Does Microsoft really care about PC gamers?

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I am a PC gamer at heart, and have been since about 1992 when I got to try my wealthy friend's Commodore 64. I have owned quite a few consoles as well, but if I could get the game on PC, I played it on PC. Over the years, Microsoft has published many of my favorite PC games (Motocross Madness 1&2, Monster Truck Madness 1&2, Midtown Madness 1&2, Microsoft Flight Sim series, Halo 1&2, Gears of War, Train Simulator, Fable, ect...). For all the awesome titles they put out, there has been a noticeable downward trend for quite some time. Looking at the Microsoft Games Wiki, 2004 was the start of this downward trend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Microsoft_Studios

Being that the Xbox came out a couple years prior to this downward trend, this tells me they viewed PC gaming as direct competition to their console market and decided to pull back on making PC games for the most part. The amount of titles directly reflects this decision.

With the recent revival of VR, Microsoft is thrusting themselves into the PC gaming picture again. But are their actions actually matching their statements? They keep repeating "we care about PC gaming", yet the only thing I have seen thus far is the ability to stream a Xbox One to my Windows 10 PC (totally pointless waste of resources) and a Xbox One controller with the consumer Rift :roll:. These are not the actions of a company that wants to push PC gaming, these are the actions of a company trying to push a console.

And lets take a look at the latest console. The Xbox One itself is a hodgepodge all-in-one multimedia unit that is good at doing many things but not that great at doing the most important thing it should be doing, and that is playing games. The PS4 beats the Xbox one in every important gaming area from specs to FPS (not to mention all the awesome exclusive titles). The PS4 will have an actual VR interface next year that will provide real VR experiences, and a Virtual cinema can't hold a candle to that. I still love my Xbox 360 dearly and play it daily, but it isn't trying to be an all-in-one media unit. It does exactly what it needs to do, and does it well.

Next year will finally be the year of consumer VR, and Microsoft is showing up late to yet another ballgame. They lost out on MP3 players (Zune fail), Smart Phones (Nokia fail), and are again behind the ball on the next big technological breakthrough (Virtual Cinema fail). People are looking for the next great gaming experience, and the Star Citizen crowd funding campaign is directly a result of that. They are nearing 100 million dollars of pledge money and the game isn't even done yet! You can't tell me there isn't a PC gaming market, we have put our money where our mouths are!

Instead of providing VR Cinema Xbox streaming that totally defeats the purpose of PC VR and teasing things like "Halo 5 might come out on PC someday", they need to step up and actually do something for the PC gaming community. If you build it, they will come!

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Zenbane

Honored Contributor

I reloaded the ending sequence the first time it happened; I thought the ending could be changed if I reacted quicker. But nope. The RPG gods were merciless with this one. Yikes!

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Anonymous

obzen said:

Looking at how successful Steam is as a publication platform, and how the PC gaming hardware is doing, I wouldn't worry. I don't see anything replacing PCs at the cutting edge of game development and gaming.

Microsoft focuses it's efforts on the XBox One, sure (no more Microsoft hardware or games), but I don't see that as a hindrance. DirectX is still going strong, and they have the best development tools, while remaining an open platform.

Steams success is also part of the problem. Way too many one off games that are horrible get released with too many "Get a million people to give you a dollar and your golden" developers (same thing with mobile games). Reminds me of the Atari 2600 days right before they crashed the video game market.

Really hoping someone, anyone can eventually compete with steam. I'm buying as many games as I can from oculus home and other platforms and trying to avoid using steam for everything I play.

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falken76

Honored Contributor

It's a good thing that Microsoft doesn't control the PC gaming industry, I only care about their Operating System releases. I'll depend on the countless other game developers that make PC games.

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vlodato

Up and Coming

Kbm has no place in console gaming. I'm really not trying to play cod versus people that are just clicking on heads. Oh how skillfull you are...kbm is great for many games but fps... It's just not fair.

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ThreeDeeVisionAuthor

Inspiring

@vlodato that is where we have to disagree. KBM is the best way to play competitive FPS (or maybe tracked controllers). When just a millisecond is between you and a potential point, nothing else compares. I like a good console game, don't get me wrong, but the best military sims have always been on the PC. Operation Flashpoint was probably the first great one (huge maps, large server capacity, lots of vehicles, objectives, mission builder, ect...), and that PC game still trumps most console FPS's to date. Of course it isn't fair when someone is using a thumbstick against a person using KBM, the mouse is more accurate.

Tracked controllers are changing the game though. Actually using both hands to aim a gun like you do in games like Onward is a real game-changer. Looking down the sights to aim like you would in real life is pretty surreal.

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ThreeDeeVisionAuthor

Inspiring

On topic, we finally got a cross platform game in the new Gears! Bravo MS!!! You could have done this back with the original X-Box, but good on ya for finally supporting this on one game.

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danknugz

Inspiring

vlodato said:

Kbm has no place in console gaming. I'm really not trying to play cod versus people that are just clicking on heads. Oh how skillfull you are...kbm is great for many games but fps... It's just not fair.

KB/M is what FPS was designed around, before consoles/Halo came around and bastardized the control with pathetic gamepads, makes you feel like you're breathing through a straw. I feel bad for people who grew up playing gamepad FPS games and never knew any better. This is why I never had and never will have any respect really for FPS designed for console/pads.

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on forums?

Zenbane

Honored Contributor

I don't know many people who had to choose between either a gamepad experience or a KBM experience. Myself and most people I grew up with had both. It's just video games, afterall, and the more options the better. Running from one game to another, on different systems, throughout a given year is fantastic entertainment; and gives way to many fun stories and memories.

But I guess if someone was forced to have only one experience, for whatever reason, then KBM gets my vote.

I do agree that KBM experiences feel much more sophisticated than a Gamepad experience. I feel that the general idea for a hardcore gamer is to have begun on a console, with a gamepad, and then graduated to a PC with KBM.

I have great memories of Halo on my XBox, but I do have much greater memories of BattleField 1942 with my PC and KBM. The Halo days were more about groups of people networking their XBox systems together and having all night group FPS sessions with everyone together. Whereas BattleField experiences often involved me playing in my room alone and talking to friends over Ventrilo. Still fun, but comparing the two seems more apples n' oranges.

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Anonymous

Zenbane said:

I do agree that KBM experiences feel much more sophisticated than a Gamepad experience. I feel that the general idea for a hardcore gamer is to have begun on a console, with a gamepad, and then graduated to a PC with KBM.

No, us hardcore gamers grew up with just a keyboard, eventually we could hold down an arrow key rather than typing "Go West". Years later we had gamepads when the NES came out, but they were pretty crappy, worse than using arrow keys and then, finally! Game makers discovered the ultimate FPS control combination, mouse AND keyboard. Nothing since then has surpassed it. Some pathetic gamers were lured away to consoles, they're second class citizens, shunned by the good and proper PC gamers.

Children today have no understanding of real gaming. They can't handle the perfect control system, you just like to play with your tiny little sticks...Maybe that and playstation controller explains the popularity of multiplayer games, so you kids love to have your own little stick and a friend's stick to play with?

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elboffor

Inspiring