Phil Spencer obliterating distinction between Xbox and PC

An article on Polygon, makes for an interesting read on the state of... "gaming".

The pieces are still in play, but as we watch them moving around the board, the strategy becomes clear: Microsoft no longer sees a distinction between gaming on Xbox One and Windows PC. And it doesn't want you to see one, either.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/8/10/9126899/phil-spencer-obliterating-distinction-between-xbox-pc-gamescom-interview-2015

Phil Spencer has been blabbing around incoming pc support for about a decade now, when he arrived at the pc gamer show to show his "support", as it was from the start, a few xbox ports that most pc gamers do not give a shit about with Windows 10 itself, mainly being used to promote xbox.

I think Phil delivered with Halo Wars 2 being on both Xbox and PC. Strategy games are best played with a KB and mouse. I'm a big RTS fan, I play Company of Heroes all the time, so you can imagine I'm pretty excited. As far as other Xbox exclusives are concerned, I bet we will only have to wait like one year for games like Halo 5 to come to the PC rather than 2+ or never.

I hope so, I really don't want to have to buy an xbox one for scalebound and a few other inevitable games.

Yep, this strategy is clear to anyone willing to look at the direction the company is moving towards.. Eventually, we won't be talking about "Xbox One gaming" and "PC gaming", we'll be talking about "Xbox gaming".. That's the goal anyway..

Cross play, cross buy, cross chat, and more will serve to merge those two gaming spaces into a single platform and i'm all for it.. It all starts with the Win10 Xbox App and the Xbox One dashboard update to Win10..

I think ultimately MS as an entire company likes the service based, software driven, and PC first direction. This actually is not a bad thing as the long term strategy for the company at large and might blow up in a good way. I think the major goal for the Xbox division this generation is to remain a strong and consistent brand, regardless of how well it sells in relation to Sony and "console wars".

After this generation, whenever the hell it comes, I think Xbox is out of being a dedicated hardware home console as we know it now. Xbox won't ever shut the doors and turn off the lights, but will be more of fusion of PC first/game delivery service that could be used as a steambox like home console.

Eventually the Xbox will disappear....

As will Playstation whats your point?.

what a stupid post. eventually all the consoles will disappear.

I think with him saying " disappear " it would have been funny if you said Poof instead of proof. lol

Auf wiedersehen, Xbox. My suspicions of this being the last Xbox console and its replacement with a PC digital distribution service grows stronger.

PCMR will stick with Steam, anyway.

What is the point of owning an Xbox One? You think there's a reason?! Hah!!!

I wonder what consoles will do next gen to make themselves unique as this gen is so close to be left twix vs right twix.

I figure the next generation would be stream boxes with some dedicated hardware for gaming.

Microsoft got wind of what Nintendo is up to

@killonsight: Really? Nintendo is about to release an OS that will be the standard for PCs? They will then implement that OS on wiiu? They plan to allow streaming of games from wiiu to PCs that have their OS?

Nintendo clearly has not been getting enough credit! !!

MS is transitioning......

Until Forza comes to PC Phil can shut his damn mouth. All he does is talk s***.

Rant over :)

Tried to tell you guys that a couple of weeks ago but you were all too dumb to get it.

no doubt Xbox and PC will become fully compatible eventually ,

Its common sense for MS to go PC mode , specially when X1 sales are not the ones they really wanted. They doing whatever is possible to push sales with coupons , price cuts , free games , mega bundles , online offers , kinect removal ... literally everything considering it was the first year in the market when most offers happened.... It seems things are not so good so why not to invest to PC gaming as well and double software sales ?

FRom whatever perspective you see it , X1 exclusives being on PC will only hurt X1 in the eyes of lems BUT NOT MS when theyll double or triple their software sales in total.

Only in SW do consoles compete with the PC.

Xbox One is basically going to be their version of the Steam machine.

Same, it just doesn't seem worth it. Even if I get to play those games 6 months in advance, making such a lazy purchase would haunt me too much. Every time I looked at that box gathering dust in the corner of my room, with the same games on my beautiful pc and the idea of the money I could of saved.

Perish the thought, it's all just too horrible.

if you say so.... that must make it true...

I guess people like me, who will never game on PC, are out of luck then. They dont want our money, im certain of it.

Check the 10-ks, smartass. Neither Nintendo, Sony, nor Microsoft list the PC as a competitor to their consoles.

And yet, we still see nothing from MS. Aside from Halo Wars 2 theres what? Wake me up when Forza makes it way to PC.

Steam Big picture mode wants to have a word with u

@uninspiredcup:

There's a new Xbox Age of Empire : Castle Siege from Windows 10 market store.

So will we see Halo 5 on PC?

@aroxx_ab:

Halo : Spartan Strike is available on Windows PC.

Phil Spencer and Co. haven't done shit to actually support PC.

Until these dicksucks actually do something, then it's all just hot air.

I've heard these mouth breathers talk about this shit for a decade now.

Less talk, more action. Please.

Device-agnostic software is where gaming needs to go.

@Kjranu: Pretty much Xbox Fanboys

Microsoft has been really trying very hard to kill the Xbox brand this past year and dissolve it into PC gaming. Smart choice I say, no wonder they said they plan to back Steam up.

Nothing Microsoft has done hints to them wanting to kill off the Xbox brand. Seriously why do fanboys keep repeating this nonsense? If so why is there an XBOX STORE on Windows 10???

Like MS and Phil said many times they are unifying Xbox and Windows 10. Basically the Xbox becoming something similar to the Steam machine. Windows 10/PC and Xbox becoming one... Why is this so hard to comprehend?

There was an XBOX Store on Windows 8.

Who gives a shit?

Until people start to see some actual progress with this "we're committed to supporting PC" bullshit from Microsoft...then that's exactly what it is...bullshit.

1. Read again. Its not about "who gives a sh*t", but the fact that there's an "Xbox" store on Windows 10 means the Xbox Brand is NOT dead.

2. As for your second part I don't care, because I wasn't addressing that but the fact that people think MS is somehow killing off the Xbox Brand when even Satya Nadella refuted such claims.

There's a lot of talk of the distinction being eliminated, but aside from the cool streaming feature and some PC-appropriate game announcements it doesn't seem to be much yet. No major (non-indie, non-F2P) AAA exclusives have been simultaneously released on both systems. When I see something like that happen, I'll believe that the differences have really been eliminated.

It's a bit worrying that Spencer seems quite happy to openly piss in the face of Xbox One owners by telling PC gamers constantly that there's no reason this or that Xbox One exclusive won't come to PC.

He's basically laughing at the people who already bought an Xbox One and warning everyone else away from it failing to realise that part of his job is to PROMOTE the Xbox One and make it an attractive proposition for gamers. He's a dickhead who spends all his time trying to be loved everywhere by everyone except his existing customers (unless you consider him the new PC gaming boss).

It's funny.

All the talk from lems of how this will make the Xbone king , yet it's getting backstabed by it's own creator.

You think they're saving a sinking ship?

They're saving the cargo and leaving you behind , so you better put up a fight when Halo comes to PC and buy the hell out of it , because if sales of the PC version exceed the console . it's game over.

But at the same time , i don't see Phil letting that happen , so it's just hot air.

Microsoft got into the console business for the sole reason of not letting Sony have a monopoly on the living room.. what I find funny is that people somehow think that the success of Windows 10 gaming on PC has anything to do with that original goal.. Here's a simple question:

If Windows 10 gaming on PC is a massive success, does PC gaming alone stop Sony from having a monopoly on the living room?.. the answer is "no".. obviously not..

The fact of the matter is that no matter how popular PC gaming is, there is still going to be a large market of people who just want to simply hook up a box to their living room TV and play games on the couch.. The Xbox will continue to be that box for Microsoft because they STILL don't want Sony to have a monopoly on that living room space..

I mean, I understand that the PS4 is killing it right now in terms of sales but lets not forget that the Xbox One is still on pace to being Microsoft's most successful console to date.. That doesn't sound like a "sinking ship", sir.. being #2 in sales =/= "sinking ship" when those sales represent the best sales your company has ever had, especially considering the fact that the Xbox 360 is universally viewed as being a success in terms of sales..

You make no sense.

I'm talking about the Xbone only and it's 1st party games.

If they go to PC , there is no point for the Xbone , thus sales drop.

If they don't go to PC , Phil is full of shit , thus...well , internet hate is the only thing that will happen.

PS4?

What's the PS4 got to do with this?

Bill went to Sony for a coop deal for the PS2 , Sony said no , Bill made the Xbox out off spite.

Again, not everyone has the financial resources, know-how, and/or desire to build a gaming PC.. Even if 100% of Xbox One titles go to PC, there is still a LARGE market of people who simply prefer the convenience of consoles.. As I said, a large demographic of gamers prefer to just simply plug a box into their television and play games from the couch..

Realistically, I'd wager that main-line, 1st tier titles like Halo 5, Gears 4, Forza 6, and etc stay exclusive to the console, 2nd tier exclusives like Quantum Break, Scalebound, and Crackdown will go to console first and then PC later, games that simply make sense for PC anyway like Fable Legends, Gigantic, and Halo Wars 2 will release for both console and PC at the same time, and they'll add a certain level of cross-buy, cross play, and cloud saves to bridge the divide.. That way, everyone wins.. Console gamers are happy and PC gamers are happy.. But at the worst-case scenario of 100% Xbox One titles also being available on PC, day one, there's a definitive console market that the Xbox One will still appeal to..

What does PS4 have to do with this?.. The PS4 is a console that's selling like hotcakes despite it's largest games also being available for PC.. I mean, do you think the PS4 has sold 25+ million this fast solely on the back of Killzone, Knack, inFamous, The Order, and Bloodborne?.. Most major PS4 and Xbox One games can be bought on PC, on day one, (more-so this gen than ever before) yet console sales are still better than ever..

You're the one that doesn't make any sense, sir..

Also, In a recent Podcast Unlocked interview with Peter Moore, Phil Spencer, and the creator of the original Xbox, Moore made it clear that the reason why Microsoft got into the console business in the first place was to stop Sony from gaining a monopoly on the living room.. Take that however you want to take it.. I'm just quoting a recent interview with a former head of Xbox while you seem to be quoting someone who was wearing a tinfoil hat..

The bold is ok , no problem there.

Again , the PS4 selling like hotcakes means nothing.

It's the failure of Xbone is why it's behind , even Peter Moly-something said that in the UK the Kinect and it's features are useless.

Never knew that the PS1 was such a powerhouse that MS need it to step in.

PS4 sales (well, console sales in general) are in indication that the console market is stronger than ever, despite the fact that a vast majority of the biggest titles are also available on PC..

Agreed, It's definitely Microsoft's fault that the Xbox One is so far behind in sales.. no argument there..

And yep, the PS1 and PS2 were clear indicators that console gaming was moving to the mainstream and the "battle for the living room" was about to begin. Microsoft wanted in on that action just like Apple and Google are making attempts to own your living room as well..