Phil Spencer on why Microsoft is joining the PC Gaming Show

[TheSlamma]

I guess it depends where they finish.

About the time they find out they can't deliver games for crap and their DRM fails miserably. (GFW and GFWL)

 

[Aikouka]

I'm still a bit baffled as to why Microsoft limits stuff like Project Spark to Windows 8.x. It gives me the idea that they still don't understand their consumers.

 

[Skel]

I'm still a bit baffled as to why Microsoft limits stuff like Project Spark to Windows 8.x. It gives me the idea that they still don't understand their consumers.

Confused a bit.. should they open it to WinXP or Win7?

 

[paperfist]

Great now bring back Zoo Tycoon!

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'm still a bit baffled as to why Microsoft limits stuff like Project Spark to Windows 8.x. It gives me the idea that they still don't understand their consumers.

There is no reason they should open it to people running old OSes. They don't release every game for 360 either.

 

[styrafoam]

There is no reason they should open it to people running old OSes. They don't release every game for 360 either.

People on Vista and 7 are low hanging fruit for them, its silly not to. MS can keep on forcing the games division to follow corporate guidelines that steer customers towards new OSes and consoles, never acknowledging the fact that the nature of the upgrade in question is financially out of reach of a huge chunk of their user base. They can also continue to spin their wheels while they cancel and abandon projects left and right.

Its this same mentality that they have never been able to break away from that has everyone rolling their eyes with this supposed PC gaming initiative. They are too clumsy of a company to make any useful product, and they are too stifled by the "corporate vision" to ever even have the ability to do what their supposed target audience would want.

 

[cmdrdredd]

People on Vista and 7 are low hanging fruit for them, its silly not to. MS can keep on forcing the games division to follow corporate guidelines that steer customers towards new OSes and consoles, never acknowledging the fact that the nature of the upgrade in question is financially out of reach of a huge chunk of their user base. They can also continue to spin their wheels while they cancel and abandon projects left and right.

Its this same mentality that they have never been able to break away from that has everyone rolling their eyes with this supposed PC gaming initiative. They are too clumsy of a company to make any useful product, and they are too stifled by the "corporate vision" to ever even have the ability to do what their supposed target audience would want.

It's not financially out of reach when everyone running Windows 7 are going to get Windows 10 for free if you upgrade in the first year. The quicker they abandon them and make them upgrade the better I say. It's easier to support one OS than multiple and Windows 10 is supposed to be the last version, so it'll be easier for driver development as well.

You also don't seem to know what Phil Spencer has done recently for Microsoft's gaming division. It's far from stifled, mostly thanks to the changes he put in place once he stepped in.

 

[Aikouka]

Confused a bit.. should they open it to WinXP or Win7?

Yeah, perhaps they should.

There is no reason they should open it to people running old OSes. They don't release every game for 360 either.

You mean like the far wider adoption of Windows 7 leading to a potentially far larger client base. Yeah, you're right... there's nary a reason!

 

[Skel]

Yeah, perhaps they should.



You mean like the far wider adoption of Windows 7 leading to a potentially far larger client base. Yeah, you're right... there's nary a reason!

I've been totally broken down over all the OS changes I've now gone through so I see what they're doing and why. You can't get people to change unless you give them a reason, and they've withheld stuff all the time to get people to move up. If they kept backwards compatibility for everything they'd never get people off of the old stuff.

 

[Aikouka]

I've been totally broken down over all the OS changes I've now gone through so I see what they're doing and why. You can't get people to change unless you give them a reason, and they've withheld stuff all the time to get people to move up. If they kept backwards compatibility for everything they'd never get people off of the old stuff.

Eh, to be frank, the reason why it's not on Windows 7 is most likely because the software is released on the Xbox Marketplace. Of course, it doesn't need the Xbox Marketplace to run, but that's like... well, I can't really make a good correlation to it, because there really isn't a plausible one where two OSs with highly similar underpinnings and architectures are limited by a silly piece of distribution software. It'd be like if Steam wasn't on Windows 7... because reasons? 😵

Although, I don't think Project Spark is really a reason to get people to upgrade. It's like when they made Halo 2 for the PC Vista-only. Perhaps that's why they just decided to give Windows 10 out for free. Why the fudge not... it worked for AOL, right? :awe:

 

[styrafoam]

It's not financially out of reach when everyone running Windows 7 are going to get Windows 10 for free if you upgrade in the first year.

The majority of console and PC gamers under 18 are not in the position to upgrade an OS or buy a new console when a game they want to play requires it. They may get their upgrade eventually, but it will be on someone else's terms. The way they are handling the Win 10 upgrade doesn't change what they have done with their games in the past, and it also doesn't guarantee everyone who would want to use it will be able to. Forcing the MS games division to make decisions that only benefit the OS side of the business is splitting their focus, their customer base is limited by their own company.

The quicker they abandon them and make them upgrade the better I say.

If you want to sell games, you cannot presume to control or effect any other aspect of the equation. You make and sell games, you let the other tentacles worry about themselves. Microsoft is their own worst enemy when it comes to anything to do with PC games because Xbox and the Windows OS come first.

You also don't seem to know what Phil Spencer has done recently for Microsoft's gaming division.

I admit it, I don't. The most recent items I remember from microsoft were the disastrous XBone launch and buying Mojang. I googled Phil Spencer microsoft games changes and found links to him admitting that MS mishandled the xbox launch, undoing of most of the horrible ideas that drug down the XBone, plans of making minecraft cross-platform and talking about how there are plans to integrate xbox services into Win10. All pretty lukewarm stuff, but if there is something I missed I would be willing to read it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I've been totally broken down over all the OS changes I've now gone through so I see what they're doing and why. You can't get people to change unless you give them a reason, and they've withheld stuff all the time to get people to move up. If they kept backwards compatibility for everything they'd never get people off of the old stuff.

Exactly and they also want everyone on windows 10 so they only have to support one OS and only the services available on that OS. It will be better for driver development as well. A fragmented market with some people running this and others running that is kind of a mess when it comes to support.

 

[sxr7171]

Why don't they stop running their mouths and maybe perform one token action for a change? Maybe release a wireless adapter for the XBone controller? Would that be an appropriate first step maybe?

 

[Red Hawk]

Ok, I want Microsoft to put its best foot forward and really support PC gaming as a medium, not just provide the framework for it through the operating system and API. If a company like Microsoft really put its best effort into it, they could make a huge impact. So I'm not going to throw stones at them for just wanting to be part of this. At the same time, I know it's entirely possible that Microsoft could half ass this, pay lip service to PC, but keep the same behavior they've had for over a decade now. So I'm not going to praise them just for being involved in this, either. I guess that's the definition of being cautiously optimistic.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Why don't they stop running their mouths and maybe perform one token action for a change? Maybe release a wireless adapter for the XBone controller? Would that be an appropriate first step maybe?

Whatever protocol the Xbox One controller uses might not be supported by Windows at this time. I thought it was WiFi direct but according to my reading just now it's proprietary.

 

[Aikouka]

Whatever protocol the Xbox One controller uses might not be supported by Windows at this time. I thought it was WiFi direct but according to my reading just now it's proprietary.

They are releasing one, but they haven't announced a release date.

 

[cmdrdredd]

They are releasing one, but they haven't announced a release date.

Probably going to be around Windows 10 release. That's my guess anyway.

 

[sxr7171]

Whatever protocol the Xbox One controller uses might not be supported by Windows at this time. I thought it was WiFi direct but according to my reading just now it's proprietary.

Was just announced today and it's about time. Also just as a point whatever protocol they used is in the controller and the XBone so it must be a cheap and mass produced hardware part. The adapter will be the same at $25.