Would PC gaming be better today if XBOX never happened?

[hanselthecaretaker]

I think so overall.

More efficient use of APIs might currently be attributed to it, but I think that could?ve still happened regardless if Microsoft wanted it to. We also wouldn?t have as many negative side effects on PC thanks to nearly everything being ported from consoles. Before XBOX consoles received ports of PC games, not the opposite we have now. Add to that all the recent publisher bloat and unethical practices that started with XBOX and found their way over to PC in various forms. People will cry ?But piracy...? but that?s a catch-22 at best, and largely can be attributed to the above. It would?ve worked itself out, possibly better if things had been different.

Steam and GoG would have also happened independent of consoles. Gabe himself used to work at MS before forming Valve, which was rooted in PC exclusively for quite a while...until XBOX. There is a good video of him on piracy as well where he says the best way to prevent it is to offer a good product or service.

Spoiler: About a minute into this clip-

The PC market is its own unique ecosystem with an equilibrium point that could and should be primarily independent of whatever?s going on with consoles. There can be some crossover of course, but not the detrimental variety we?ve seen too often.

 

[CaitSeith]

Why XBOX and not PS2? PS2 defined that console generation and attracted a lot of the publishers and developers culprits of recent unethical practices (not to mention that those publishers were already relevant on PC before the XBOX arrived). Anyways, I think that PC Gaming would had been worse without the XBOX, because Microsoft efforts on gaming would had been focused on pushing their shitty GFWL even more, to the point that Steam wouldn't had a chance.

 

[sXeth]

Funnily enough, when I think of the demise (well decline) of PC gaming, Steam would be the first one I'd tick as holding the gun.

At least in those nascent days, Steam was a huge problem with how rapidly it became the exclusive market. No credit card? No PC games for you. Insufficient internet package, no games for you. Don't want to deal with omni-DRM, no games for you. I cant speak for whatever barrier that presented to a dev/publisher, where you had to get your game on Steam or it may as well not exist.

Suddenly everything jumped to console (and consequently the PC versions became ports of the console versions. Because console games were sold in the actual mass market, to the wider audience, in stores where people could see them, and not buried on a closed digital marketplace. Its started to shift in this decade, granted.

Steam also managed to achieve the industry's holy grail. They killed the used game market. Problem being, the used game market is still a market. Every instance of someone getting a game from their older brother, or at a garage sale, or hell, renting it at Blockbuster and looking into their own copy or picking up the next in the series, gone.

Of course, while all that was going on, the consoles saw their biggest boom period ever, but that was PS2 more then Xbox. Xbox didn't do terribly (and they certainly tapped onto the FPS market-crossed with the people who didn't want to bother with a PC (and good god was putting together a gaming PC a mess at the same timeframe) with Halo)

As the barrage of bad industry goes, EA was EAing well long before Xbox. Lootboxes and Free-to-play stuff transferred over from phones (where you'd have to blame Apple if anyone). "Games as Service" was the MMO model, which you could attribute to a few places, but the obvious elephant there is Blizzard.

Xbox has its own series of issues (and its baffling how its still around having shoved its foot in its mouth at every generation launch), and Microsoft certainly isn't above industry BS. But shutting down the theoretical "golden era" of 1998-2002 or so of PC gaming isn't really at their door.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Why XBOX and not PS2? PS2 defined that console generation and attracted a lot of the publishers and developers culprits of recent unethical practices (not to mention that those publishers were already relevant on PC before the XBOX arrived). Anyways, I think that PC Gaming would had been worse without the XBOX, because Microsoft efforts on gaming would had been focused on pushing their shitty GFWL even more, to the point that Steam wouldn't had a chance.

It wasn?t until XBOX though that console ports became so prevalent. IIRC GFWL also came well after XBOX LIVE, and was always overshadowed and underutilized because of it. Being a PC software company they really had no rational business getting into consoles. They only did so to try getting into the living room more effectively and to beat Sony. Maybe it could have been different if Gates got his way with putting Windows into it, but as it turned out XBOX was and still is ultimately just a distraction that cannibalizes their bread and butter more than anything.

 

[Saelune]

This topic reeks of PC elitism.

PC gaming is better because of alot of what it has adapted from consoles. The main reason I am now virtually just a PC gamer is because of that. And cause console gaming has given up most of its advantages over PC gaming to be a shittier PC.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I am not PC elitist. I play on PlayStation [https://psnprofiles.com/c3RAMburger] at least half the time if not more in totality.

If a console can offer a decent enough package and game portfolio that differentiates enough from what?s on PC, then cool by me. But seeing anything XBOX near the PC side of things causes me to recoil slightly, because it?s easy to see what Microsoft favors. I actually liked the original XBOX ironically enough, but it wasn?t until XBOX LIVE took off that I started to see bad things happening.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Lots of doom and gloom here and I can't say I agree with most of it. Saying PC gaming is worse than it was 10 years ago is just wrong. I agree, there are a lot of publishers engaging in shitty business practices, but I don't think you can place the blame for that solely on the Xbox.

PC gaming truly was in the shitter in the first decade of the 2000s but I think it is largely having a Renaissance right now. Sales of gaming computers (both complete units and components) are growing year after year and games go on sale faster than they ever have. Wait 2-4 months and you can get new AAA titles (if that's your thing) for 50% or more off. Steam is indeed a dominant force but GoG and other services are becoming more and more viable options. Ports are also getting better with only the rare stinker like Arkham Knight as true standouts. Refunds are available on stores like Steam and Origin for the rare lemon that gets through or if you just didn't like it.

I was always on the xbox side of the "console war" but I do agree with you that their merged xbox ecosystem and Windows 10 store are shitty. I think you're letting that overshadow the fact that the PC market is stronger than it's been in quite some time.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Lots of doom and gloom here and I can't say I agree with most of it. Saying PC gaming is worse than it was 10 years ago is just wrong. I agree, there are a lot of publishers engaging in shitty business practices, but I don't think you can place the blame for that solely on the Xbox.

PC gaming truly was in the shitter in the first decade of the 2000s but I think it is largely having a Renaissance right now. Sales of gaming computers (both complete units and components) are growing year after year and games go on sale faster than they ever have. Wait 2-4 months and you can get new AAA titles (if that's your thing) for 50% or more off. Steam is indeed a dominant force but GoG and other services are becoming more and more viable options. Ports are also getting better with only the rare stinker like Arkham Knight as true standouts. Refunds are available on stores like Steam and Origin for the rare lemon that gets through or if you just didn't like it.

I was always on the xbox side of the "console war" but I do agree with you that their merged xbox ecosystem and Windows 10 store are shitty. I think you're letting that overshadow the fact that the PC market is stronger than it's been in quite some time.

My main point is basically I?d like to see less XBOX, more PC on Microsoft?s behalf. Maybe they would?ve done much better than GFWL and continuous knee jerk reactions at best to the rest of the PC gaming industry if it wasn?t the case.

 

[CaitSeith]

But seeing anything XBOX near the PC side of things causes me to recoil slightly, because it's easy to see what Microsoft favors.

Could you be more specific? I ask because in the XBX360 era they pushed so hard on the console side that people were all gloom and doom about PC gaming.

EDIT:

My main point is basically I'd like to see less XBOX, more PC on Microsoft's behalf. Maybe they would've done much better than GFWL and continuous knee jerk reactions at best to the rest of the PC gaming industry if it wasn't the case.

I disagree. Microsoft has liked to push for anti-consumer practices since long before they took a dive into console gaming, so focusing in GFWL would had been all about making it more enforced without making it more appealing for the consumer. But, hey! It's just a theory...

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Microsoft isn't worth your time

 

[Saelune]

I am not PC elitist. I play on PlayStation [https://psnprofiles.com/c3RAMburger] at least half the time if not more in totality.

If a console can offer a decent enough package and game portfolio that differentiates enough from what?s on PC, then cool by me. But seeing anything XBOX near the PC side of things causes me to recoil slightly, because it?s easy to see what Microsoft favors. I actually liked the original XBOX ironically enough, but it wasn?t until XBOX LIVE took off that I started to see bad things happening.

Xbox Live (particularly when the 360 came out) is what made online console gaming mainstream. I still remember the first time I ever played Call of Duty 2 online, and it was magical.

Corporate greed is a universal problem. And though I have alot of issues with Microsoft, especially lately, it is unfair to ignore all the good the 360 and Xbox Live brought. I also doubt Sony would have been as motivated to improve online console gaming if not for Xbox.

 

[SSLeo]

im sorry but im on the pc side in here , my opinion would be diff. if pc is just for gaming but no it isnt but since we are talking about that part of pc "PC Gaming" i just want to remind that one of the things players need is money, saving money

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I am not PC elitist. I play on PlayStation [https://psnprofiles.com/c3RAMburger] at least half the time if not more in totality.

If a console can offer a decent enough package and game portfolio that differentiates enough from what?s on PC, then cool by me. But seeing anything XBOX near the PC side of things causes me to recoil slightly, because it?s easy to see what Microsoft favors. I actually liked the original XBOX ironically enough, but it wasn?t until XBOX LIVE took off that I started to see bad things happening.

Xbox Live (particularly when the 360 came out) is what made online console gaming mainstream. I still remember the first time I ever played Call of Duty 2 online, and it was magical.

Corporate greed is a universal problem. And though I have alot of issues with Microsoft, especially lately, it is unfair to ignore all the good the 360 and Xbox Live brought. I also doubt Sony would have been as motivated to improve online console gaming if not for Xbox.

Perhaps paid online services would've been inevitable even without XBL. After all, subscription based services were on PC long beforehand (Blizzard). But it still sours me enough thinking how they rushed 360 to market knowing full well the hardware was bricktastic. Sony deliberately held off a year because they knew the PS3 wasn't ready yet. Then they buy up 3rd parties and timed exclusives, and many of the questionable publisher practices on console took root around this time.

Again though, perhaps it was all inevitable given how consumers generally behave, but that's how it happened. I thought of Sony as the underdog 7th gen, and it was fun to watch them claw their way back from a near disaster to eventually outselling the 360 in the end. Now they're in a far better position than even Microsoft probably was then, but what is Microsoft doing to claw their way back into consumers' hearts and minds? They need better developers in their corner for one thing. They also did a lot of self-imposed damage to their reputation as far as consumers go, but maybe they've rectified that somewhat recently. XBL may be still great, but a game console isn't quite a game console without great software.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I don't remember which came first, since I don't use consoles, but my gaming days came to a rather abrupt pause (albeit intermittent) when the steam DRM was first implemented.

The prevalence of dismal console controls and practices on the equally shitty 'ports might indeed have something to do with a whole host of crowds moving over to consoles when they couldn't buy games as easily as before. The youngsters without online credit card access and the older anti-monopoly, anti-DRM, pro-second hand market people, etc.

The rise of horrid money-squeezing business practices can be blamed on both mobile games and a more corporate structure of AAA developers/publishers. Not to mention indifferent casual gamers and obsessive/addicted whales, though the whales wouldn't matter that much if laws prevent such underhanded and scummy moves from companies.

Then we have the ever increasing problem of the focus being shifted from what makes games games, The gameplay and mechanics, to secondary and auxiliary props such as graphics, sound, story, etc. Trying to turn games into books or movies.
(Even camera through the dreaded OTS view..Which I absolutely LOATHE.)

There are still a few gems out there that can be found, though most are indies now of course.
I really miss the golden age between '95 and '05.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

If xbox never happend then

Deus Ex 2 would not be consolized
FPS not casualized
More AAA developers would be interested in making PC exclusive
etc

and i could go on and on.

it seem that microsoft really try to kill PC gaming.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

If xbox never happend then

Deus Ex 2 would not be consolized
FPS not casualized
More AAA developers would be interested in making PC exclusive
etc

and i could go on and on.

it seem that microsoft really try to kill PC gaming.

"FPS not casualized"

That literally makes no sense.
What exactly was "casualized" in the FPS genre when the Xbox came out? As opposed to the N64? Or PS1? Or even other PC shooters themselves?

 

[Vigormortis]

Would PC gaming be better today if XBOX never happened?

Uh...I wasn't aware that PC gaming was bad off to begin with. In fact, and forgive if I've missed some blatantly obvious catastrophe of some kind, but I've been operating under the impression that PC gaming is in a new golden era. We're in a state that's objectively better than it's ever been.

I mean, look, PC gaming has never been as varied, robust, expansive, and ubiquitous as it is right now. We have access to more titles, more genres, more options, and more avenues of community/developer interaction than we've ever had. We can buy games in physical form or in digital form from the digital storefront of our choice. We can play with people on virtually any platform or DD service. We have intricate and feature-rich online networks and communities, the likes of which we could only dream of back in the day. We have even more robust modding tools, and networks of communities and fans with which to create and share these mods with. We even have major western publishers and (for the first time ever) major and minor Japanese developers and publishers releasing more and more of their current and legacy titles on PC.

Some of this (a very minute part) is due to the existence of Xbox and Xbox Live, or rather Microsoft's foray into the gaming industry. Most, however, exists independent of it. Even the vast majority of the 'problems' present in PC gaming today exist independent of Xbox's existence.

So, forgive me, but the question makes zero sense.

 

[Souplex]

Well if Xbox never happened, then the 360 would never have happened, so all the worthwhile games wouldn't have moved to console enabling the death of PC gaming, so I guess so, but it would be to our detriment.