Microsoft Insider Claims It Should Refocus on PC

IGN - "If the prices on PCs come down further, these [consoles] might be squeezed out."

[NastyLeftHook0]

they should refocus on rare

[classic200]

This guy in the article is your typical graphics card lover. LOOL he is so piss that microsoft stop supporting PC.

Sometimes people should understand that PC got something about it that people dislike for gaming.

1, its expensive to get the so call high quality rig

2, PC does not have an organize lord lool. What I am talking is a support of first party games from say a sony or nintendo.

3, Console gamers don't find mmos and strategy titles interesting.

4, PC is not plug and play. obviously

5, True pc gaming is done with a mouse and keyboard, lots of people rather sit in awkward position playing with a controller on a big screen.

6, DRM is too popular

7, PC got quantity in exclusives but the quality suck, check out how many hated their drm money grabber diablo 3 lol.

[elhebbo16]

At least PC gamers dont get constantly butt f***ed by microsoft, thats for damn sure. paying to play online? please.

[DigitalRaptor]

1. You can get a high quality rig for under $1000 if you're smart. Then when the next generation of hardware-demanding games come out for PC, all you have to do is switch out certain components. It also beats the price of paying $60 a year for online access what Steam/PC apps provides for free.

2. It also doesn't have the restrictions bounded by a console environment.

3. That is opinion. There hasn't been a huge push for either genre because a) the control scheme doesn't suit a gamepad b) the online architecture seems challenging to get right. PC developers have been doing it for years.

4. If you know what you're doing it can be as easy as that, but I guess if you're lazy and/or impatient, sure.

5. You can find the right setup to be able to do that on PC.

6. If rumours are true, DRM on consoles is about to get a lot more popular.

7. Diablo 3 is just one game. The quality in PC exclusives spans back decades. The back catalogue of exclusive games for PC is unrivaled, and that includes classics, not just 'quantity over quality'. There are plenty more on their way, but made by indies.

Either way, if you supplement your PC gaming with Sony or Nintendo consoles (or vice versa) you can't go far wrong. With PC you see the benefit of ultimate choice. If Microsoft had it their way, PC gamers would be paying more and it would be a closed environment on an open platform. See landog's comment below for those benefits.

[rainslacker]

Consoles biggest stregth is that it is convienant to use, and doesn't take any sort of tech knowledge to use. Most of your comments were very subjective or entirely inaccurate.

1. A mid-level rig will cost you about the same as say the next gen consoles releasing...maybe a bit more depending on how you want to use it. Long term though you will save money on games and upgrade costs to the next generation, and will likely play all games with better quality right off the bat...with notable exceptions.

2. Can't argue there as there is no first party in regards to PC. If you prefer the console exclusives then that's your only choice to play them. PC does have a lot more exclusives than all systems combined though, and many are AAA. Overall PC has the most support of any game playing machine out there.

3. Very myopic view, and completely subjective.

4. Somewhat true here, but PC's have made great strides in this regard. However despite what digitalRaptor said above, if you aren't tech minded it is not a simple thing and has it's own disadvantages not being a closed system.

5. Quite a few games can be played with a regular controller. 360's controller works with a PC by just plugging it in, and DS controllers work with a driver install. Mouse/KB are preferable though depending on game, and in this regard PC offers more choice. Also I know several people who play their PC's just like they would a console on a TV, and they don't even have high end rigs. This will probably become even more true with Steam pushing their big picture thing.

6. DRM is on consoles as well, or maybe you've missed the whole online pass thing. While I don't put stock in current rumors, there is a possibility it could become very restrictive on the next consoles. PC has the benefit that at least a day after release you can get a DRM free version of the game if your that fussed about it.

7. Trollish comment not worth discrediting.

I'm a Sony fan, and love my PS, but don't deny that the PC has it's strengths over consoles, and all this bickering over which is better(on both sides) really depends on the person, and not the platform.

[nukeitall]

The overall experience of PC doesn't match the console, despite being more powerful and the flexibility.

The experience I'm talking about is ease of use, and "almost" instant access (for PS3 owners, you might get stuck with a lengthy install and patch process).

No drivers to install, very little software conflict and standardized hardware. It takes out all the thinking behind PC.

[DeadlyFire]

7, PC got quantity in exclusives but the quality suck, check out how many hated their drm money grabber diablo 3 lol.

You know its kinda funny Diablo 3 sold 12 million anyway in 2012. http://www.pcgamesn.com/dia...

6. DRM popular? Sure its out there in many variations, but do you actually look at how its implemented. You terming DRM as popular shows ignorance towards this subject as well.

5. A controller is a controller. All have thier preferences. Some prefer motion, VR, Key+Mouse, gamepad, but its up to the gamer. Its funny PC offers all of the above as an option or well its in the works as having all of the above. A console you are locked to whatever controller you are provided.

4. This statement is just ignorant. PC is all plug and play. Even if you bought a gaming computer from a retail store and throw in a graphics card. Its as simple as that.

3. This in itself is funny. I wouldn't say they don't find them interesting. Why? because noone has ever really pushed them on a console because of the limitations of the hardware. We are finally getting to a decent point with the hardware we can start seeing this. Even as I say this PS2 had a few MMOs that still are kicking. PS3 has one or two in the pipeline.

2. First party no, but exclusive indie party games yes. Cheaper to develop on PC than any console. So many start ups start this way. Like CD Projekt RED, and 4A games for example. Small teams built Witcher, and Metro. The right amount of success and we see X360 get a port of these titles. Now Publisher has full respect for both developers and next games are coming to at least 3 platforms(PC, PS, XB) :)

1. PC doesn't come cheap? Really? You can buy a customized PC from ibuypower at Wal-Mart.com for $710 with a monitor. More RAM, and more GPU power than both X360 and PS4 combined. If you ever want to see a bigger resolution or better framerate just tweak it every 4-5 years.

Wanna compare that price? X360 at launch $300/400 + XBL say times 8 years at $50. = $700/800 for X360 over its lifetime if it didn't have a red ring problem which is another $100. so if you did its $800/900 bucks in the end.

So if you add a AMD 7870 in that same Wal-mart.com IbuypowerPC computer that's customizable you = $870 with all the components. OS, 8GB RAM, GPU, CPU, Monitor and so on. So when you consider buying a X720 at launch for $300/400 + XBL(Now $60 a year fee) for say another 8 years. = $780/$880 in the end. Considering rumors specs of 1.2, and 1.8 Tflops with AMD 7870 in custom system you would have 2.5 Tflops + possibly swinging into a cheap game thanks to the digital sales services like STEAM and so on. :)

[jmc8888]

1. Not really. You could of bought an i7 920 in 2008-2009 for $269-299 and it's CPU is better than in the next gen consoles despite half the cores, and you can up that by easily overclocking it on air upwards of 50 percent. On top of this you could of say then upgraded the graphics card in 2012 for $339-399 and had something with 2.45 TFlops in the GTX 670 as opposed to wait another year and half for something with 1.2 TFlops or 1.8 TFlops to come out. (or waited for this years 700 series to come out and have something close to 4 TFlops for $399).

Thus in other words it's not expensive for a good rig much more powerful than a PS4/720 years earlier than they release in terms of GPU and CPU. Meanwhile if you WANT an even wider gap, say 11-15 TFlops versus 1.2 or 1.8 (that might be 12x stronger than a next gen 720) you could buy dual GTX 690's last year or dual GTX 790's this year.

Thus it's important to realize a cheap mid range PC already throttles next gen consoles while uber rigs that most people can't afford can literally be 12x an Xbox 720 or 8x a PS4.

2. True they don't have a centralized 1st party dev, BUT, they have more combined exclusives than Sony/MS/Nintendo put out combined. Thus you do get great PC exclusives from big games to smaller dev games. Games like a strike suit zero or FTL or Star Citizen. Games like Crysis originally came out on PC and only later ported to 360, etc.

3. Untrue. Some haven't experienced them, and would if they were exposed to them. Others like them, but since consoles don't do them, they don't play them. Others indeed don't. But still others do and that's one reason they keep a PC. It's not just that, the case can be made for many other things like FPS in that you can use mouse or keyboard, or 360 controller for PC, or hybrid of 360 controller and mouse. When it comes to RPG's you usually have mods that allow all sorts of new stuff. Take Skyrim, all the free mission contents people made, to new spells, farting mods, raining meteors down from the sky, XXX sex mods, new UI, all sorts of stuff. Basically on PC you get all the genres possible on a console + more. So only on a PC are all genres possible.

4. Depends on what you mean. If you mean game wise it can be better even. Steam is very easy. Buy, download, double click the game name/icon in steam. That's pretty simple. You can also sometimes preload games so you don't have to wait in a stupid line at midnight. If you want to switch games you don't need to get up and take the disc out, find the cover, etc, etc. You just close the game and open a different one.

5. Again not really. You have ultimate flexibility in gaming. You can game with keyboard and mouse (which can be wireless) or 360 controller or hybrid 360 controller and mouse. Not to mention flight sticks, wheels, etc. Now you will get throttled in most FPS if you use a controller, but it also makes you better so when you play on a console you thrash people pretty hard. But besides first person shooters, a controller isn't a disadvantage. Also you don't need to game on a small screen, all GPU's have HDMI outs, which means, any HDTV can be used as a monitor just like a console uses it. I use a 40 inch Dynex 1080p/60 that I got a couple years ago for $399. My keyboard, mouse, and 360 controller are all wireless and am currently typing this relaxed back in my recliner. (not to mention actually use the HD capabilities of 1080p gaming and not 588-604p gaming with a few 720p games sprinkled in)

[jmc8888]

6. Console DRM is there too. You have EA passes. While it's more prevalent on PC's, many devs have backtracked like Ubisoft. Meanwhile it seems consoles might be going forward with theirs...potentially. An always on connection or RFID chip on discs or cloud gaming could easily be viewed correctly as another form of DRM. So this point is up in the air.

7. Well for every Diablo 3 there's FTL or Strike Suit Zero, or Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, or Natural Selection 2, or Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, or dozens of others. So your opinion of the quality sucking is more off of simply not knowing or experiencing the games.

[-Mezzo-]

What consoles are dying again?

*FacePalm*

[ATi_Elite]

I like Microsoft not being in the PC Gaming arena and when they decide to come back it will be Too Late cause by then the Steambox will have us playing PC Games minus a Microsoft OS!

MS has been CRAP ever since Bill Gates stepped down. No innovation at all and that lack of innovation is why Valve and not MS is the PC Champion.

Next console Gen is the Last Gen and after the Xbox720 dies MS/Sony will just publish or license games to run through PSN+/XboxLive on any device.

Proof of the consoles Death is that tablet/slates will be more powerful than the X720/PS4 6 months after these new consoles release.

Plus they are already making Hybrid all in one/slate PC's (Google Sony Vaio tap 20)

*Side note* Notice the Sony Vaio Tap 20 in the Windows 8 commercial with the little girl art student? Joachim Kempin is right, there really isn't any secrets in the console business and their darn sure isn't any competition Between Sony and MS as they are big business partners.

Sony makes the PC's that bring out the best of Microsoft's software!

[classic200]

come on you really think consoles will die, this world revolve around competition. If microsoft and sony decided to merge, someone out of nowhere will come and spot an opportunity.

Their will be PC but their will always be phones, tablets, tv, console. All will be like a computer but they will all have different benefits and lets face it steam box is not a PC because valve will have certain restriction on it.

One of these restriction will be no origin lol, Unless some strong contract between Ea and valve and I dont see that happening. Cars will be similar to computers in the future but that does not mean it will replace a tablet, phone, desktop or a living room hub (console)

[DeadlyFire]

I see Microsoft tapping into Windows 8 to gridlock Valve in some ways. Which could mean they are looking to support gaming on PC again.

Valve entering console market with its own version of Linux based games could spring them forward to launch an OS of their own at some point based on their version of Linux. Which in turn could take away some of Window's shares of the market if Valve starts shifting exclusive games vs. Windows. Since Microsoft doesn't really try to brand any game as Windows exclusive. That is long long term. Although it could happen faster than we think since Linux is fairly simple.

Whole Modular computing idea could be a slow build towards what I have projected above. As it would take time before their modular designs would have enough power to be recognized as a decent idea. No company really tries to sell computers with its OS on them with gaming support like Valve could do.

I doubt Sony/Microsoft will ever merge their consoles. Sony and Microsoft will stand separate and compete with each other until one is defeated then someone else will compete. Which if you look at the market now. We have new android consoles stepping up, Valve, AppleTV(sometime soon), and possibly other competitors reaching out.

[jmc8888]

Actually there wasn't a whole lot of innovation with Bill Gates either, he's a moron and a fascist.

What he did do is use his family wealth to start a business that bought up the rights to two little know IBM inventions, DOS and Windows, and was able to turn those into something that sold.

So I'll say he can rebrand things, or turn someone elses innovation into something that sells. But really Microsoft just copy something others are doing, and find a way to do it in a way that garners sales.

Though just about half of his OS'es failed miserably. Win 3.1 good, 95 good, 98 sucked, 98SE good, ME sucked, XP good, Vista sucked, Win 7 good, Win 8 aka wannabe apple phone OS for single taskers SUCKS (oh and DX11.1 is locked into it). Windows 8 is not going to make it. It's not the future, just because it's 'new'. Sometimes new stuff isn't a progression, but a regression. That's what Windows 8 is. A functional regression with a pretty young looking face. Also now that they've raised the upgrade price from $39.99 to $169-199 the suckers have been already hoodwinked and everyone else will stay away.

I genuinely feel bad for the poor shmucks that buy a PC only to have it come loaded with Win 8 (and no Win 7 compatibility mode isn't the same thing). Just another valid reason to build your own PC, though many PC makers are giving the option to install Win 7 instead.

If you read any recent interviews fascist Bill Gates loves the direction of MS and their new products.

I don't think consoles will die, but I can understand your argument there. It might happen, but I'd think there might be another generation after that. Then between now and then there is stuff that can alter things like holographic gaming. Kind of hard to do that with an ipad. ipads and the like are more like handhelds competitors then direct console competitors.

[miyamoto]

Now we know why Windows PC gamers hate consoles, right M$?

M$ tried to bring all the Windows PC gamers, frag heads, developers and publishers to consoles to support their agenda of stopping Sony....and PC gamers paid the price.

Seriously if M$ only nurtured the Windows PC gaming, like stopping piracy, great gaming OS,... PC gamers, developers could be flourishing on PC.

[BanBrother]

What have they been focusing on? Haven't had a new, exclusive core IP in ages.

[landog]

ms wants back into pc gaming because it is HUGE, steam alone has more people online at a time than ps3/360 combined, some days there are 7 million online at once and well over 50 million subscribers

thats just steam, then you got greenman gaming, origin, amazon downloads, gamers gate, beamdog, gog.com, gamestop, gameshark, heck even bestbuy has a download service

but the thing is, no one wants ms involved in games, they suck at it, games for windows live was a disaster and the laughing stock of the pc community, if it had that label on your game, lol...no one wanted it

xbox live is fine for a closed system, where drm is everywhere and you are locked into a closed enviroment, it works fine for consoles to force people into agreements and rules, and crappy peer to peer servers, and over priced dlc, over priced games, bad performance, jaggies, screen tearing, horrible load times, long waits for patches, because, well, everyone on xbox/ps3 has no choice

pc we have choice, there are literally 100's of options, mods, hacks, community patches, workarounds, we can make offline games online, servers that were shutdown we can host, dead mmos on private servers

its is complete freedom, ms wants to make pc gaming like console gaming and it will NEVER happen!

[matchu_peechu]

Instead, they should kill their PC and focus on their Xbox

[aliengmr]

That's exactly what they've been doing.

They apologize for neglecting the platform then promise to do more. After a while of doing nothing (thankfully) they repeat the process.

Most PC gamers would agree with you after the GFWL fail.

[theWB27]

Dang I didnt know there were so many CEO's in charge of multibillion dollar companies. All you hear is...they should they should they should. Well for some odd reason this company is succesful..and im sure its not from checking N4G for advice. There is a TON more objectives and info that drives them to do certain things. Even if you dont agree with it. Numbers they look that you arent privy to see. All you arm chair CEO'S need to sit back..

[jmc8888]

The funny thing is you think CEO's are there because they deserve to be there, most people know they are there because they are selected because using bs they promise to meet the short term goals at the expensive of everything else. Because the #1 goal of the CEO isn't to put out a good product but to make money for their shareholders above all else. (hint: that's how we got outsourcing)

CEO's are detached and morons. They generally act like the captain of the Titanic and the corporation hits iceberg after iceberg until a new CEO is appointed who does the same.

That 'info' you speak of is generally Wall Street metric bs. The one thing I learned as a Summa Cum Laude graduate of a top 25 business college is this, businesses make decisions based on BS. Ivy League schools dumbs down our children. Makes them perfect little shills and yes men who baffle people with BS so the bs they are pushing must be true. Nope.

CEO's are some of the least informed people in their company.

Being a multibillion dollar company is more about being part of an oligopoly who has more access to debt financing so they can push out their competitors to charge an unfair premium rather than actual business knowledge that led them to becoming a company that provided better added value then their competitiors.

Business CEO's don't try to create better value, they try better to extract value.

You need to wake up and smell the coffee. You've been fed a bunch of bull and believe it despite the ruin all around you. Hilarious. Please for your own sake, wake up. We're living five years into the beginning stages of the greatest depression mankind has ever experienced. A true breakdown crisis is still unfolding. Possible hyperinflation. Possible loss of food, gas, electricity, etc, etc is in our future. When the world goes through things like this, we also tend to have nuclear wars, except now many of us have nukes.

CEO's get wristslaps for crimes like taking homes away illegally from millions of people. Sometimes not even a wrist slap like having the entire deposit base of say Chase bank as collateral for derivatives gambling, which is then leveraged against the gov't to be bailed out through well adding more national debt, if not then the deposits are taken away as they are collateral for the derivatives bets.

On top of this you have the simple fact that deposits minus loans is then funneled by many banks into their gambling pool. So you actually have your deposits not only being collateral to gambling but actually gambling with them. So I guess we have some gambling that somehow is collateral to other gambling. Imagine going to vegas and saying yeah I raise my blackjack bet based on the hand of that guy over there's hand of blackjack at another table.

Wake up. The world isn't how you've been led to believe it is. Many CEO's belong in prison for a very, very, very long time. Even Bill Gates is a fascist depopulationist.

[theWB27]

This same thing has been going on since people were put in power. Since the beginning this is how it has happened. From the pharoahs, Romans, 1700's, the 70's gas crisis to now. Look back on any time period and you can find seeds of everything collapsing. Somehow we are still here, still(for the most part) striving. The biggest difference now is everything is reported and spoonfed to feed mass hysteria. CEO'S belong in prison...for what? Running a business with shady practices.

They mass killing people? Prison camps, enslaving us. Um no...id rather want a murderer in prison than filling it with a shady CEO. You have fun with your conspiracy theorist laden life where everything is doom and gloom. I'll choose to recognize than men n women in power have always abused, always been shady, always had alterior motives. You can catch up when you want.