to the same tired squabbles that render console war discussions vapid and self-defeating. More choice for consumers has become Microsoft's forced doublespeak for an offering that closely resembles that of its competitor, a decision made solely to boost sales and keep fanboys from foaming at the mouth.

After months of adamant defense of the Kinect's role in the Xbox One experience, Microsoft has yet again reversed its stance, bringing full circle a thorough stripping of nearly every interesting element from its console -- it's daring yet poorly handled promise of a disc-less future and digital resale program; its forward-thinking family-sharing plan; the motion and voice-controlled centerpiece of its entertainment vision. That means that the Xbox One and PS4 are not only barely differentiable from each other, but also at their core offer nothing substantially different than what their predecessors did nine years ago."

 

[Stanfiem]

PLEASE tell me you are kidding..PLEASE!!!

NO FUCKING WAY THIS IS TRUE.

 

[dr.stevil]

I want a Xbox One controller wireless receiver for PC damnit!

Get a PS4 controller. It works OOTB but also has drivers available so it emulates an xBox controller. The developers currently have the touch pad working (awesome for HTPC and Steambox use) and are working on enabling the interal speaker and headphone jack, which would be pretty epic (at least for headphone use).

 

[SGA76]

Really, MS screwed up because they went with a weaker APU than Sony did, THEN decided it "had to dedicate X amount of resources to the kinect" so it wasn't just a game console but a "crucial part of the living room experience."
The Xbone was designed as a glorified DVR that plays games, not a console that is also a DVR.
And what REALLY killed interest?
All the media stuff was locked behind a paywall. Grant it, it may not be anymore, but since the media bit was the whole selling point the initial move was beyond ignorant and whoever made that decision should be shot be a firing squad made up of Xbox 360 Call of Daycare players, just so the last thing they can hear is a bunch of 10-14 year olds running their mouths off saying things that would make the saltiest sailor blush while the bullets whiz by until one gets lucky and scores a hit, then slowly dies with the last thing they see being a teabag train.
Let's not forget initially we weren't going to be able to buy used games, rent them or borrow them from a friend to try them out first. THEN all we heard was how its the future, its not changing and how we want to be left behind. That went over about as well as a fart in a diving helmet.
MS made mistake after mistake with the launch, then backpedaled again and again.
There were some good ideas, it just suffered from piss poor implementation.

 

[SGA76]

Boy I feel stupid, forgot my point as I relived my initial Xbone hate...
Point being, MS seemed to go out of their way to alienate their console gamers which probably converted many BACK to PC since most mid ranged PCs with a discrete card are more powerful than the Xbone. Really, Steam sales are where its at. I get my games at Gamestop bargain bin prices without having to return the disk 30 times trying to find one that works.

 

[rudy]

The decision to dedicate resources to Kinect was not the mistake. Had MS not even included Kinect at all it would have made no difference because Sony would still have a more powerful console. period. MS simply made a bad move not giving it a larger GPU and that goes back to the DDR5 decision. Look at the kinectless sku its still the same price as the PS4. It is obvious from here on out MS only possible path is to lower the price of the Kinect sku to meet the PS4 and lose $100 a pop.

 

[caddys83]

Get a PS4 controller. It works OOTB but also has drivers available so it emulates an xBox controller. The developers currently have the touch pad working (awesome for HTPC and Steambox use) and are working on enabling the interal speaker and headphone jack, which would be pretty epic (at least for headphone use).

PS4 controller???? Ewww I rather keep using the Xbox360 controller and the dongle

 

[Wendig0]

It would be really awesome if the next Gears of War game could come out on the PC too. Then I wouldn't need to buy an XBONE. Either that or allow it to be on the PS4 as well (would never happen ).

 

[SGA76]

Well, with the Halo series coming to Xbox 360 and Xbone, maybe they're going to make Zune a PC platform as well, maybe give you the ability to stream from your PC to your Xbone ala Steam Machine/ Nvida Shield to make up for a lack of HP in the Xbone.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

If anybody believed them, here you go.
Why didn't MS show any PC games at e3?

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/13/58...why-microsoft-didnt-bring-windows-games-to-e3

Spencer explains why Microsoft didn't bring Windows games to E3

Microsoft didn't really hold a press conference this week during E3, Xbox did.

While the company hosted the press conference, we didn't hear a thing about games for Windows phone or Windows PC gaming, a fact that wasn't missed by Xbox head Phil Spencer.

"I'm head of gaming at Microsoft," Spencer said. "When we're doing gaming strategy, gaming focus inside the company, that's my job. I think in a lot of ways, you could argue gaming on Windows has never been more healthy in that the biggest of the big franchises, League of Legends, World of Tanks, those things dwarf a lot of what we're doing in this console space in terms of users and monetization. They're all on PC."

But that doesn't mean they're necessarily a good fit for E3, he said.

"E3's a retail show," he said. "It's a retail show, it's a console show, so it didn't really feel like the right place for us to talk about Windows, but Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft's success."

If E3 isn't the right place, I asked, then what is?

"Well they do these huge world championship events and they fill up arenas," he said. "I do think there could be a space there.

"For us, E3 is a console show and an Xbox show, and for us as Microsoft, Xbox is our gaming brand, and it's the thing we can fill an arena like this, we get millions of people to watch us on TV and we show our games and it's a brand that people care about."

 

[Krenum]

"More must be done with PC Gaming".

-That is why we didn't show or having any news on PC gaming at E3. Trolololololo.

 

[Tak Ne]

If E3 isn't the right place, I asked, then what is?

"Well they do these huge world championship events and they fill up arenas," he said. "I do think there could be a space there.

"For us, E3 is a console show and an Xbox show, and for us as Microsoft, Xbox is our gaming brand, and it's the thing we can fill an arena like this, we get millions of people to watch us on TV and we show our games and it's a brand that people care about."

They're not even trying to sell them to the same people, in their eyes console games are for living rooms, mainstream tv & outgoing social people (the sheep) who dont care they're paying more so that Microsoft gets a cut of things like streamed media, games and micro-payments. PC games are for basement dwelling no-life neckbeards who think chatting in a twitch stream or a forum makes them a social butterfly. I'm not saying everyone is one or the other but thats who they are marketed at.

To me this says that Microsoft will only ever look at the XBox & PC purely from how they monetize them and merging the two would destroy one. Console users would protest loudly if console & PC releases were at the same time and PC games looking better (PC games will almost always look better purely because you wont see many reviewers with PCs as weak as an XB1) but console games costing $20 more. Overpriced walled garden platforms can only survive if theres no reasonable alternative and delaying a few months is usually long enough so that most of the sheep who buy those must have titles have moved on to the next shiny object/game.