Microsoft Admits it "Lost its Way" With PC Gaming

Microsoft may be the creator of the Xbox gaming system line, but that doesn’t mean it’s record with gaming hardware and software is flawless.  While PC gaming is generally synonymous with Windows (Macs and Linux users have a much smaller library to work with) Microsoft’s attempts to cater to that audience has been clumsy in recent years.   Windows 8 isn’t the most gamer-friendly OS, The Windows Store doesn’t exactly filter the kind of games you can purchase on it, and the loathed “Games for Windows” digital service was both clumsy and half the reason the Dark Souls PC port was bad.

Well, no more, according to Xbox Chief Phil Spencer speaking at this years GDC: Microsoft was going to double down on gaming for PC’s and make the name “Xbox” synonymous with ‘Gaming with Microsoft’—not just ‘Gaming on a Console’.  And Windows 10 was going to amend for the sins of it's forebears.

"The way forward, then, is in changing how Microsoft thinks about its customers: They're not people who play games on Windows PCs, or tablets, or consoles. They're customers of the Xbox Live service.  That means that games can and should work across multiple devices, with the same friends list and the same high scores, and people should be able to play each other no matter what device they're on."

Heh.  “High Scores”.   Anyway, outside the broadening of the term “Xbox” and the vague promise of cross-platform play (which sounds nice, as foretold by the upcoming Fable Legends), I’m not sure what this exactly means.  The Xbox Live store on the PC?  New green cases for desktops?  Windows 10 being Kinect compatible?  Time will tell.  Or Microsoft will tell.  Whichever comes first.