Microsoft and Nvidia Quit PC Gaming Alliance - UPDATED

[veloper]

Hardly. PC gaming is one of the pillars of their Windows empire.
The average consumer who doesn't game on his PC can can get by with old windows 2000 or xp and a 10 year old CPU. That will run their webbrowser and wordprocessing needs fine. Gaming is the most demanding application.
Cut out a big portion of the early adopters and the rest will be much slower to catch up. It would hurt the entire industry. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, the lot.

M$ wants both PC and xbox gaming. Their best move was making a directx console, very similar to a PC, making porting games between the 360 and the PC so much easier.

I guess that explains why they pay other companies money to not release content on the PC and only do so exclusively for the Xbox. Or having their own developers not release content for PC even though the developers planned to. All while buying out other PC game makers and having them turn what was originally a PC-only title in a Xbox only title.

Though PC gaming might be important to Microsofts business, their investment of cash speaks to the fact they don't recognize it as such.

It makes sense when you consider the PS3 and the wii.

If I were M$ I would fear the other consoles far more than fear for PC gaming minus a few ports.
They need the 360 to be succesful, both to be profitable in itself and to support the PC with easy game porting. Exclusives make the 360 seem more attractive compared to the other consoles.
It's a balance act.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I just recalled something, its easier to run day minus one games on the 360 than the PC, sure its single player only but WTF MS get a clue.....

Fix'd it for you. The 360 is leak central.

Ya they are just trying to ru the PC into the ground since they can not control it like a closed market setup....

 

[Jumwa]

It makes sense when you consider the PS3 and the wii.

If I were M$ I would fear the other consoles far more than fear for PC gaming minus a few ports.
They need the 360 to be succesful, both to be profitable in itself and to support the PC with easy game porting. Exclusives make the 360 seem more attractive compared to the other consoles.
It's a balance act.

And so Microsoft sabotages the PC to buoy the Xbox against its competitors. Glad we agree on my original point.

 

[duchaked]

"it's hard to imagine that the group's relevance won't become increasingly questionable."

heh ya pretty much thinking that...

 

[veloper]

It makes sense when you consider the PS3 and the wii.

If I were M$ I would fear the other consoles far more than fear for PC gaming minus a few ports.
They need the 360 to be succesful, both to be profitable in itself and to support the PC with easy game porting. Exclusives make the 360 seem more attractive compared to the other consoles.
It's a balance act.

And so Microsoft sabotages the PC to buoy the Xbox against its competitors. Glad we agree on my original point.

Keeping Fable 3 away from the PC is a bit harsh to call 'sabotage', more like a mercy really considering what a dumbed down mess that game is.

Still M$ wants to have it both ways.
You know you can plug a 360 controller in a PC USB port? It's little things like these that are for more important than a few more ports. I don't care about fable3, but the controller is nice for games that aren't RTS or FPS.
They would prefer it if cross-platform gamers didn't go the usual PC+PS3/wii, but rather PC+360.
PC gaming isn't really dying anyway.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Losing Microsoft is no big deal. Ignoring the loss of Nvidia, Microsoft leaving might've just been an indication of the positive, seeing as their goals seem to be in sabotaging the PC gaming market in favour of their games console.

Microsoft's business strategy with the Xbox series has always had this inevitable conflict of interest with PC ahead of it. I suppose now it's coming to fruition.

It makes sense because Microsoft has no real say in how to control the PC market; but they have a lot more clout (and money-mongering tactics) with their console. It's far easier to control their customers on a system that is, by design, limited and restrictive.

Funneling more customers into the 360 market is better for their bottom line because it doesn't really matter how many gamers use Windows; they will retain a massive retail-royalty-base without them (that is, Windows will be bundled onto millions of machines every year regardless of how said machines are used; be it for gaming or otherwise).

 

[archvile93]

Losing Microsoft is no big deal. Ignoring the loss of Nvidia, Microsoft leaving might've just been an indication of the positive, seeing as their goals seem to be in sabotaging the PC gaming market in favour of their games console.

Hardly. PC gaming is one of the pillars of their Windows empire.
The average consumer who doesn't game on his PC can can get by with old windows 2000 or xp and a 10 year old CPU. That will run their webbrowser and wordprocessing needs fine. Gaming is the most demanding application.
Cut out a big portion of the early adopters and the rest will be much slower to catch up. It would hurt the entire industry. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, the lot.

M$ wants both PC and xbox gaming. Their best move was making a directx console, very similar to a PC, making porting games between the 360 and the PC so much easier.

And yet few of their Xbox games ever see a PC release, and the ones that do are usually very late ports that they clearly put no effort into whatsoever seeing as they almost always run like shit. And then there's GFWL. I literally (not misusing the word there) installed it five minutes ago to play Bulletstorm, and I've already decided it's the shittiest software my poor computer has ever been cruelly subjected to.

 

[mad825]

What is Nvidia saying? some consequence two of the top major players leaving at the same time.

 

[veloper]

Losing Microsoft is no big deal. Ignoring the loss of Nvidia, Microsoft leaving might've just been an indication of the positive, seeing as their goals seem to be in sabotaging the PC gaming market in favour of their games console.

Hardly. PC gaming is one of the pillars of their Windows empire.
The average consumer who doesn't game on his PC can can get by with old windows 2000 or xp and a 10 year old CPU. That will run their webbrowser and wordprocessing needs fine. Gaming is the most demanding application.
Cut out a big portion of the early adopters and the rest will be much slower to catch up. It would hurt the entire industry. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, the lot.

M$ wants both PC and xbox gaming. Their best move was making a directx console, very similar to a PC, making porting games between the 360 and the PC so much easier.

And yet few of their Xbox games ever see a PC release, and the ones that do are usually very late ports that they clearly put no effort into whatsoever seeing as they almost always run like shit. And then there's GFWL. I literally (not misusing the word there) installed it five minutes ago to play Bulletstorm, and I've already decided it's the shittiest software my poor computer has ever been cruelly subjected to.

PC gets alot of multiplatform games: Arkham Asylum, COD series, Bioware games, Bethesda games, ports of xboxlive games like meatboy and shank, the lot.
Most of the time the average port is still better than the console version, though there are ofcourse exceptions.

Some games remain exclusive true, but I can't think of any exclusive right now that I'd really miss.

Seriously, if M$ wanted to kill PC gaming in favour of the 360, they would simply have left out direct3dx in Vista and windows 7 and for good measure block openGL and proprietory solutions. Make it impossible to game on.

WindowsXP is limited to old dx9.0c and 2GB of RAM, so by now PC gaming would have come to a complete standstill and the death blow would come a few years later with the next console generation.

 

[teh_Canape]

yeah, Microsoft

how about that Halo HD remake coming to PC?

you know, since Combat Evolved WAS, in fact, released on PC

 

[Vrach]

With that perception successfully changed, we have decided to not continue our membership and instead focus that energy on our own internal efforts, including the return of our flagship PC franchises Age of Empires and Microsoft Flight," the rep said.

I love how blind they are about the fact those two titles are virtually meaningless in the gaming world. AoE's time is long gone and their new MMO sucks, which is something pretty much everyone I've seen agrees on, from AoE hardcore fans, across news sites (Escapist included) and all the way to the rest of us (don't get me wrong, I loved the AoE games, but that was a long time ago and doesn't change the fact the MMO 'sequel' sucks). The other being a flight sim... well... need I say anything really?

Yeah, both games will have players, hell some will love them, but considering we're talking about guys with that much cash, capable of so much, who talk about pushing the PC platform forward with those two titles while they're releasing much more 'relevant' ones on their console, I can't do much more than chuckle.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

Microsoft Flight?

lmao @ MSFT

 

[Jumwa]

Keeping Fable 3 away from the PC is a bit harsh to call 'sabotage', more like a mercy really considering what a dumbed down mess that game is.

Still M$ wants to have it both ways.
You know you can plug a 360 controller in a PC USB port? It's little things like these that are for more important than a few more ports. I don't care about fable3, but the controller is nice for games that aren't RTS or FPS.
They would prefer it if cross-platform gamers didn't go the usual PC+PS3/wii, but rather PC+360.
PC gaming isn't really dying anyway.

Your opinion on Fable 3 aside--I'm not going to get drawn into any debate on the merits of any game, personal taste is not really useful to this discussion, especially when a game that has all around positive reviews is dismissed entirely as worthless, that kind of hyperbole is not conducive to rational discussion--it's not the only case. There's Fable 2 & 3. Alan Wake was originally to be a PC game but Microsoft bought the makers out and had them turn it into a Xbox only game instead. They've shut down their PC games division, cutting off the flight sim games they used to make for instance. They've continually paid companies like Bethesda to NOT release content for PC, such as with the Dead Money DLC for New Vegas last year.

Compared to that, the ability to jam one of their controllers into your PC is a dubious benefit at best. It's honestly never even occurred to me. There are plenty of other fine PC controllers on the market out there, and I would argue that a rather mundane, typical games controller is easily trumped by new content to play.

And of course PC gaming isn't dying, it's a testament to the strength of the market that it perseveres despite Microsoft's overall neglect and acts of direct sabotage.

 

[Whateveralot]

"At the time we joined the PC Gaming Alliance, the primary purpose was to change the false perception that PC gaming was dying. With that perception successfully changed, we have decided to not continue our membership and instead focus that energy on our own internal efforts...

I laughed out loud because of this. I don't think PC gaming is dying (not at all), but this is written in such a silly fashion I can't help myself from cracking up. I can't believe Microsoft would come up with this.

 

[archabaddon]

UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson says the company's decision to leave the PC Gaming Alliance is not an indictment of the group but rather a sign of the PC's strength as a gaming platform.

"At the time we joined the PC Gaming Alliance, the primary purpose was to change the false perception that PC gaming was dying. With that perception successfully changed, we have decided to not continue our membership and instead focus that energy on our own internal efforts, including the return of our flagship PC franchises Age of Empires and Microsoft Flight," the rep said. "We made this decision so that we could put more time and energy into our own PC gaming efforts. And we will continue to work with our partners to drive the continued growth of Windows as a game platform."

So there you have it. All is well!

All is well? Ha! That's like volunteering to be a physical therapist, handing your patient a cup of Jello, and then proudly exclaiming, "Well, my work here is done!" Meanwhile, the guy still needs help getting back on his feet.

Bravo MS, if you don't take anything else away from this, remember that there is in fact an "I" in the word "alliance". Have fun saying you support the PC while you continue to really almost solely support the XBox.

 

[Apostacious]

Oh yes Microsoft, the Giants of PC gaming, with the outstanding and award winning Games for Windows Live. It stands as a pillar of gaming standards; and without which the PC gaming world would surely die away.

Microsoft who with windows have built-in irreplaceable utilities for gamers into the OS.

Microsoft, the world-renowned publisher if the acclaimed Age of Empires II and Flight Sim X. Modern greats unsurpassed in technology and scope.

Yes, it is clear that Microsoft are the real heavy hitters in todays PC gaming environment...

do you forget that they are also publishers? ever heard of Microsoft game studios? DERP

 

[archvile93]

Losing Microsoft is no big deal. Ignoring the loss of Nvidia, Microsoft leaving might've just been an indication of the positive, seeing as their goals seem to be in sabotaging the PC gaming market in favour of their games console.

Hardly. PC gaming is one of the pillars of their Windows empire.
The average consumer who doesn't game on his PC can can get by with old windows 2000 or xp and a 10 year old CPU. That will run their webbrowser and wordprocessing needs fine. Gaming is the most demanding application.
Cut out a big portion of the early adopters and the rest will be much slower to catch up. It would hurt the entire industry. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, the lot.

M$ wants both PC and xbox gaming. Their best move was making a directx console, very similar to a PC, making porting games between the 360 and the PC so much easier.

And yet few of their Xbox games ever see a PC release, and the ones that do are usually very late ports that they clearly put no effort into whatsoever seeing as they almost always run like shit. And then there's GFWL. I literally (not misusing the word there) installed it five minutes ago to play Bulletstorm, and I've already decided it's the shittiest software my poor computer has ever been cruelly subjected to.

PC gets alot of multiplatform games: Arkham Asylum, COD series, Bioware games, Bethesda games, ports of xboxlive games like meatboy and shank, the lot.
Most of the time the average port is still better than the console version, though there are ofcourse exceptions.

Some games remain exclusive true, but I can't think of any exclusive right now that I'd really miss.

Seriously, if M$ wanted to kill PC gaming in favour of the 360, they would simply have left out direct3dx in Vista and windows 7 and for good measure block openGL and proprietory solutions. Make it impossible to game on.

WindowsXP is limited to old dx9.0c and 2GB of RAM, so by now PC gaming would have come to a complete standstill and the death blow would come a few years later with the next console generation.

The reason they don't do that is because people would either riot or just buy macs. Also, all those game you described are also on the 360 as well. The 360 also gets exclusives like GoW2 and 3, most of the Halo series, Crackdown, most of the Fable series and saints row is a console exclusive (no, that mound of garbage code is not a PC port). None of those have any reason to be exclusive to consoles, except to encourage the purchase of 360s. They claim they don't make PC versions because they don't sell, but that's only because they can't even bother to half ass the ports, maybe 1/1000 ass.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

"At the time we joined the PC Gaming Alliance, the primary purpose was to change the false perception that PC gaming was dying. With that perception successfully changed, we have decided to not continue our membership and instead focus that energy on our own internal efforts [...]."

To translate:

"At the time we heard PC gaming was supposedly dying, we realized that our consumer base was diminishing slightly. We heard that this thing called the PC Gaming Alliance existed, and figured that if we joined it, we could win back a good portion of those consumers willing to spend lots and lots of money on our products. Now that we've gotten back those consumers, we're leaving that silly social group and going back to draining our re-gained audiences wallets."

Okay okay, Microsoft and Nvidia aren't that soulless, I know, but come on. Isn't there a pledge or code of honor they have to follow? It's like, oh I don't know, a bunch of countries coming together in the face of adversity, defeating that source of challenge, and then, after creating a continental economic support group, they disband and go back being independent nationalistic countries in conflict with one another. Wink.

 

[kasperbbs]

There was such a thing? Seems like microsoft hasn't done anything good for pc gaming anyway ,except for releasing windows ,so why pretend to care by being in such organizations.