Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Microsoft - An opportunity wasted

So is PC Gaming dead?..some say it is and some will argue it is not. Back in the mid 90's and early 2000's PC gaming was at it's most popular, it was the most powerful gaming system around. It allowed mods and a massive community, so why the demise of the most flexible gaming system around?. Most say it is piracy which I do have to admit is a huge contributing factor. Personal computers have been plagued by piracy since the early days of personal computing and is still strong today, they also say it killed the giant that was the Commodore Amiga. But this is not a discussion on piracy, this is a discussion on opportunities wasted by companies not seeing the big picture.

One such company is Microsoft a software giant that has a ton of potential but is wasting the opportunity. Why? you may ask...well it has to innovate and not sit back and look at rivals and see what they are doing before acting and investing. Playing safe perhaps? maybe. But this is not a discussion on its investments either, we are talking about PC Gaming. So let me pose a question to you. How many of you out there would like the chance to frag a smug console owning noob at a FPS with your weapons of choice? i.e a mouse and keyboard. Of course you would..who wouldn't?. I for one would love to jump onto Modern Warfare 2 and own the entire map and wipe the grin off of the console loving fools. But alas it is not meant to be. Microsoft had a nice little program going called Live for Windows. This enabled people who owned a few games to actually play against XBox 360 owners, wow this sounds really cool!. But alas no, they only released a few games that allowed you to do so. One such game was Halo 2, released 2 years later to a uninterested crowed and with Halo 3 already in the works DOH!. Today Live for Windows is almost none existent, relegated to the backwoods of their Live! site and no one interested.

And so to my main point, if they released games that would enable the PC Gamer to play against XBOX 360 owners would you buy it? I know I would. If they are worried about pirates then the trick is is not to worry about it. Let them pirate but the multiplayer aspects of the game is what people would be interested in and the community it brings. If you pirate it you wont be able to play online with a plethora of nubs just begging to be destroyed by your powers.

So are you listening Microsoft? you have the infrastructure to make it happen.Show some love to the same people that made your company successful.

So this is the end of my first blog post. More is to come with some exciting idea's and new people. Please feel free to comment.

Microsoft Press release for Games for Windows

3 comments:

  1. I think the problem is that the pc is "open" and the console is "closed".

    Simply put, they control their "ecosystem" and revenue streams. Oh no, I feel dirty now I have used marketeering terms!

    Flogging games at £40 a pop, with all the DLC would always offer more money than £30 pc titles.

    It would be a dream to have cross platform games.

    Maybe they are just scared because as you say, a keyboard and mouse would p0wn the n00bz on their consoles.

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  2. I do agree with you Danny about the money situation. But dont you think they could make money from both streams regardless of the price of the game. Let the console people get ripped on a $60 game but they would get money from the PC owning players wanting to get their teeth into a much wider gamer base. If you want to pirate the game? then fine you wont be able to play the game multiplayer and some instances how it is meant to be played. Microsoft was onto something big and they blew it. Simple.

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  3. Im glad to see you still hold the pc close to your heart <3

    I've got a pc and 360 and Wii. Now there are some decent 1st party titles im gonna get a PS3.

    I was an avid Amiga user who went onto the pc. Ive always had consoles too. Im platform agnostic, I just want good games. It's a sad state of affairs because the PC is definately not the platform it once was.

    I remember X Wing being the most advanced game available ... only on pc. I remember the box art. "Now with 256-colour VGA Graphics" :O

    Put something about Civ5 on your site :P

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