E3 2014 is now history, but some people have wondered why Microsoft only showed their upcoming Xbox One games at the annual video game trade show, and ignored upcoming titles on the Windows PC and Windows Phone platforms.
Microsoft's Xbox head Phil Spencer attempted to answer that question during the show. He explained that E3 2014 is mainly a retail event for showcasing upcoming console games and that the company felt it was not the right venue for promoting upcoming Windows game titles.
Having said that, Spencer added that "Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft's success". He pointed out that some PC-based games such as the fantasy online multiplayer title League of Legends "dwarf a lot of what we're doing in this console space in terms of users and monetization.."
Indeed, Spencer hinted that Microsoft might use a big PC pro gaming tournament as a venue to make some Windows gaming announcements. He stated, "Well they do these huge world championship events and they fill up arenas. I do think there could be a space there."
What do you think about Spencer's comments about Windows gaming and do you think Microsoft is really committed to that platform as he claims or is it just lip service?
Source: Polygon
Reader comments
So where were the Windows games at E3 2014? Xbox leader explains
They had a chance and blew time and again with GfWL and could have easily had a foothold and coexisted with steam. Their current PC endeavor is just pitiful. I get putting casual phone games on surface but its shameful to see that as Microsoft's only offering for PC
Phil Spencer is a gamer at heart and I have no reason to doubt him until he gives me one.
After years of working in a corporate environment, I know bullshit when I smell it.
It's not rocket science.
MS need to sell XBones.
They can't afford to give time to PC and leave Sony with the biggest and best show.
Nothing to do with whether or not they care about PC games.
They seem to be falling behind PS4 (from what I can tell) and need to big up the console.
Don't read any more in to it than that.
I love Steam.
Cheap recent games, auto updates etc
That's what I want.
I spend far more on games now than I ever did before as I get far better value on PC than my 360.
I call bull. They're obviously trying to make you buy an Xbox One for the exclusives. They could have announced the Halo collection for PC too, but they didn't.
Quick question. What was the last AAA game published my Microsoft for the Pc? Honestly I can't remember that far back. Ms does not care about the Pc as a game platform.
"He explained that E3 2014 is mainly a retail event for showcasing upcoming console games"
What a fucking idiot, PC games stand side by side with console gaming and have always been part of E3, maybe Spencer and MS should take their heads out of their ass when it comes to PC gaming.
"'Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft's success'"
Yeah right, that's the biggest pile of shit I have heard, ever. If Windows gaming was critical to MS why the FUCK didn't they announce the Master Chief collection for PC as well, and why the fuck are they shutting down Age of Empires Online barely 2 yeras after release when they have already taken shit load of cash from people for it.
Ever since MS shut down Ensemble they were nothing in the PC gaming sphere; and I would still like to punch the asshole at MS who made Midtown Madness 3 an Xbox exclusive when the firt two versions were PC exclusives; might have been a decade ago, but I don't ever forget when a game publisher fucks over it's PC gamer customers.
/rant over
Timing
Aoe online was losing money
If you want an example of a publisher not bothering with PC try ea some of the titles they stopped porting they could've @ least made them digital copy only but no they didn't
The whole Xbox division is losing money, Bing is losing money, million and millions of dollars, AOEO was a drop in the bucket, so that is hardly an excuse to axe it and not even give back the money people paid for the game only to have the game shut down on them two years later.
Microsoft is asking for a lawsuit with this, and if I get bored they might get one.
Microsoft recently sent out a survey that suggested that they are planning to replace or significantly upgrade GFWL or upgrade W8 Xbox games.
So thats what that recent email was for. I tend to not trust email like that anymore
I can buy more games for less money on my PC through Steam than I can on any of my consoles.
Yeah,All he did at the press conference was talk about Halo :/
And the asshole did not even announce it for PC, thats how MS cares about PC gaming.
We can blame intel for it since their severely limiting the voltage on the pcie lanes on hasbeen making those new sleek x86 tablets garbage for gaming
Why would you want to game on a tablet? I want halo on the PC, not a Tablet PC touch version.
Because lots of people play games on tablets. Try to turn down the master race stuff a smidge.
Sell the games on the windows 8 store allow the games to plug into xbox live
That would be a failure from the start, unless they make the store work on Windows 7 as wel; plus I don't expect any to trust MS with a PC gaming platform anytime soon after the screw-up that is GFWL.
Well if they had better worldwide support it might've made a difference
I hope MS makes a serious effort in this space and revives genres like strategy, simulation. The user base is so fragmented thanks for Ubi and EA.
I can see cross platform play being a clever thing for certain games.
That would be cool. I'd like to see another halo wars.
I have been asking for another halo wars for years
That halo collection on pc would be a start!
+100
We had Halo 1 and 2 on PC and then as always MS decided to screw us and not release 3 and 4 for PC at all.
That is one weak statement, very unsatisfying.
I kinda blame WPC (except Paul). You guys should address this big problem and keep the pressure up.
Look at Xbox music: I read so many articles about that and that's exactly what you should do with Xbox gaming on WP and W8!
You can't talk about Windows 8 gaming as no AAA publisher will ever limit their games to one OS and the least popular one at that.
Thanks man. I wish we could keep the pressure up about Xbox WP games, but we lost that battle with Microsoft a long time ago.
No way dude! We haven't even started fighting. Your essay series was superb, but that's not enough. Told you before: Don't give up on this, but keep pushing. Talk to Daniel about this, WPC needs to make this a big topic.
Sorry guys but Nintendo definitely won the E3
I know their digital event tie in with robot chicken was clever
I feel this way too, I don't think there was anything they showed that didn't interest me.
I call Bullshit. E3, and particularly 2014, is not about console games. I have heard and read less this year about E3 than any other year.
The complaining here is hysterical. Last year they showed things other than games, people complained. They show nothing but games, people complain. Sony did the same thing Microsoft did last year and yet no one is complaining. What do people expect them to say about PC games? The only 2 things they could really have done is talked about DirectX 12 or bring Xbox Live service to Windows. I can guarantee if they announced Xbox Live for PC people would've lost their s$%t and not in a good way. Don't believe me, just look at the whiny babies complaining here.
You call it whining.We call it being critical of Microsoft making poor decisions at major events.
I think a lot of gamers like structure and consoles provide that. My xbone gives me balance that a PC wont. Cheaters love PC games my friend. That's a big downfall.
Its a bit disappointing that the software side of PC gaming is so far behind the hardware side. I don't know what the figures are, but I'm betting there are a lot of gamers with PCs that make the XONE / PS4 hardware look like last gen. So why aren't all the software houses making PC gaming their number one priority.. is it piracy or is that just a poor excuse?
Piracy is the stupidest excuse of them all, console games get pirated just the same.
Console games aren't pirated nearly as easily or as often as PC games. It is an extremely valid concern for game developers, not that they shouldn't release PC versions anyway.
It's the costs of developing, optimizing and testing on multiple configurations. It's cheaper to develop for the consoles and then port to PC (and accept that it runs like crap, looks like crap, and handles like crap). And yeah, there are piracy concerns, but all studies indicate (AFAIK) that people who spend on media, do so at a pretty fixed rate, regardless of their ability or opportunity to pirate.
What about a "gaming" edition of Windows? Strip out all the unnecessary components that come in the standard distribution and give it as small a footprint as possible and streamline resource access for gaming. Integrate Windows Store with big titles.
That would be the XboxOne (basically)... It runs the Windows core kernel and API stuff. It's custom optimized hardware for gaming and media and not productivity. It does/will run universal app stuff if the user wants to extend it's abilities.
Yeah I'm starting to get sick of this "One MS" thing when they are doing little to nothing about it! Either start supporting WP heavily or prepare for failure, is as simple as that!!!
I just tweeted to @philSpenser with my disgust, lol! If only he actually managed his own twitter account.
His Twitter account is @XboxP3.
I think it's a cop-out answer. Windows Phone could've gotten a HUGE bump in mindshare if they had announced a livery editor or tuning shop for your Forza cars. Or some side missions for Halo:MCC.
On one hand they scream about a "One Microsoft Experience" yet, in reality, they're doing little to nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Sony is showing how PS4 works with VITA works with TV. Why won't MS make Xbox work with Windows Phone work with PC. It's a damn tragedy of monumental proportions to have NOTHING announced for Windows Phone, IMHO.
Its one microsoft/ios, Microsoft continues to show their apathy towards WP in favor of ios.
Aside from the slight criticism, I think Phil Spencer is going in the right direction. He was a gamer before becoming the Xbox chief and it shows. I believe games for Windows will be announced. With that said, it's not like there aren't a lot of people playing games on PC. As long as Microsoft keeps the PC a palatable gaming platform, the games will continue to come from the numorous developers/publishers.
I wish i could sack this guy.
Sounds like lip service to me. The fact that this is a "retail event" hasn't stopped them from making PC game announcements in the past.
Anyone who has ever attended E3 will tell you that it's absolutely not just all about consoles. That was a super weak cop out excuse for the fact that Microsoft just doesn't have anything interesting to show for PC this year. Obviously they think PC gaming is important, or DX12 wouldn't exist. I really dislike how they keep talking down to people like we're stupid and can't just handle the honest facts.
I agree it's just an excuse... But you're not going to get someone out of Microsoft (however cool like Spencer) to admit signs of weakness very often.
Definitely lip service. Microsoft as a company is about to change even more for the worse, at least for loyalists. All the Apple and Android guys will love them, since they'll get priority and better Microsoft services than those who use Microsoft hardware. #Idiots #BringBackBallmer
more butter!
Considering GFWL is getting slaughtered next month, I'm not sure I trust my gaming -- especially my achievements -- with Microsoft anymore.
They hooked me with achievements. It was a good chunk of the reason I got a Windows Phone. Then, half the games had glitched achievements, got delisted instead of updated, amazing WP7 titles never came to WP8, and then they announce the closure of GFWL.
Maybe I should go start collecting trophies instead. :(
GFWL as a service is being shut down but the Windows Store is already open for business. All smaller games, some with Xbox Live achievements, but so far they haven't released any big games. I think that's Gabe Newell's fear.
Windows Store is on Windows 8 only, that is why it has only shit mobile phone style games, no publisher of an AAA title is stupid enough to cripple their game by puting in a MS service when they already know that MS has no interest in supporting it in the future, just like they failed with GFWL and WP Xbox games, and publishers are now screwed having to remove the MS shit from their games before GFWL shuts down.
If PSN was at least half as good as XBL I would've switched. And if the controllers were more comfortable. Went from PS3 to Xbox 360, and I'm probably forever hooked on the Xbox brand. My PS3 got ylod right after the warranty ended, my Xbox360 is still kicking ass after about 6years, where 4 is in my possession, which is also one reason for me being loyal to Xbox.
Take heart. Sometimes I feel the same way. Its very discouraging that all Xbox integration is seemingly gone in WP8 games beside Microsoft titles. I have a feeling they're close to rolling out a solution- more than likely bringing Xbox and achievements to all smartphone platforms.
It appears they already offlined it
Quakecon is next month.
I wonder if anyone will talk to them there. And if they dont show up will people call phil on what he said at E3?
Seriously. They took Halo from PC and made it am Xbox exclusive. Why would the Xbox leader want to promote PC games? Does this fall under his responsibilities at all?
Actually they took it from Apple.
Touché. Halo was indeed originally in development for Mac til Microsoft bought Bungie out from under them. They already had working demos and everything. :P
Halo was always coming out for PC. It was just one of the rare titles also coming out for Mac at the same time.
There was a planned PC version, but Bungie was a Mac exclusive/ Mac first studio before the Microsoft purchase. The original Halo announcement was even made at Macworld, that's how much emphasis they put in the platform.
The PC gaming space is really a mess right now. Aside from a handful of online games that make a ton of money, the space differs from so much fragmentation that it will never achieve the cultural presence it needs to really go mainstream.
Everyone knows what Angry Birds is. That happened in just two or three years. By contrast, League of Legends has been around for longer, but few people outside PC gaming know what it is.
And yet the PC gaming market is actually bigger than any of the consoles.
By such a broad definition. My aunt playing Bejeweled on Facebook counts as a PC gamer. I would like to see real statistics of PC gamers who have rigs equal to a console.
@Fiann hahaha what are you smoking? It's bigger for MOBAs (which I despise), but there's a reason that games get priorities for the consoles (hint: Its because there's more money... Because consoles are bigger than PC gaming)
That. and it's easier to make a game work well for one or two different configurations in comparison to how many different things can go wrong with a PC release.
While that is true, the "many different configurations" argument is vastly overrated. There are a lot of big name companies (Ubisoft being one of the main ones) who just port over to PC instead of optimizing. Take Watch Dogs for example, even on the hardware that it was tested on, it still ran like crap.
So you're comparing an application on a smart phone to PC gaming, Or are you comparing smart phone gaming to PC gaming? They have angry birds on PC.. But anyway, both smart phones and PCs have popular titles. Angry birds is a popular franchise but it does not represent the entire smart phone gaming industry. I'm not really sure what your point is, seems like you were just trying to hate on PC gaming.
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And everyone knows what Minecraft is.
I would rather use steam over origin any day
And windows phone ? I'll wait while someone ask.
They usually announce Windows Phone games at WP keynotes
Guess they forgot to do that at build.
Id think that would be too soon for their elitist publishers to put out good games seeing how gl dropped the ball with numerous delays
More like "used to"... Sadly.