Microsoft: "We've Lost Our Way" on PC Gaming

[Deathfish15]

Best of all, PC gamers can look forward to a future where they can interact with their console brethren seamlessly.



At this point, I think they really should rename "Game Developers Conference" to "PC Developers Conference," considering the plethora of amazing PC gaming news coming from it. It's a good time to be a PC gamer!

1) They've consistently separated PC from console because PC has better hardware for better reaction timing and quicker response. In other words, the PC always has an advantage against consolers. This would reflect as a poor experience to consolers playing against PC gamers in the same games, making them blame the console. It's bad PR and they know it, which is why they've not allowed cross-platform play in forever ago.


2) No, it's not a good time to be a PC gamer. The bleed of DLC obsession and "F2P" cash shops disguised as games has runneth over! Evolve is a great example of "milk the customer dry" in a money grab related to both DLC and a cash shop built right into the game.


3) This is some PR BS from Microsoft that they said just before Win8 released too. Yet they still have non-PC Xbox exclusives. These are in-house (such as the Halo series) and could easily be ported over given their obsession with claiming the architecture of the Xbox is so much like their Win OS. Until they start making every single "Xbox exclusive" on PC as well, only then will I believe in this unified gaming goal of theirs for both platforms. Right now it is just smoke and mirrors trying to bait some good PR. And you, author of this article, ate it up like the good little media dog that they thought you were. Congratulations.

 

[Joccaren]

This just sounds like they're trying to make pc users pay for xbox live.

This. I am not, and never will be, an Xbox Live customer. Never.

I will, sadly, be a Windows customer until good CAD, document software, games and a whole heap else appears on Linux, but that will not make me a Xbox Live customer, and if you try to force that on Windows 10, I'm skipping Windows 10 too.

What you need to do to actually take back PC gaming. Not "Milk PC gaming for money", but become a major competitor in the PC gaming marketplace again:
1. Windows 10 "Gaming Mode". Activating gaming mode will do what its namesake in numerous other third party tools already does: Shut down unnecessary processes, optimise OS settings for Optimal PC performance, and once shut off, revert to its previous state. It'd also help if Windows 10 was designed from the ground up to do this sort of thing. A major boost in performance to games, just from using the OS and activating "Gaming mode". It'd be worth upgrading.
2. Ports for every new Xbox title. If its all the one Xbox Live service now, I expect to be able to buy all Xbox gamers on the PC, with good ports. No, you won't sell more Xboxes like this, but that's not your goal is it MS? I swear you said your goal was to make up with PC gaming and become a major competitor there again. In that case, not forcing Xbox ownership is an EXCELLENT first start. And not only would it help your image with PC gamers, it'd earn you more money from PC gamers, who'd buy games they'd previously ignored due to Xbox exclusitivity. If all the Halos were suddenly released for PC with good ports... I think you'd earn a fair bit of money. Do it for every future game, and you'll get a fair bit of revenue from PC gamers who want your games, but don't want to pay nearly $600 for only a couple of them [Console, + games that you want. Regional pricing may vary]. I'd rather pay $120, or thanks to Australia tax probably $180.
3. Windows 10 need to be good. Not just need a Gaming mode, as gaming isn't all people use their PC for. Its not an Xbox, and you can't just focus it around 'entertainment' and some shitty store. It needs to be business oriented. Designed for KB+M, and to optimise performance and customisation of the OS and programs that run on it for business purposes. If you can't make Windows 10 appealing without 'entertainment', we don't need Windows 10.
4. A good digital distribution service. Not anything like Games for Windows Live. Minimal DRM< easy online signup that requires only an email and nothing else, CD key registration online, and from there it checks on first install, and doesn't check afterwards. It also keeps a library of your programs, and allows you to download them anywhere to any one of your computers.
Actually, you know what would be phenomenal? Build it into Windows 10, as a "Program Bank", not just for games. You can back up your registry and files online to a cloud server [You are able to select and deselect files to sync at will, not restrictions], and re-download anywhere you want. Got all these save files, mods and patches for Skyrim, and don't want to install from scratch? Upload them to the storage server, install your new PC, then select them to pull back down. You now have your mods, saves, patches AND your registry has been updated with the install path and settings. And you can do this for other programs too, not just games. I would KILL for that functionality, seeing as I've got a 2TB drive dedicated to it ATM, but I've still got to re-install due to the registry paths not being able to be safely/reliably copied.

Do this, and PC gaming on Windows 10 would be a very appealing opportunity. Support for gaming, and business. Greater performance and functionality Minimal DRM. Larger variety of games.
I don't think most people care about playing with console players or not. In fact, if anything, that's a sentiment that's likely to backfire and kill the Xbox, when PC players dominate them in FPS and such. Then they buy PCs to become more competitive and win more, and well shit, you've stopped selling Xboxes. The communities also have historical unfriendliness towards each other, and probably wouldn't mingle too well online.
Basically, MS's ideas at this point seem to be "Milk PC gamers" rather than "Support PC gaming". Good luck MS. We're not as stupid as you think we are. I thought you'd have realised that after Windows 8 and GFWL.

 

[AstaresPanda]

All i know is last time they did this was with Games for Windows Live and was only for windows vista and stopped me from playing Halo 2 . And still no cross platform play. So thanks to those fucks i got to play Halo, not Halo 2 coz windows xp ? FUCK YOU. And then they just did not bother with halo 3 on pc or ever again. Then i had the joy of having to deal with that shit again with dawn of war 2 having to sign into steam and GFWL wtf !?

Really sounds like they wanna push xbox live on pc users and im not paying a fucking fee to play my dam games. Games ive been enjoying online for free. All this shit consoles braggin about is all shit we pc gamers have been enjoying for free and in better quality. Perhaps GabeN was right after all and this SteamOS is really going to be somthing ima need if i wanna continue enjoying pc gaming the way its always been.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

this is like the hudred time microsoft tries to "win over" the PC audience back

its over darling, we are done

 

[zzrhardy]

Microsoft's decade old "Convert to XBOX or die" Ice Queen routine doesn't seem so cool now that Steam OS has taken off its shirt and is winking seductively over the fence line.

And their "olive branch" of declaring that "PC gamers are dead. Your all XBOX live peasants from now on" could not have been timed worse on so many different levels.

Next GDC they will likely have a keynote address of "The only reason we kept hitting PC gamers was because we loved them so much. Please come back. We promise to stop drinking".

 

[FalloutJack]

So what we're likely to see in Windows 10 is a bloated Xbox Live account forced onto our PCs which will do practically nothing of use. I think I know I'll be deleting immediately.

So far, not looking like a good thing to load onto my next computer, but that's not for a while, yet.

Microsoft's decade old "Convert to XBOX or die" Ice Queen routine doesn't seem so cool now that Steam OS has taken off its shirt and is winking seductively over the fence line.

And their "olive branch" of declaring that "PC gamers are dead. Your all XBOX live peasants from now on" could not have been timed worse on so many different levels.

Next GDC they will likely have a keynote address of "The only reason we kept hitting PC gamers was because we loved them so much. Please come back. We promise to stop drinking".

Buddy, they've been to the Betty Ford Clinic and back a number of times, by now. It all started years ago, creating bad copies of things. X-Box is the Brand-X of Playstation, you see. More followed this copy-copy syndrome like a bad addiction. Microsoft started moaning "Zune...Zune..." in its sleep, and then as it kept adding pink flamingo feathers to its red-ring box to puff up its importance, it developed a severe neurosis: It thought it could build tablets and that it could foist an OS on everyone with its programming for...no good reason. Lately, they're just complaining of being X-Boned, a serious condition. They're playing that sympathy card up really hard, but some people just don't care anymore.

 

[Strazdas]

Hey MS you want to win back PC gamers... stop chaining directX versions to WIndows versions. Hoinestly we figured out long ago the only reason you do this is to create a selling point for the new OS.

They wont stop because there are real technical reasons for this chaining.

If there is a real technical reason tha's more of a design flaw in DirectX that they need to fix. I mean OGL doesn't seem to share that problem. It updates pretty nicely and is cross platform to boot. Explain to a game dev why they should use DirectX as their base when honestly it just means they have to double the coding to code a DirectX Whatever version and a OGL version. As opposed to you know.. just coding an OGL version. They've created a situation where by the time enough people upgrade to the latest version of windows to get the latest directX version Microshaft is already pushing their next version of windows with the next great DirectX version.

as i have already explained in this post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.871809-Microsoft-Weve-Lost-Our-Way-on-PC-Gaming?page=2#21864109] why it is impossible to de-couple directX from Windows releases as it is now i wont repeat myself.

OGL has plenty of problems and hasnt been a real competitor to DirectX for a decade now. Od love if OGL would be once again a good alternative, since i loved it, but currently it is lacking. If you want a more realistic competitor to DirectX that does not have this problem you should look at Mantle.

DirectX is crossplatform too. it runs on Xbox and PC.

Its very easy to explain to a dev why he should code for DirectX now. just show him the difference in features available. DirectX has far more, while OGL is stuck somewhere between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10....

See, due to delayed adoption in directX developement we see (there are still games coming out for DirectX 9 even) the "no newest directx for your windows" is not a problem to 99% of gamers. and even those games that utilize the newest directx often have problems because of it. For example Assasins Creed 1 was one of the first games to utilize DirectX 10. everyone played the DirectX 9 version though, because DirectX 10 version was buggy and kept crashing on people. On the other hand, Crysis DirectX 10 version ran smooth like butter, but they were forced to remove some planned features due to needing to support DirectX 9 machines.

Id love to have DirectX uncoupled from windows, but thats just completely unrealistic now due to the way DirectX is setup.

 

[gezodiac]

If they want to transform the pc gaming scene into the style of the xbox scene.

steamos will pickup steam (lol) like no ones business.

because this just reeks of "we will now charge a monthly fee to use windows for gaming because we know it works well"

 

[Grabehn]

If there is ONE time I'll ever use this image... is to THIS fucking line. We lost our way on pc gaming?

 

[seditary]

I know the way Microsoft should take on PC gaming.

Away.

There's plenty of people and companies willing and capable of making PC gaming glorious yet Microsoft keeps on getting in the fucking way. We actually remember the shit you say and do, even though Microsoft clearly doesn't.

 

[MonsterCrit]

DirectX is crossplatform too. it runs on Xbox and PC.

Xboxes are basically running a stripped down WIndows OS so that's not really cross platform. But for comparisson I'll give you that.

Now let's look at OGL

WIndows, Many Flavours of Linux, PS4 and Mac, Also Android.

I'm sorry but from a development perspective. OGL wins. It may lack tech and features but it has a larger user base. I can code once and have some reasonable assurance that it will work just as well on any of these systems with minimal re-engineering. A slight sacrifice in fidelity is a small price to pay. Also honestly... if your users can notice the drop in fidelity... you obviously have not don't a good job of designing your game.

 

[digital warrior]

Microsoft don't feel to bad you didn't "lose your way" that would imply you knew where you were going in the first place.

 

[Thurston]

Triple post! New record! Please ignore this post.

 

[Thurston]

Triple post! That's an academy record!

 

[Thurston]

Since the quoting function doesn't seem to be working for me today, I will sorta quote Callate,
"Lost your way? Then stop trying to lead!"

My opinion is that MS should get out of the way of the development of PC gaming. It makes me think of the tire manufacturer trying to dictate how cars should be built.

You could listen to the marketplace, or collaborate (not dictate) with other manufacturers to create a superior product, but you are one, and only one piece of the machine. You're not very good at the whole thing. Stick to your capability.

 

[Poetic Nova]

This just sounds like they're trying to make pc users pay for xbox live.

Sounds like this is how the "free Windows 10" is coming into play. "Free" with a X-Box Live subscription.

If this ends up being true, I'll stick to Windows 8.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

He said that Windows 10 will consist of a big push into the PC gaming sector, and is commited to building PC exclusive titles...

HURRAY!

...utilizing the newly announced HoloLens.

Oh noooooooooooooooooooooo0000000000000!

Remember how successful all those Kinect exclusive games were?
Yeah, me neither.

I keep re-reading to see where he says "So, here's Killer Instinct. We're so very sorry".

I'm not seeing it, so I'm finding it a bit hard to care.

So .... Halo 5 for PC when?

Double indeed!

Halo 3 for PC would be a start.

I still haven't finished that fight thank you very much (Heck I'll settle for Halo Anniversary at this point)

 

[Poetic Nova]

I still haven't finished that fight thank you very much (Heck I'll settle for Halo Anniversary at this point)

Personally would already settle with a PC version of Halo 2 that isn't Vista exclusive & dropping GFWL.
I'm dying to play it again, but I can't be arsed to connect my X360 again just for that.

 

[wildstars]

So .... Halo 5 for PC when?

I'd be happy with Halo3 for PC. Happier if the graphics were upgraded to DX11.