Microsoft could TAKE DOWN Steam....

2 Good points I just read here: 1- an attraction would be to bring all the XBOX players 2- simultaneously release XBOX games on PC too....and not only that, integrate the online PC portion with the online XBOX portionFelipeInside

I know I'm probably in the minority on this but neither of those two "features" would do anything for me. If anything I think the PC is already too consolized so the idea of it becoming more so is like a bad laxative, it just doesn't move me.

Microsoft could incorporate all of Steam's features if they want to but there is one thing I think they can't do, low price and holiday sales that could compete with Steam.

klusps

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]2 Good points I just read here: 1- an attraction would be to bring all the XBOX players 2- simultaneously release XBOX games on PC too....and not only that, integrate the online PC portion with the online XBOX portion-wildflower-

I know I'm probably in the minority on this but neither of those two "features" would do anything for me. If anything I think the PC is already too consolized so the idea of it becoming more so is like a bad laxative, it just doesn't move me.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]2 Good points I just read here: 1- an attraction would be to bring all the XBOX players 2- simultaneously release XBOX games on PC too....and not only that, integrate the online PC portion with the online XBOX portionthe_ChEeSe_mAn2

iirc the only cross platform game was Shadowrun, and that technically successful despite poor popularity. Even got somewhat favorable reviews. I'd like to see what they could do with some real effort and a popular franchise/game license.

as for upgrading Windows, I agree it is too soon, unless they offered it as a free upgrade for Windows7 users...plenty of XP users out there to make money off of.

[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"]

[QUOTE="Peerbreed"]

hmmm let's look at MS track record with gamers - original xbox owners got screwed as soon as MS released thier new toy

- xbox 360 hardware failures

- charging $60 a year for something everyone else provides for free

- GFWL (Trying to charge for that on the PC lol!)

- General lack of support for PC gamers ever since they turned their attention to consoles

Yea sure they could totally take down Steam...

Peerbreed

Some of us here are old enough to remember the glorious days of Microsoft games. Man, those were good times. This was well before the original Xbox.

Likewise, some of us wish for the return of those days, more or less.

Microsoft could incorporate all of Steam's features if they want to but there is one thing I think they can't do, low price and holiday sales that could compete with Steam.klusps

[QUOTE="klusps"]Microsoft could incorporate all of Steam's features if they want to but there is one thing I think they can't do, low price and holiday sales that could compete with Steam.ChiliDragon

But they brought out Windows 7....which is the FIRST OS to run smoothly, stable and perfect for games without even a service pack 1?FelipeInside

Please read this dear sir: http://games.on.net/article/11155/Microsoft_to_Revive_PC_Gaming_with_Windows_8FelipeInside

You do know that isn't the first time they promised to be goody goody towards PC gaming don't you ? In 2006 they even said "sorry" and promised sooooo many nice things for the PC, then promptly did nothing of any consequence. This is why PC gamers are naturally skeptical when they see stories about Microsoft getting behind PC gaming.

As for taking down steam, not a cats chance in hell will MS ever be able to take down steam simply because whilst they are in the console market all gaming interests and resources will be concentrated on their console. In many ways MS actually sees the PC as competition to it's Xbox, so whilst the PC division may actually want to concentrate on PC gaming the Xbox division want gaming on the PC to fail hard and right now MS wants it's console to win so very very badly.

The only Microsoft console which was sold at a loss was the first Xbox and Microsoft abandoned it right away. Dante2710

You have a very strange definition of "right away" the Xbox 1 was released in 2001 and was discontinued in 2006. It's replacement the Xbox 360 came out in 2005, so I would hardly say a 4 year life span for the Xbox 1 is "abandoning it right away". It is true that they abandoned it earlier than usual and this has been put down to them wanting to get a head start over Sony and because they were unable to reduce the costs of the xbox 1 much further since it was built with "off the shelf" parts.

Either way both the xbox 1 and 360 haven't been sterling examples of profitability for MS. The Xbox 360 cost them 1 billion in repair fees alone for botched hardware.

It sounds like a good idea and might be able to work. If MS did this and made the next halo game for both pc and 360 along with only allowing halo to be bought from GFWL then maybe they could get a larger fanbase but I just can't see that happening. With so many pc gamers using steam and who like steam there will seem very little reason to switch. Considering though how much money MS spends to get DLC exclusive rights to so many games on the 360 I think that shows their putting their eggs in the console basket. Plus I fear MS would charge for a GFWL service.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]But they brought out Windows 7....which is the FIRST OS to run smoothly, stable and perfect for games without even a service pack 1?Peerbreed

Hmm i personally think Microsoft would be better off buying a portion into steam and running it through windows therefore its a win win for vavle and microsoft. walkingdream

[QUOTE="walkingdream"]Hmm i personally think Microsoft would be better off buying a portion into steam and running it through windows therefore its a win win for vavle and microsoft. lawlessx

[QUOTE="Peerbreed"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"]But they brought out Windows 7....which is the FIRST OS to run smoothly, stable and perfect for games without even a service pack 1?FelipeInside

Well, let's see...Steam already offers every one of the bullet items you listed. Sooo, the only "real" benefit is no need for third party program. Which I really don't see that as a benefit at all and I think most would agree. As far as publisher's going for it, if you say so. First they have to show some success and seeing how most PC gamers found MS's first attempt (GFWL) a joke, I think they would have to have a tough hill to climb winning those people back.Gooeykat

[QUOTE="Vesica_Prime"]

Except for Valve cares about its PC community, Microsoft has been leaving us in the dirt for the last 5 years.

FelipeInside

[QUOTE="Gooeykat"]Well, let's see...Steam already offers every one of the bullet items you listed. Sooo, the only "real" benefit is no need for third party program. Which I really don't see that as a benefit at all and I think most would agree. As far as publisher's going for it, if you say so. First they have to show some success and seeing how most PC gamers found MS's first attempt (GFWL) a joke, I think they would have to have a tough hill to climb winning those people back.FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Vesica_Prime"]

Except for Valve cares about its PC community, Microsoft has been leaving us in the dirt for the last 5 years.

trastamad03

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"]Well, let's see...Steam already offers every one of the bullet items you listed. Sooo, the only "real" benefit is no need for third party program. Which I really don't see that as a benefit at all and I think most would agree. As far as publisher's going for it, if you say so. First they have to show some success and seeing how most PC gamers found MS's first attempt (GFWL) a joke, I think they would have to have a tough hill to climb winning those people back.the_ChEeSe_mAn2

[QUOTE="Gooeykat"]Well, let's see...Steam already offers every one of the bullet items you listed. Sooo, the only "real" benefit is no need for third party program. Which I really don't see that as a benefit at all and I think most would agree. As far as publisher's going for it, if you say so. First they have to show some success and seeing how most PC gamers found MS's first attempt (GFWL) a joke, I think they would have to have a tough hill to climb winning those people back.FelipeInside

Well, there's rub, does MS have the desire to do something"well done"and is the return on investment for them if they do? If they build it, will PC gamers come...seeing how most have moved on to other third party vendors that do a pretty good job of this already(I not only use Steam but Impulse as well, which is a very well done), I'd say they are fighting an up hill battle. I'll put my money on Valve long-term.

[QUOTE="kris9031998"]*Laughs like crazy*FelipeInside

Thats the point, MS almost never does anything right.

IE

KIN

VISTA

ME

First they have to show some success and seeing how most PC gamers found MS's first attempt (GFWL) a joke, I think they would have to have a tough hill to climb winning those people back.Gooeykat

This goes back to what I was saying earlier. Most Steam users who also tried out GFWL were less than impressed, and that's putting it very mildly. And since you never get a second chance to make a first impression, the GFWL fiasco is going to haunt Microsoft with PC gamers for a very long time. Because we have a pathological tendency to hold grudges... :P

And we remember that our beloved favorite platform is the biggest threat to Microsoft's biggest gaming profit source: the 360. So for obvious reasons, we're not going to be very quick to trust a company that sees us as an open threat. At least I hope not.

[QUOTE="the_ChEeSe_mAn2"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] Yes true, but to a Publisher I think having their name/brand inbuilt into every Windows sold is a good attraction point. And having something really REALLY inbuilt (well done I mean, not just attached) is better than another program.FelipeInside

Ya he has a point, the US supreme court told MS they can't incorporate things like that into the OS, especially for the purpose of edging out the competition.

What you suggest is illegal in the US and MS got smacked for the very same thing you suggest a little over a decade ago.

I would not use it for one reason alone:

I dont trust Microsoft

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="the_ChEeSe_mAn2"] And then watch MS getting slapped with anti-trust violations just like the old WIndows and Internet Explorer days.GummiRaccoon

Ya he has a point, the US supreme court told MS they can't incorporate things like that into the OS, especially for the purpose of edging out the competition.

What you suggest is illegal in the US and MS got smacked for the very same thing you suggest a little over a decade ago.

Valve has obtained a lot of customer loyalty by supporting the community, doing lots of great deals and generally showing they "care" (even if they don't).

MS wanted us all to go buy 360s...

We'd have to be insane to let MS take over.

Their EEE approach worked wonders before. It can work well now, although without Gates leading it's doubtful MS will be able to put a dent into a service like Steam.

[QUOTE="kris9031998"]*Laughs like crazy*FelipeInside

Microsoft did it so well with GFWL, showing openly his expectations to charge a monthly fee to all the PC users that any chance about GFWL to survive in future attempts was utterly buried alive. GFWL is a corpse, even old GFWL partners as Relic had flee from this client to Steam Works (in the next DoW II expansion) in order to avoid any relation with Microsoft i to prevent the loss of sales.

If the service wasn't absolute garbage and anywhere near steam, I wouldn't mind using it. The problem right now is that microsoft has developed such a bad name for themselves that I don't even see them succeeding anytime soon with all the fresh memories of horror that is GFWL and its marketplace.

I bought the 10 cents Age of Empire and that was a trainwreck. One of my friend gave up on the deal judging it wasn't worth the headache after he failed to purchase it 6 times in a row.

1- Memory leaks in the downloader client. /facepalm

2- Unknown cause of no cd key display and lack of communication from microsoft for the first day.

3- Finally some official communication where they are ''investigating'' the issue, asking you to send an email if you had the problem for investigation. Somehow they managed to actually fail to describe what kind of information they wanted to receive. The forum post actually would have failed a spellcheck if it was used. Not that i'm stingy with that, but when english isn't even your first language and you have better grammar then the company officials posting, Microsoft none the less, i'm not sure what to say about what kind of image it sends to the customers.

4- I learn via other sources that they ran out of CD keys before any official communication is offered (couldn't see that coming when you offer a game for 10 cents!).

5- I finally received an email 2 days later explaining that they ran out of CD keys, oh look they forgot to ran a spellcheck on a business email again... And proofread what was written in something that was probably sent in massive waves. (There was a sentence repeating itself twice)

2 Good points I just read here:

1- an attraction would be to bring all the XBOX players

2- simultaneously release XBOX games on PC too....and not only that, integrate the online PC portion with the online XBOX portionFelipeInside

They tried that and failed miserably. Everyone seems to forget the game Shadowrun, and what a debacle that was. It was later cracked to work on Windows XP, confirming speculation that it was intentionally limited to Windows Vista. The same could probably be said for Halo 2. I refuse to use any service Microsoft offers, as they more than love to nickle and dime its users by charging them for the stupidest services.

Case in point - Shadowrun

Microsoft received heavy criticism for only providing the total of 4 16-player servers worldwide for multiplayer use which weren't even officially supported, while their use of Games for Windows – Live forced anyone wanting to host their own server to buy credit from Microsoft. Note that this was the first attempt in gaming history to charge for multiplayer hosting while still leaving the actual burden of hosting on the playerWikipedia

And if anyone remembers, Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to charge people to use the "Gold" version of GFWL as well. Puhlease.

I have no interest in being forced or overcharged to use any of their so-called services.

[QUOTE="ChiliDragon"][QUOTE="klusps"]Microsoft could incorporate all of Steam's features if they want to but there is one thing I think they can't do, low price and holiday sales that could compete with Steam.Dante2710

i dont think so because the country i live in is supported by Steam, but not by Games for Windows

[QUOTE="Drazule"]

There's a reason why people use firefox (or anything else) over Internet Explorer.

FelipeInside

But Microsoft's track record would show a different outcome. Short of Microsoft (the company that charged for GFWL, may have had one Steam-like sale in history, and seemingly abandoned the PC Game market for a number of years) completely changing their system, they simply cannot make a system better than Steam.

That and I do not like having my things run by microsoft, I love the OS, but that is all.

[QUOTE="OgreB"][QUOTE="Dante2710"] The only Microsoft console which was sold at a loss was the first Xbox and Microsoft abandoned it right away. FelipeInside

Really? So are you telling me Sony isn't making any money on all the PS2 and PS3 they sold...?FelipeInside

Consoles are usually sold at a loss.

The initial price of the PS3 was 600$. The production cost of a PS3 was 800$ at the time. Sony lost almost every penny they made with the PS2 during the PS3's early years. I thought this was common knowledge.

who ever has the biggest selection of games and cheapest prices will win the online store market. so far Microsoft and Direct2drive dont stand a chance. People will buy games whereever they are the cheapest, thats the way it is

I think its too little too late for ms to take it down, you would have to give people incentive to switch to steam and thats hard in itself due to the amount of shear games steam has. Then there is the fact that ms really only has console games which are kinda shallow alot of the time, not bad just shallow games.

A more likely competitor to Valve with steam would be blizzard.

thy need to incldue cd keys with games you buy form their store and get the downlaods to display right for me to even CONSIDER their product

I don't think they would be able to built it inside the windows because of legal issues, same happened to the windows explorer which is now optional.

A more likely competitor to Valve with steam would be blizzard.

GummiRaccoon

Sad but true. The legions of WoW sheep speak for themselves. I think Blizzard and Activision are larger threats to Valve than Microsoft, which has proven time and time again to be as incompetent as they come.