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Microsoft renewing focus on PC gamers

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Pc gamer gloury

Maybe it’s because of the upcoming console launches, but the majority of attention has been on console gamers lately. Now Microsofts wants PC gamers to know that the company hasn’t forgotten the master race – they might even be giving you the core first-party games.

Phil Spencer admitted that Microsoft went astray when it came to PC:

I think it’s fair to say that we’ve lost our way a bit in supporting Windows games, but we’re back.

He went on to tout the idea of “One Microsoft” and that the company is looking to become a first-party gaming studio not just for console, but across devices. Speaking of multi-devices, Spencer says that consumers expect services to work everywhere, which is the goal for Microsoft, too.

If you think about a service like Spotify or Netflix, you expect that service to work on any device you have. For some games, it will be similar. I just want to have an Xbox Live account and it works on my phone, on my console, and my Windows machine. And then I’ll be able to access my content in a screen-appropriate way.

I like the sound of that. It is all Microsoft, the products should simply work on a phone, tablet, PC or console. Of course functionality will shift, but it’s good to see them moving in that direction.

In a separate interview, Spencer also commended Valve on their contribution to PC gaming:

They’ve done a great job of keeping the PC ecosystem strong at a time where I don’t mind saying that we could have been more focused on what was going on in PC gaming. We were probably too focused purely on console. With Steam, [Valve has] done an amazing job of building this thing that, in a lot of ways, we should have been building as well at Microsoft.

What could this mean for PC gamers going forward? Are we going to see Xbox One “exclusives” all coming to PC? We already know Titanfall is coming to PC, what about other Xbox One products? I hope that this leads to a renaissance for PC gamers – despite calling themselves the master race, they certainly have been neglected in some way by everyone other than Valve.

Last Updated: November 7, 2013

67 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief in 1986

    November 7, 2013 at 14:34

    Heh, makes me think of Deon’s avatar!

    Reply

    • Her Highness the Hipster

      November 7, 2013 at 14:37

      i know you guys are always impressed with my photoshopping skills

      Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        November 7, 2013 at 14:46

        today you out did yourself 🙂

        Reply

      • Sageville

        November 7, 2013 at 15:12

        We all just assumed that your photoshopping quality was a due to a Mac issue…..

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in 1986

          November 7, 2013 at 15:18

          HAHAHAHAHAHA

          Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      November 7, 2013 at 14:37

      The tiny one on the left? It looks more like Rince to me 😀

      Reply

      • Mark Treloar

        November 7, 2013 at 14:38

        more like a Wii U?

        Reply

      • Admiral Chief in 1986

        November 7, 2013 at 14:38

        LOL how do you know if Rince is TINY?

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          November 7, 2013 at 14:40

          I was guessing, that dirt has a gingery tinge to it.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief in 1986

            November 7, 2013 at 14:42

            GINGERPUBES!!!

          • RinceandRepeat

            November 7, 2013 at 14:42

            You have SERIOUS issues man…

          • Admiral Chief in 1986

            November 7, 2013 at 14:43

            Indeed, at least gingerpubes ain’t one of them

            😛

            JK RooibosRince

          • RinceandRepeat

            November 7, 2013 at 14:45

            If I had a cent for every time I heard that I wouldn’t charge your mother each night 😛

          • Admiral Chief in 1986

            November 7, 2013 at 14:46

            NOW it makes sense why you were NecroRince…

      • RinceandRepeat

        November 7, 2013 at 14:40

        Oi!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          November 7, 2013 at 14:48

          LOL

          Reply

  2. Admiral Chief in 1986

    November 7, 2013 at 14:34

    • Mark Treloar

      November 7, 2013 at 14:43

      Qbasic

      Reply

    • FSR

      November 7, 2013 at 14:43

      cant. stop. watching.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief in 1986

        November 7, 2013 at 14:44

        LOOOOOL

        Reply

    • No Longer SIR Twakkus

      November 7, 2013 at 15:12

      Awesome!

      Reply

    • NostalgicMossel

      November 7, 2013 at 15:24

      LOL! I saw this last year and watched it till the very end. Aaaaaaah Im stuck again!! What have you done!?

      Reply

      • FSR

        November 7, 2013 at 15:27

        Still a better game than Ghosts amirite?!

        Reply

        • NostalgicMossel

          November 7, 2013 at 15:33

          Top 3 best games of all time at least.

          Reply

    • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

      November 7, 2013 at 15:31

      WHEN DOES IT END?!?!

      Reply

  3. Ultimo_Cleric N7

    November 7, 2013 at 14:36

    LET ALL BOW BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE PC!!!!
    Even Microsoft realised their error!!!!!
    ……..says the guy who is moving to console next year…………

    Reply

    • Mark Treloar

      November 7, 2013 at 14:37

      Blasphemy!!

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        November 7, 2013 at 14:38

        Burn the heretic!

        Reply

        • Captain GUZ

          November 7, 2013 at 14:41

          Dont worry their consoles will burn them when they all overheat

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            November 7, 2013 at 14:42

            Did you know overheating consoles can be used in place of a George Foreman grill? And they say they can’t multitask.

    • Admiral Chief in 1986

      November 7, 2013 at 14:39

      TAR AND FEATHERS!!!!

      NO LONGER N7!!!

      Reply

      • Ultimo_Cleric N7

        November 7, 2013 at 15:21

        How dare you question the rank. AND ON N7 DAY!?!?!??!
        You are dead to me……..

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in 1986

          November 7, 2013 at 15:26

          Moving to console?

          NO LONGER N7!!!!

          Reply

          • Ultimo_Cleric N7

            November 7, 2013 at 15:28

            GIVE ME MOAR MONEY AND I WILL STAY ON PC!!!!
            Too expensive man, I wish I could, I LOVE playing on PC. But I just cant afford it anymore. I need to upgrade and its basically going to cost me 9 – 10 K.
            And I need to save for an overseas honeymoon……in December…….

    • RinceandRepeat

      November 7, 2013 at 14:40

      HAHAH!

      Reply

  4. Mark Treloar

    November 7, 2013 at 14:37

    So imagine that Streaming service Microsoft mentioned suddenly streaming Gears and Halo at 1080P.

    Reply

  5. RinceandRepeat

    November 7, 2013 at 14:42

    Hopefully that Xbox One app that lets you order pizza will finally make it to the PC… Oh, wait…

    Reply

    • Mark Treloar

      November 7, 2013 at 14:46

      You mean Mr Delivery?

      Reply

      • RinceandRepeat

        November 7, 2013 at 14:52

        Hehe, exactly 😉

        Reply

  6. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    November 7, 2013 at 14:46

    Ultimate header WIN!

    #Winning

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in 1986

      November 7, 2013 at 14:50

      Hehehe

      Reply

  7. Hammersteyn

    November 7, 2013 at 14:51

    PS4 and PC I can’t lose

    Reply

    • Captain GUZ

      November 7, 2013 at 14:55

      Playa playa , you such a hoe (lol joking)

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        November 7, 2013 at 15:16

        😉

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief in 1986

      November 7, 2013 at 14:55

      *PC you can’t lose

      Fixed

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        November 7, 2013 at 15:16

        You downloaded that Killzone video didn’t you? Hows it look?

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in 1986

          November 7, 2013 at 15:17

          Almost as good as current PC gen

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            November 7, 2013 at 15:21

            Bwahaha I have to take your word for it. Sorry but for now I am sitting comfy on this draad.

      • Mark Treloar

        November 7, 2013 at 15:24

        *PC with “Nvidia, the way it’s meant to be played”

        Perfected

        Reply

  8. Purple_Dragon

    November 7, 2013 at 14:59

    I’m tempted to get a PC but hell it’s costly for a really good one.

    Reply

    • El Capitan del Blade

      November 7, 2013 at 15:12

      True, but look at it this way, You either Spend 12K NOW for a PC Tower and Decent Screen, or around the Same for a PS4 / XBONE and a Decent TV. PC wins in my case, because the games are at least R100 cheaper on release (yes there are exceptions) But with Steam Sales / Humble Bundle etc. It’s quite easy to wrack up a library of games at the fraction of the price of their console counterparts.

      Reply

    • FoxOneZA

      November 7, 2013 at 15:59

      What hardware do you currently have? You can always go bit by bit.

      Reply

      • Purple_Dragon

        November 7, 2013 at 16:58

        Don’t have one, only have a PS3. I’ve been mulling get a PC over Christmas as I wouldn’t mind some nice shiny graphics and the old keyboard and mouse.

        I’ve been out of the PC race ages ago so don’t really know the costs. Correct me if I am wrong but a really good one will set me back around R20K?

        Reply

        • FoxOneZA

          November 7, 2013 at 17:03

          No not really. You are going to need the OS though and that’s going to cost you about R1299. The latest Radeon R9 270x will set you back R2500. That card can do BF4 at 1080p/60fps with settings on High and Ultra. A Core i5 PC with 8gb Ram is decent enough for gaming. An i5 PC with PSU should set you back R5500. You can always up the rest of the hardware. Oh and remember, you can HDMI out your PC o your TV so no need for a monitor. Play games with the Xbox controller.

          Reply

  9. Hellteddy

    November 7, 2013 at 15:35

    Microscrew is worried about losing their gaming base to SteamOS.

    Reply

  10. FoxOneZA

    November 7, 2013 at 15:58

    I love what Valve are going to do to consoles next; upgradeable GFX! BoooooOOOOooooM!!!

    Reply

  11. Brady miaau

    November 7, 2013 at 16:03

    Nice Zero Punctuation pic!

    Just the right amount of sarcasm and grime

    Reply

  12. Kromas

    November 7, 2013 at 16:06

    Valve is forsaking MS and MS is getting paranoid. Too late though. SteamOS here I come!

    Reply

    • Maxiviper117

      November 7, 2013 at 22:00

      Apparently Steam OS only does one thing…..run games….thats it….so dont delete that windows just yet 😉

      Reply

      • Kromas

        November 8, 2013 at 06:51

        It is built over Debian and still uses its core. That means it can do whatever you want it to do.

        Reply

  13. George

    November 7, 2013 at 16:14

    Ryse and Dead Rising 3 on my PC. Drool….

    Reply

  14. DrKiller

    November 7, 2013 at 16:18

    What ever happened with playing Xbox Games on the PC? If I recall correctly one of the features on Windows 8 was said to be able to play xbox games

    Reply

  15. Maxiviper117

    November 7, 2013 at 21:59

    Does this mean the cloud will come to PC

    Reply

  16. Brian Murphy

    November 8, 2013 at 00:52

    “They’ve done a great job of keeping the PC ecosystem strong at a time where I don’t mind saying that we could have been more focused on what was going on in PC gaming. We were probably too focused purely on console. With Steam, [Valve has] done an amazing job of building this thing that, in a lot of ways, we should have been building as well at Microsoft.”

    Call me crazy, but there’s a big difference between not focusing on a platform, and purchasing exclusivity away from that platform, for the sole purpose of inflating the hardware sales of something else.

    This wasn’t a matter of focusing elsewhere, it was a very strategic and deliberate action by Microsoft to try and coral PC user’s into buying console hardware. Virtually every move they made, was to this end, and many developers/publishers assisted in this.

    Look at Alan Wake, for example. In development for 6+ years, announced as a PC/360 exclusive for 5 and 3/4ers of that time, then in the final couple months, the PC version just disappeared. And so did Alan Wake’s chances of profitability within it’s first year on the market. Although, I was highly amused that when it finally came to steam, the developer made their dev costs back on day 1.

    Reply

  17. Mighty Meh

    November 8, 2013 at 08:27

    Did I just read XBox Live for windows machine? They want us to pay to play online with a PC too now?

    Reply

    • Gustav Willem Diedericks

      November 8, 2013 at 08:54

      That is so not happening!

      Reply

  18. Alex [SS] PsyChoPanthis

    November 8, 2013 at 09:07

    the moment he said spotify and netflix i stopped reading.

    Last time i checked we have to use proxy and IP spoofing to use these services…

    Reply

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