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Does Microsoft really care about PC gamers?

ThreeDeeVision
Superstar
I am a PC gamer at heart, and have been since about 1992 when I got to try my wealthy friend's Commodore 64. I have owned quite a few consoles as well, but if I could get the game on PC, I played it on PC. Over the years, Microsoft has published many of my favorite PC games (Motocross Madness 1&2, Monster Truck Madness 1&2, Midtown Madness 1&2, Microsoft Flight Sim series, Halo 1&2, Gears of War, Train Simulator, Fable, ect...). For all the awesome titles they put out, there has been a noticeable downward trend for quite some time. Looking at the Microsoft Games Wiki, 2004 was the start of this downward trend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Microsoft_Studios

Being that the Xbox came out a couple years prior to this downward trend, this tells me they viewed PC gaming as direct competition to their console market and decided to pull back on making PC games for the most part. The amount of titles directly reflects this decision.

With the recent revival of VR, Microsoft is thrusting themselves into the PC gaming picture again. But are their actions actually matching their statements? They keep repeating "we care about PC gaming", yet the only thing I have seen thus far is the ability to stream a Xbox One to my Windows 10 PC (totally pointless waste of resources) and a Xbox One controller with the consumer Rift :roll:. These are not the actions of a company that wants to push PC gaming, these are the actions of a company trying to push a console.

And lets take a look at the latest console. The Xbox One itself is a hodgepodge all-in-one multimedia unit that is good at doing many things but not that great at doing the most important thing it should be doing, and that is playing games. The PS4 beats the Xbox one in every important gaming area from specs to FPS (not to mention all the awesome exclusive titles). The PS4 will have an actual VR interface next year that will provide real VR experiences, and a Virtual cinema can't hold a candle to that. I still love my Xbox 360 dearly and play it daily, but it isn't trying to be an all-in-one media unit. It does exactly what it needs to do, and does it well.

Next year will finally be the year of consumer VR, and Microsoft is showing up late to yet another ballgame. They lost out on MP3 players (Zune fail), Smart Phones (Nokia fail), and are again behind the ball on the next big technological breakthrough (Virtual Cinema fail). People are looking for the next great gaming experience, and the Star Citizen crowd funding campaign is directly a result of that. They are nearing 100 million dollars of pledge money and the game isn't even done yet! You can't tell me there isn't a PC gaming market, we have put our money where our mouths are!

Instead of providing VR Cinema Xbox streaming that totally defeats the purpose of PC VR and teasing things like "Halo 5 might come out on PC someday", they need to step up and actually do something for the PC gaming community. If you build it, they will come!
i7 5960X @ 3.8 GHz | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 PC2800 | GTX Titan X Pascal | Win 10 64 bit | Asus ROG PG348Q | EVGA X99 Classified
91 REPLIES 91

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Sorry, no idea ThreedeeVision as I use a lowly 60hz 4K monitor so I couldn't test. You can change the refresh rate in your GPU control panel apparently which partially improves the situation.




System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

ThreeDeeVision
Superstar
Thanks anyway!
i7 5960X @ 3.8 GHz | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 PC2800 | GTX Titan X Pascal | Win 10 64 bit | Asus ROG PG348Q | EVGA X99 Classified

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
@ThreeDeeVision - I'm very glad to hear that Oblivion turned out worthy of the Elder Scrolls title. I was obsessed with Morrowind, and played as many add-ons as I could get. I'm looking forward to completing the rest of the series. I own the anthology box set, and posted a screenshot of it next to my Rift on this forum some time back:




As for Final Fantasy, yes I think that it is my favorite RPG setting of all time. My favorite Boss Battle concept was their "demon wall"




The idea of having to kill a living wall before it closes in on you is just fantastic! I love the concept so much that in the Mod I created titled, Mystrock, I hand-coded something very similar:




Yep, I definitely love me some RPG genre above all others.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Well Zenbane there's a growing consensus from early reports (which you can take with a grain of salt) that the FF XV  VR integration isn't very good and a bit tacked on.

In other news pertinent to this thread. Phil Spencer talking to Giantbomb has said Microsoft will be publishing some of its games on other stores in the future.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

ThreeDeeVision
Superstar

That ES anthology is sexy as hell!  I have the collectors edition of Skyrim with the dragon statue :).  The demon wall is definitely an awesome concept, they had at least one demon door in FFVII that I can remember.  The myriad of enemies and bosses really adds to the mystique of the Final Fantasy games.  And the chocobo racing of course!  I love all the mini-games as well, just so much game built into those titles.

i7 5960X @ 3.8 GHz | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 PC2800 | GTX Titan X Pascal | Win 10 64 bit | Asus ROG PG348Q | EVGA X99 Classified

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I figured as much @Shadowmask72 - and I assume that the whole "tacked on" approach is just a temporary solution to a long term problem. Everyone wants to jump on the VR bandwagon, even if they have to stick feathers up their products butt and call it a chicken, na' mean?

I'm thinking more long term: the Final Fantasy VR release in the year 2020!

I want to look up in sheer awe and terror, armed with my Rift and Touch, as I take down that Demon Wall.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
You've probably heard it being banded about quite a bit on these forums but as a proof of concept, Vanishing Realms can put you right into the role playing part of RPG, I'm sure ThreeDeeVision would agree. Hopefully we'll see a more fully fledged game of this nature in the future - A Final Fantasy themed one would obviously be the icing I'd assume.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

ThreeDeeVision
Superstar
Yeah, Vanishing Realms is incredible.  Getting to physically loot still blows my mind when I lean over the edge of a crate and reach in to take the goodies, or smash some boxes/barrels to get the loot inside.  Carrying a torch around and being able to light candles and torches is a beautiful touch.

Final Fantasy VR would blow my mind.  If the new FFVII remake is for PSVR I might have to pick one up just to play that.  Here's hoping we get some PC VR Final Fantasy titles in the near future, 2020 is a bit too far away for my liking 🙂
i7 5960X @ 3.8 GHz | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 PC2800 | GTX Titan X Pascal | Win 10 64 bit | Asus ROG PG348Q | EVGA X99 Classified

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Actually, there's also a game called Fated which offers some neat characterization storytelling that if combined with the mechanisms of Vanishing realms would give you the basis of a potential "FFesque" experience. Combine that also with the presentation of  Call of the Starseed and you've got something rather special. VR tech now has all the components in place to make an awesome AAA game. It just needs a publisher willing to sink millions into such a project to put it all together.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I beat Fated, and enjoyed the crap outta it.