Microsoft is doing nothing to help PC gaming. In fact, they're killing it

First of all, I'm a die-hard PC gamer, ever was and ever will be. So if PC gaming finally dies off, there will be no gaming for me no more, that's for sure.

Sorry for the wall of text. I tried to make it readable.

Anyway, I'm trying to analyze what's Microsoft been upto in the last few months, and I've noticed that they're doing everything that is in their power and money to enrich Xbox 360's gaming library with more and more titles - which is really great for the Xbox 360 owners, but at the same time, they're really hurting the PC gamers. And when I say really, i mean REALLY.

Comparing their Xbox effort with their socalled "effort" in the shape of the Games for Windows initiative, I must say that there's been absolutely nothing positive that they did in this year.

Almost every Games for Windows title ends up on the Xbox 360, simultaneously or after a few months, while at the same time, Microsoft keeps big exclusives to Xbox 360 which get ported to the PC after a year, two or three when noone's interested about them anymore. Of course, there are some big Xbox 360 titles that will probably never see Games for Windows platform.

Then there's a big RTS move to the Xbox 360. More and more RTS games end-up on the Microsoft console, there are some major titles that'll actually remain exclusive to the Xbox 360 (ie Halo Wars), or specially designed for the console (EndWar).

There are also rumors that Microsoft is sending cash to Activision Blizzard so they could port StarCraft 2 to Xbox 360.

At the same time, Microsoft does absolutely nothing to strenghten Games for Windows' genres with exclusive franchises, with Crysis and The Witcher as a rare exception, but noone knows for how long.

Yeah, I saw that cool-named thread "PC Gaming owns your soul! 2008!", but if you look at those titles with a more realistic approach, you'll notice that about 50% of those titles are multiplatforms, and about 30% of those have almost no marketing support, so they'll probably end-up in that "great games noone played" group.

CES is coming and it appears that the biggest news of the show will be a new Xbox 360 SKU, so yet again, there's absolutely nothing that "big" in the PC department. I'm not expecting anything big for the Games for Windows at the Leipzig show, nor on the E3. Maybe "guess what folks, Crysis and StarCraft 2 are coming to the Xbox 360!!!1"

It appears that Games for Windows is just an additional help for the Xbox 360, so Microsoft could keep their pace with Nintendo. Nothing more.

PC gaming might not be dead, but it'll be completely "Microsoftnized", which is probably even worse.

Eh, I liked there games on the pc, rise of nation, age of mythology, and age of empires 2

Hate to tell you this, but its just business. M$ makes more porfit off of games on the X360 than on the PC. Developers have to license the right to release on the console, and often need to use M$ developers tools as well. PC games, not nearly as much profit. Yes, Games for Windows and the need for Vista to have Direct X 10 gives them some control, but not to the same extent.

Bottom line, if M$ can sell a game on PC or X360, they would rather it go on X360, its just good business.

Games for Windows is just a bad, bad, bad idea. I will NEVER pay to play my PC games online. Thus, this is why I haven't bought a GFW game at all. Not even Crysis.vitz3

Umm GFW is not the same us GFWs LIVE ... Crysis doesnt use LIVE ... its just lebeled "GAMES FOR WINDOWS , same story with 90% of the other games.

Hate to tell you this, but its just business. M$ makes more porfit off of games on the X360 than on the PC. Developers have to license the right to release on the console, and often need to use M$ developers tools as well. PC games, not nearly as much profit. Yes, Games for Windows and the need for Vista to have Direct X 10 gives them some control, but not to the same extent.

Bottom line, if M$ can sell a game on PC or X360, they would rather it go on X360, its just good business.

wenzke

Lol no, the reason Games for Windows LIVE exists, is to bolster both libraries, Gaming is an important part of WINDOWS success, since MAC is prefered in INDUSTRYS.

It works both ways, we get 360 games, they get our games ... WINDOWS is 10x more important to Microsoft than the Xbox project.

This gen will probably be the last one for me. No more next-gen stuff after this.

I will be downloading freeware of old pc game and playing them on emulator.

[QUOTE="wenzke"]

Hate to tell you this, but its just business. M$ makes more porfit off of games on the X360 than on the PC. Developers have to license the right to release on the console, and often need to use M$ developers tools as well. PC games, not nearly as much profit. Yes, Games for Windows and the need for Vista to have Direct X 10 gives them some control, but not to the same extent.

Bottom line, if M$ can sell a game on PC or X360, they would rather it go on X360, its just good business.

Meu2k7

Lol no, the reason Games for Windows LIVE exists, is to bolster both libraries, Gaming is an important part of WINDOWS success, since MAC is prefered in INDUSTRYS.

It works both ways, we get 360 games, they get our games ... WINDOWS is 10x more important to Microsoft than the Xbox project.

I am not sure what you mean, Mac is mostly used for publishing and design, little else.

Hate to tell you this, but its just business. M$ makes more porfit off of games on the X360 than on the PC. Developers have to license the right to release on the console, and often need to use M$ developers tools as well. PC games, not nearly as much profit. Yes, Games for Windows and the need for Vista to have Direct X 10 gives them some control, but not to the same extent.

Bottom line, if M$ can sell a game on PC or X360, they would rather it go on X360, its just good business.

wenzke

In the entire history of the Xbox 360 brand their have been two profitable querters and it iself has been a net loss for the company. The original argument in favour of moving to consoles had nothing to do with profits.

i find it funny how ur blaming the 360, let me ask u this, if what u say its actually true....i wonder why hermits do not buy a 360? i mean all the good games from the pc end up on the 360...well some....but still, they are always superior on the pc...ur just making a big deal out of it....pc gaming isnt dying, mainly cux they can add alot more stuff to their games, such as mods and what notDante2710

I'm not blaming the X360. 360 is a great console, just like the PS3 and the Wii.

But I'm blaming Microsoft's business strategy.

Look at the list of Microsoft Game Studios' in-house studios which make first-party titles:

• ACES Game Studio: Flight Simulator series, Combat Flight Simulator series and the upcoming Train Simulator 2
• Carbonated Games: Hexic, 7 Hand Poker, UNO, Aegis Wing
• Ensemble: Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars
• Hired Gun: Halo 2 for Windows Vista
• Lionhead: Black & White series, The Movies, Fable series
• Rare: Perfect Dark series, Kameo, Conker series, Banjo series, Viva Piñata
• Turn 10: Forza Motorsport series
• Wingnut Interactive: A new studio set up in conjunction with Peter Jackson (they will be producing alongside with Bungie Studios a new game based in the Halo universe)
• Massive Inc.: A studio primarily set up for in game advertising.

The studio that makes PC games? One. That would be the first one, the ACES Game Studio.

The major studios:

Ensemble studios - gone. Busy making X360 exclusive Halo Wars.

Lionhead Studios - gone. Busy making Fable and probably some other stuff.

Rare - never made a PC game.

Turn 10 - never made a PC game.

Wignut Interactive - probably wont make a PC game.

Bungie - they did their part, now they're home free.

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"][QUOTE="wenzke"]

Hate to tell you this, but its just business. M$ makes more porfit off of games on the X360 than on the PC. Developers have to license the right to release on the console, and often need to use M$ developers tools as well. PC games, not nearly as much profit. Yes, Games for Windows and the need for Vista to have Direct X 10 gives them some control, but not to the same extent.

Bottom line, if M$ can sell a game on PC or X360, they would rather it go on X360, its just good business.

Nikalai_88

Lol no, the reason Games for Windows LIVE exists, is to bolster both libraries, Gaming is an important part of WINDOWS success, since MAC is prefered in INDUSTRYS.

It works both ways, we get 360 games, they get our games ... WINDOWS is 10x more important to Microsoft than the Xbox project.

I am not sure what you mean, Mac is mostly used for publishing and design, little else.

Well thats just it, and they are more compact and user friendly.

Gaming is a huge portion of Microsoft Windows Success, a good 90% of the reason PCs have been made so custimizable to the point where 10's million hardware are sold in such short times.

i wouldnt say there killing it. the PC is in a nice position...it doesent need MS to be a successful gaming platform so no one company can kill it off as a platform.

but they certainly are giving it the royal screw. between the messy windows live and mostly ports of year old xbox and 360 games, there certainly are not in the good books. MS is very much focused on the 360. games for windows was just a cheap attempt to sell more vista copies and when there championing halo 2 as a reason to get vista.....they dont really come off well. as far as MS are concerned, there gaming resources are more and more focused on the 360.

kinda sad in a way really. MS used to make some of the great PC games like starlancer, freelancer, AOE series and so on. but thats the way it is. but nto any more. windows live and games for windows...rubbish attempts at making a PC more like a console.vista and DX10? waste of time and resources.

no point in singleing out MS here either. epic are no longer a PC developer, nor are ID, there a multiplat group and they dev for that. epic and ID dont have any special place for PC anymore....its all multiplat for them. no more exclusives from them or anything, they dont give a toss. Bethesda...theyve switched from a PC developer who port games to consoles to console developer making a PC port. bioware....just getting the ports of xbox and 360 games. they couldnt care less about the PC community anymore. its all 360 for them. im sure there are loads of others who are contributing to the PC loosing its identity in an increasingly multiplat world.

at the end of the day though, multiplat just makes more business sense. no point limiting ure game to one platform only...its harder to make moolah that way. its not like last gen where there was one dominant platform or anything like that.

dont worry though, PC wont be going anywhere. its where new devs learn their trade and alot of new ideas come from. no dev or publisher would try a game like the witcher on a console...itwouldnt fit in with market trends. on PC though its a great way to test the waters. and, fo course, itll remain as 1 of the 3 power houses so itll recieve the great multiplats (and will usually be the best version of the lot).

[QUOTE="Dante2710"]i find it funny how ur blaming the 360, let me ask u this, if what u say its actually true....i wonder why hermits do not buy a 360? i mean all the good games from the pc end up on the 360...well some....but still, they are always superior on the pc...ur just making a big deal out of it....pc gaming isnt dying, mainly cux they can add alot more stuff to their games, such as mods and what notIgGy621985

I'm not blaming the X360. 360 is a great console, just like the PS3 and the Wii.

But I'm blaming Microsoft's business strategy.

Look at the list of Microsoft Game Studios' in-house studios which make first-party titles:

• ACES Game Studio: Flight Simulator series, Combat Flight Simulator series and the upcoming Train Simulator 2
• Carbonated Games: Hexic, 7 Hand Poker, UNO, Aegis Wing
• Ensemble: Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars
• Hired Gun: Halo 2 for Windows Vista
• Lionhead: Black & White series, The Movies, Fable series
• Rare: Perfect Dark series, Kameo, Conker series, Banjo series, Viva Piñata
• Turn 10: Forza Motorsport series
• Wingnut Interactive: A new studio set up in conjunction with Peter Jackson (they will be producing alongside with Bungie Studios a new game based in the Halo universe)
• Massive Inc.: A studio primarily set up for in game advertising.

The studio that makes PC games? One. That would be the first one, the ACES Game Studio.

The major studios:

Ensemble studios - gone. Busy making X360 exclusive Halo Wars.

Lionhead Studios - gone. Busy making Fable and probably some other stuff.

Rare - never made a PC game.

Turn 10 - never made a PC game.

Wignut Interactive - probably wont make a PC game.

Bungie - they did their part, now they're home free.

i wouldnt say there killing it. the PC is in a nice position...it doesent need MS to be a successful gaming platform so no one company can kill it off as a platform.

but they certainly are giving it the royal screw. between the messy windows live and mostly ports of year old xbox and 360 games, there certainly are not in the good books. MS is very much focused on the 360. games for windows was just a cheap attempt to sell more vista copies and when there championing halo 2 as a reason to get vista.....they dont really come off well. as far as MS are concerned, there gaming resources are more and more focused on the 360.

kinda sad in a way really. MS used to make some of the great PC games like starlancer, freelancer, AOE series and so on. but thats the way it is. but nto any more. windows live and games for windows...rubbish attempts at making a PC more like a console.vista and DX10? waste of time and resources.

no point in singleing out MS here either. epic are no longer a PC developer, nor are ID, there a multiplat group and they dev for that. epic and ID dont have any special place for PC anymore....its all multiplat for them. no more exclusives from them or anything, they dont give a toss. Bethesda...theyve switched from a PC developer who port games to consoles to console developer making a PC port. bioware....just getting the ports of xbox and 360 games. they couldnt care less about the PC community anymore. its all 360 for them. im sure there are loads of others who are contributing to the PC loosing its identity in an increasingly multiplat world.

at the end of the day though, multiplat just makes more business sense. no point limiting ure game to one platform only...its harder to make moolah that way. its not like last gen where there was one dominant platform or anything like that.

dont worry though, PC wont be going anywhere. its where new devs learn their trade and alot of new ideas come from. no dev or publisher would try a game like the witcher on a console...itwouldnt fit in with market trends. on PC though its a great way to test the waters. and, fo course, itll remain as 1 of the 3 power houses so itll recieve the great multiplats (and will usually be the best version of the lot).

osan0

Epic Games? Gives UT3 very late to the 360, gives us a better version of Gears of War.

Bioware ... how? they have given us tons of franchises, the only one we dont have is Mass Effect .. but then again the 360 doesnt have Dragon Age ...

Games for Linux

Think about it would take $100 to $150 off the price of a pc also anyone with a pc or mac could play them for free. Less security risks on linux and Linux uses less system resorces. The big game companys should start moving to linux.

And your free from the evil microsoft empire

[QUOTE="osan0"]

Meu2k7

Epic Games? Gives UT3 very late to the 360, gives us a better version of Gears of War.

Bioware ... how? they have given us tons of franchises, the only one we dont have is Mass Effect .. but then again the 360 doesnt have Dragon Age ...

yes epic games, who havent made one of their greats since UT04. and we get a year old xbox port with a bit of extra content....woopdie frickin do. im sorry but UT3 is a substandard game by their standards...it just look pretty. was playing UT04 earlier today and had a great laugh...bombing run is such good fun. UT3 just took a big step backwards imho. as for gears...it may be better than the 360 version but its a year late. doesent do the PC any favours.

oh and bioware...what was the last exclusive they gave us....was it.....oooo it was NWN and 1 of its expansions...all those years ago. since then its been consoles and mutliplats only. the xbox has already recieved mass effect and jade empire as timed exclusives. yes they did make some of the greats but there not a PC dev any more.

to be honest this would be like bungie releasing halo 3 and 4 (assuming there will be a 3 and 4) on PC and never releasing them on 360, or releasing them in a compromised state 12 months after the PC version. if that happened then 360 fans would bust a nut and if bungie kept doing it then bungie would really be in the dog house. same with PS3 fans if team ico decided to jump the PS3 ship and make a SOTC2 and 3 for PC only (obhiosuly not going to happen).

this is business, the way of the world. one could argue that they needed to do this to survive, no one platform is big enough any more. thats fine. but there not PC devs...there multiplat devs now. if there saying otherwise then there taking the piss.

Games for Linux

Think about it would take $100 to $150 off the price of a pc also anyone with a pc or mac could play them for free. Less security risks on linux and Linux uses less system resorces. The big game companys should start moving to linux.

And your free from the evil microsoft empire

Jacobistheman

good ol linux. if it wasnt for games then id change over.

its a shame that the open source commuity isnt putting more into Linux games to compete with the big boys. technically speaking, linux is just as capable as windows when it comes to games. there nothing fundimentally missing from it. its just a question of support.

at the mo though the open source community is very focused on the business sector. theres alot of money to make there...more than they could ever make in the gamign industry. so its understandable. still perhaps, in time, they will look at games more seriously.

[QUOTE="Jacobistheman"]

Games for Linux

Think about it would take $100 to $150 off the price of a pc also anyone with a pc or mac could play them for free. Less security risks on linux and Linux uses less system resorces. The big game companys should start moving to linux.

And your free from the evil microsoft empire

osan0

good ol linux. if it wasnt for games then id change over.

its a shame that the open source commuity isnt putting more into Linux games to compete with the big boys. technically speaking, linux is just as capable as windows when it comes to games. there nothing fundimentally missing from it. its just a question of support.

at the mo though the open source community is very focused on the business sector. theres alot of money to make there...more than they could ever make in the gamign industry. so its understandable. still perhaps, in time, they will look at games more seriously.

If you could play games on linux or mac for that matter i would have left the evil microsoft a while ago

It is the developers choice to go 360, NOT MS's.

Sorry but your arguement is COMPLETELY FLAWED as GFW has nothing to do with porting

Games for Windows is just a bad, bad, bad idea. I will NEVER pay to play my PC games online. Thus, this is why I haven't bought a GFW game at all. Not even Crysis.vitz3

Amen to that.

I really hope blizzard are not forced to port over SC2, but then i don't see the point, you could barely get away with playing it on a controller. Plus Blizzard and microsoft will never compromise over battlenet, MS will insist on using live andBlizzard will never give up battlenet.

As far as im concerned MS efforts for the PC are just misguided, they want the PC to be a bigger platform, at least for vistas sake but the OS and DX10 are an utter waste of time. Every game running on DX10 is slower and vista has delivered on none of it promises, Live for windows will never take off because PC gamers have never had to pay for online outside of MMOs, it'd be sad if we didn't boycott these tactics rather than letting them take hold.

Games for Windows is just a bad, bad, bad idea. I will NEVER pay to play my PC games online. Thus, this is why I haven't bought a GFW game at all. Not even Crysis.vitz3

.... GFW doesn't require payment for online... GFW - LIVE does. only3 games are GFW- LIVE so far. Shadowrun, Gears of War, Halo 2

feel free to buy the GFW games, just not the Live ones... Crysis used Gamespy for its online. Same with UT3.

[QUOTE="vitz3"]Games for Windows is just a bad, bad, bad idea. I will NEVER pay to play my PC games online. Thus, this is why I haven't bought a GFW game at all. Not even Crysis.Meu2k7

Umm GFW is not the same us GFWs LIVE ... Crysis doesnt use LIVE ... its just lebeled "GAMES FOR WINDOWS , same story with 90% of the other games.

yeah hermits are supposed to be much smarter then other fanboys, yet often dont know a thing about windows live, not only do you NOT HAVE to pay for online, you only have to pay for extras such as friends list, and match making.
Server browser and online play are free.

And most GFW dont even use the GFW online set they just follow the standards setup by GFW.

AS for that PC gaming isn't being killed by microsoft it was being killed by its own self long ago.

MS isn't killing PC gaming. What MS is doing is weakening their position is system wars.

Thats what your argument is about.

yeah hermits are supposed to be much smarter then other fanboys, yet often dont know a thing about windows live, not only do you NOT HAVE to pay for online, you only have to pay for extras such as friends list, and match making.
Server browser and online play are free.

And most GFW dont even use the GFW online set they just follow the standards setup by GFW.

AS for that PC gaming isn't being killed by microsoft it was being killed by its own self long ago.

WilliamRLBaker

MS isn't killing PC gaming. Thing is, PC gaming is GROWING. The PC gaming industry has doubled in size in the last 10 years. Just because console gaming tripled in size in the last 10 years doesn't mean the PC gaming industry is dieing..

It's not Microsoft's job to keep PC gaming afloat. You want more PC games, there's only one way to get 'em: crack your wallet open wide. If developers aren't delivering the experiences you want because they're too focused on consoles, then stop giving them your money. Just don't be surprised if they don't miss it.

It's not Microsoft's job to keep PC gaming afloat.

lowe0

Actually, it is. Probably 99% of the computer games are played on the Windows operating systems, so, yeah, I believe that it's definitely their job to keep PC gaming afloat.

Microsoft even admitted that they've been killing the PC gaming with the commitment to the Xbox brand, after which they presented the "Games for Windows".

But they're doing absolutely nothing with the platform. Instead of presenting hordes of the exclusive franchises and strenghting the genres, they're actually stealing franchises so Xbox 360 could have more, more and more.

so microsoft is killing pc gaming by porting 360 games to it and by categorizing games that run only on windows??Mizarus

dude, why don't you actually read what I wrote in the first post...

[QUOTE="Mizarus"]so microsoft is killing pc gaming by porting 360 games to it and by categorizing games that run only on windows??IgGy621985

dude, why don't you actually read what I wrote in the first post...

well yes now that i read it again more carefully i understood your point even tho i dont agree with some of them, yes microsoft is tryng to take over pc gaming, but its far from manage to doing so.

it is still cheaper to develop games for PC and microsoft dosent have to aproove the games that are released for this system, so you shoudnt fear that Microsoft is going to take over pc gaming because they just cant do that, and "Games for Windows" wont change much.