Mostly_Harmless wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 14:44:
The best way that MS could commit to PC gaming would be to stay the hell away from it and shit can GFWL.

+1

well said.

nin wrote on Aug 19, 2010, 10:30:
Its not so much abandonment, it's just that they do everything half-assed. If they really wanted to make a great service, they could.

Not necessarily. Look at all of their failed initiatives on multiple platforms right now. Windows 7 is their only decent success in the consumer market really. The Xbox360 didn't so much take the market by store as it did win the hardcore market by default since the PS3 was $600 for 2 years. Microsoft usually takes several tries to get anything right in the past 6 years. The dismal state of projects like Zune, Windows Mobile, Surface, Vista and so on for example.

It's also important to note that the Xbox 360 has been a net loss for Microsoft so far. It's only had a handful of profitable quarters despite blowing through billions in R&D, support costs and etc. All of that money just poofed and they will need to launch a new console in the next two years anyways which is going to restart the cycle. Nintendo by contrast has been profitable from day one.

nin wrote on Aug 19, 2010, 10:30:

Microsoft abandoned Windows because they got a shiny new toy called Xbox 360. After a couple years the shiny new toy wasn't so shiny anymore. I'm personally glad Microsoft is doing this. I hope when Xbox 3 comes out Microsoft doesn't abandoned Windows again as a viable gaming platform. Only time will tell.

Its not so much abandonment, it's just that they do everything half-assed.

You get no argument from me there!

Microsoft abandoned Windows because they got a shiny new toy called Xbox 360. After a couple years the shiny new toy wasn't so shiny anymore. I'm personally glad Microsoft is doing this. I hope when Xbox 3 comes out Microsoft doesn't abandoned Windows again as a viable gaming platform. Only time will tell.

Its not so much abandonment, it's just that they do everything half-assed. If they really wanted to make a great service, they could. But they choose to do just enough to get by, and then when the money doesn't roll in, they shift their focus elsewhere.

Microsoft abandoned Windows because they got a shiny new toy called Xbox 360. After a couple years the shiny new toy wasn't so shiny anymore. I'm personally glad Microsoft is doing this. I hope when Xbox 3 comes out Microsoft doesn't abandoned Windows again as a viable gaming platform. Only time will tell.

My biggest concern now is the console taint Microsoft has. PC gamers university hate consolitis.

ASJD wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 18:55:

Silent Bob wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 11:40:
Xbox 360 growth is flattening

Someone hasn't been paying any attention at all to sales data eh?

Xbox 360 is FINALLY growing, and it's growing faster than any other platform!

They just released a product refresh which is the sole reason they're seeing any sales really. Previous to the refresh they have been relatively flat. It's a temporary bump that won't last long. Nintendo is the only company that's really shown consistent growth over the past four years. The others only exhibit quarterly flares then drop quickly. The industry in general however is in a slump year over year but really there is a ceiling to much they can permanently expand the market in a short period of time and they overshot it quite a bit.

Fuck, how short are their memories if they think we don't remember how often they've swung back and forth on this?

Talk is cheap to start with. At this point M$ should be paying us to listen to them, if they continue to spout this crap.

I'm not even certain that I want them to make PC games. We all know they'll just ditch the market again within a couple of years. We're probably better off without them (especially if they intend to continue with GFWL).

ASJD wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 18:55:

Silent Bob wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 11:40:
Xbox 360 growth is flattening

Someone hasn't been paying any attention at all to sales data eh?

Xbox 360 is FINALLY growing, and it's growing faster than any other platform!

I haven't checked, but presuming thats the case there's probably a lot of reasons, I'll throw out a few off the top of my head.

a) the consoles are mature now, and they have a pile of decent games, many of which are bargain prices if they aren't new releases. Plus the maturity means that the later games take more advantage of the graphics and power of the console. Yeah its not much compared to modern PCs, but its more than programmers knew how to do when the consoles first came out.

b) the prices of consoles are coming down to a reasonable amount. Who the heck wants to pay $600 for a PS3? Or WTF ever it was on release. Xbox now supports USB flash drives (or a USB hdd, I use one thats mostly partitioned for wii, and a few gigs for the xbox) up to I think its 8 gb, so its not nessasary to buy the hard drive version of the console to get a decent play experiance. Granted probably only a couple games can be installed at a time in 8gb, but its progress. Instead of the stupid price of $130 for 120 gigs or WTF ever inflated prices the MS drives sell for. $1 per gig is getting close to SSD prices.

c) Perhaps the economy. Maybe people out of jobs need something to do, or maybe getting an xbox is cheaper than a vacation, etc.

d) More people are probably realizing how the xbox (and the ps3 too I think, tho perhaps less now that linux option is removed) can serve as a decent media center powering a HD screen.

e) I'm sure part of the sales are from the new models like the slimmer xboxes, and I imagine some are from people who want to finally get a more reliable xbox. I've constantly heard horror stories from people having to get xbox RMAed like 4 or 10 times in a row since it had such a high failure rate when it first came out.

The execs heading the respective divisions of Microsoft are far too much at war with one another to possibly take a single stance (especially not one to advance PC gaming).

Apple benefits from having a dictator.

Who makes decisions at Google? A fuckin triumvirate.

so i guess if they are recommitting they will release halo 3, halo reach, gears of war 2 and 3 on the PC pretty soon?

MS Recommits to PC Gaming Again

Another week, another empty and phony re-committal by Microsoft. Actions, not words, are what PC gamers are looking for, MS.

Words. Nothing but sweet, sweet words that turn into bitter orange wax in my ears.

Silent Bob wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 11:40:
Xbox 360 growth is flattening

Someone hasn't been paying any attention at all to sales data eh?

Xbox 360 is FINALLY growing, and it's growing faster than any other platform!

MercilessMing wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 15:30:
Sometimes I wonder if what is hurting overall PC sales is internet reviews

Metacritic hurts games more than word of mouth does. User reviews tend to only affect things when there is a consensus. There's a lot of things that hurt PC sales but none more than publishers who treat it as a second grade platform. The companies who take the PC seriously and treat their customers properly tend to be very successful. Of course who wants to make all that effort when you can shit out JUST DANCE for the Wii crowd?

meh wouldn't say better in architecture or principle, just a better level of support, because of a larger install base. eg. consoles vs pc. console is clearly a weaker platform for quality, yet the more popular choice for dev's.......and feeble minded simpletons who crave instant gratification over entertainment you have to work for

on topic tho, how about another freelancer FFS! how about just selling the ip to someone who gives a shit? hey why not cut the fat from your company ie. balmer and everyone loyal to him and focus on making 3 or 4 things that don't suck instead of 100000 things that do.

I could see them doing this to try and regain some market share from Apple, since Windows PCs are better than Macs when it comes to gaming.

Sometimes I wonder if what is hurting overall PC sales is internet reviews, especially all of us rushing out to give our "IMHO" reviews. NOT 1st party,3rd party support piracy etc. In the old days, I would have to mostly read the back of the box, pay attention to who developed the game and some word of mouth from people I knew and thus knew how they reviewed games. Now before you can even "pirate" a game, there are majority of bashers out here in the virtual world...so then in turn yeah people may "pirate" a game to just see is it that bad then never buy it, and same for the supposed Console low sales pirating is harder, so less people may pirate a game but not buying is no different than pirating to the bottom line (Studios don't make this connection), people will at best just rent/borrow/buy used.. of course this domino effect into Farmville, Assassins Creed, GTA repetition/serialization/whole game divided up in 10 hour multiple COD games and ripoffs occur.

When asked I usually rate a game, based on a BUDGET, and preface my review with how long I have owned/played it... I believe any game can be given a dollar amount, hard to say in present day game with 10hours of play is worth 60, and any game that gives me 5 hours of fun play is worth 10$...this gives my friends a ranking that means something to them, and makes it easy for them to determine how much they may like the game...

Verno wrote on Aug 17, 2010, 11:23:
Left doesn't know what the right hand is doing at Microsoft.

Masturbating. Vigorously.

Creston

Just fuck off, MS. All your useless rhetoric and empty fucking promises are getting really, really, REALLY fucking boring.

Creston

The best way that MS could commit to PC gaming would be to stay the hell away from it and shit can GFWL.