Is Microsoft to blame for PC gaming demise?

Just a thought here but seems pretty logical to me.

We all know that with the rise of consoles as worthy competitors to PC gaming it begs the question, "What is the PC platform really doing to keep up?"

On the hardware side things look promising and we all know that on a performance basis PC's outweigh consoles 20:1, they will always be one up on consoles due to scalability/upgradeability and functionality. Every new console that is released is always the best thing since bubblegum but only for about 3-6months until PC hardware takes over yet again. The cost is the only major impeading factor in the PC gaming market as far as hardware is concerned but thankfully we have two major competitors always having a go at each other in both the CPU and GPU markets. AMD vs Intel and ATI vs Nvidia.

On the software side however there is one major barrier to entry for a lot of gaming enthusiasts. That barrier is a virtual "monopoly" known as Microsoft. What makes them a monopoly is not only the fact that they dominate the market share but that they hold the proprietary software most game producers use to create good games with outstanding graphics. It is exclusive only to Microsoft. It is Direct-X!!

So it now brings us back to the original question altered for topic progression into the real point of the thread, "What is Microsoft really doing to help the PC market keep up with gaming?". The answer to my mind is quite disappointing.

1. Microsoft have failed to deliver the Direct-X 10 platform effectively.
2. The cost of Vista does not justify a gaming only need!
3. The promise of future Microsoft platforms is uncertain and has caused quite a stir of skepticism.
4. Microsoft continue to bundle large amounts of useless bloatware and services not needed for gaming and entertainment.
5. Unfortunately Microsoft is the "face" of PC's to the majority of average users and all they have done is create a frustrating platform which no one wants or cares about any more. "Lets rather buy a console and save all the hassle and cost!!".

So while Microsoft hold exclusive rights to Direct-X they have failed to deliver the goods to the gaming community save for the fans and enthusiasts. This is causing a huge loss of confidence in the PC gaming market.

It seems a good rethink is in order over at Microsoft headquarters. Otherwise one day, maybe just one day we will see the likes of Linux or Mac capitalizing on Microsoft's mistakes. Even if Microsoft could release an OS aimed purely at this market that would be great!!

I also think this is why there is such a major drive for gaming on Linux already and I sincerely believe that if you could play Direct-X games without fault on Linux and if they could only just sort out their issues themselves then it would be, "Bye-Bye Microsoft!!" all over the world simply because entertainment makes up a huge portion of any market.

Interesting read...

*I'll be sitting here eating cookies*

First of all PC's are not primarily gaming machines, ask urself does operating systems get developed for games first or for work applications ? (there's a phrase work then play), secondly MS has done alot more to gaming than anyone else have done, back in the day u had to have 3dfx card to play glide games and a dx card to play dx games etc. Atleast there are standards now ! developers are not obliged to code games for Dx as Open gl games are still produced to the masses ! Microsoft have even develop the games for windows standard which makes it easier to play online and use it's console accesories with pc games !!! U try to make things so simple when its really not and thats how people get brainwashed easily ! Running a game on linux requires u to mount a disc sometimes compile crap, and then u have to make sure ur version of linux is compatible etc. and that is with games that natively support linux e.g unreal tournament III !

PIRACY is the reason for the demise of pc gaming as it is not a viable platform to recoup development losses anymore, thats why companies like EA (NOT MS)are making like hard for gamers with drm, securom security etc.

Jonny Two Shoes said:

1. Microsoft have failed to deliver the Direct-X 10 platform effectively.

Click to expand...

why is it that people always expect a revolution with something ! dx 7 was a minor imrpovement over dx6, dx8 was a minor improvement over dx7 etc.

Jonny Two Shoes said:

2. The cost of Vista does not justify a gaming only need!

Click to expand...

Are operating systems made for games or for work ? Is osx a gaming os, is linux a gaming os ?

Jonny Two Shoes said:

3. The promise of future Microsoft platforms is uncertain and has caused quite a stir of skepticism.

Click to expand...

does apple care about backward compatibility, when they switched from ppc to intel did programmers complain that they have to recode their progs for the new os ! with linux there isnt even a standard btw every linuxdeveloper does things which suits them which makes things even more incompatible

Jonny Two Shoes said:

4. Microsoft continue to bundle large amounts of useless bloatware and services not needed for gaming and entertainment.

Click to expand...

The pc is not a primarily gaming platform, corporate then casual !!!!!!
The same can be said for linux, how many of the hundreds of bundled linux stuff do people use ! Games get bloated in 1990 games was on stiffies now they're on dvd and blu ray but ur not complaining about that !

5. Unfortunately Microsoft is the "face" of PC's to the majority of average users and all they have done is create a frustrating platform which no one wants or cares about any more. "Lets rather buy a console and save all the hassle and cost!!".

Click to expand...

so they are creating a frustrating platform cause third party developers are including security features in their games ?

So while Microsoft hold exclusive rights to Direct-X they have failed to deliver the goods to the gaming community save for the fans and enthusiasts. This is causing a huge loss of confidence in the PC gaming market.

Click to expand...

One Word PIRACY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also think this is why there is such a major drive for gaming on Linux already and I sincerely believe that if you could play Direct-X games without fault on Linux and if they could only just sort out their issues themselves then it would be, "Bye-Bye Microsoft!!" all over the world simply because entertainment makes up a huge portion of any market.

Click to expand...

Goodluck running a game (that supports linux natively) flawlessly on a linux pc !

Microsoft have nothing to do with the decline of pc games.

Console is killing the pc market due to popularity and the fact that alot of people don't want to risk chipping their consoles for pirating, so you higher sales by a mile, the knock on effect of this is that game makers are making a killing on console games while the pc games are selling poorly.

Pirating a pc game is so easy its not even funny so obviously sales will be low, as much as people won't admit that even if the game is good they would rather pirate than buy it. sure not everyone but alot of people do this.

It's all about money for game makers, pc is not the source of as much money as they want. Sure they make alot of money off pc games but why bring out games for a market that is not making you that much money? Rather port it and sell the pc okes buggy games and make a killing off console's, seems to be the order of the day of late.

I cannot wait see how many copies of gta4 they sell on pc, over 12 million copies sold on xbox.
Dx10 is not killing games, not at all because you can still those same dx 9 games on xp or even in dx 9 and they look almost as good. If pc games were selling as many as console then they would make better pc games, but why put all that effort into a pc game when 8 out of 10 will pirate it when you could sell console games and 3 out of 10 pirate.

business wise pc games are not the money maker and so we will see a major decline in good pc games in the years to come.

@dohc

I agree with you to a point but...

The PC is anything you make it out to be. It can be your media center, it can be your office, it can be your gaming rig...the point is those functions are all there and serve their own purpose. It is like saying you can't use a whisk on both eggs or cream it is meant only for the one or the other....not true.

The point I am trying to make is that Microsoft are throwing their opportunities away and have really lost the plot entirely with regards to end-user expectations. Your average Joe no longer wants a PC anymore for entertainment and I really think Microsoft are at least partly to blame. They have everything they need but what do they make of it? Vista?? please! Vista is not even a good business tool nevermind a gaming one.

WRT Direct-X it is not how better Direct-X 10 is compared to 9. It is the total lack of novelty and expectation. Out with the old in with the new...this is what keeps a brand going but once again Microsoft has disappointed the average Joe. Even if Microsoft could be given a lot of credit the point of this thread is that they seem to be throwing it all away right now! not ten-fifteen years ago when Gates was still ambling around...now!.

Piracy is also a concern of course but not the point of the thread.

Firstly pc gaming is not even close to extinction. It might not be the top dog as it once was but its still a viable and very strong market.

Piracy is an issue but its not the reason why consoles are doing well and pc gaming not as well. As both stardock and cdprojekt have stated if you offer your customers value for money they will buy your product instead of the pirated copy.

But it seems the likes of EA instead of making their customers happy and loyal want to force some people into piracy with their restrictive drm schemes.

Also lets get this clear a download/pirated game does not equal a lost sale. As much as EA and the other corporates would like to believe that it simply isn't the case.

With gaming becoming more of a hobby for the masses instead of being a niche as it was the 1990's it means that companies have to cater to people who aren't as tech savvy and would prefer just to pop in a disc and go. Not saying all console gamers don't know a thing about pc's but many gamers who wouldn't come close to a pc because of its complexity are quite willing to buy a console because its very easy to use.

This means that they rather cater for those people since its easier to develop for a closed platform. They don't have to test for the hundreds of different pc configurations. 1 xbox is the same as another.

Also lets get this clear a download/pirated game does not equal a lost sale.

Click to expand...

I dont get this.

Kage said:

I dont get this.

Click to expand...

i think he means the person who pirates the game wouldnt have bought it in the first place

Dohc-WP said:

i think he means the person who pirates the game wouldnt have bought it in the first place

Click to expand...

Then why pirate it?
I am sorry but that kind of logic doesnt make sense.
Sales are being lost somewhere because of piracy.

Some people pirate games even though they have no interest in it. If they can't pirate it, then they won't buy it either.

I used to know someone who has a lot of pirated games, but didn't play any of it. I considered him a true pirate, since he won't ever buy any game or program or music cd.

Kage said:

Then why pirate it?
I am sorry but that kind of logic doesnt make sense.
Sales are being lost somewhere because of piracy.

Click to expand...

Let's say I have R100. If I only have R100 I can't afford to buy the R300 full price for a game. I can use that R100 to buy a pirate copy though.

So even if piracy didn't exist I wouldn't have been able to afford the full price game anyway so no lost sale.

Jonny Two Shoes said:

The cost is the only major impeading factor in the PC gaming market as far as hardware is concerned

Click to expand...

The cheaper games more than make up for the hardware cost.

Kage said:

Then why pirate it?
I am sorry but that kind of logic doesnt make sense.
Sales are being lost somewhere because of piracy.

Click to expand...

Many pirates will not buy a game even if it was R50. Also many pirates download and pirate the game just to prove they can, its a challenge to them.

Then we also have the odd ones who pirate the game and only if it was very very good will they go and buy it. Then we also have the spore guys who pirate the game in an attempt to give EA the big finger.

Its not a lost sale unless you can prove that the person would have bought the game if he couldn't pirate it.

My sentiments on this isn't alone. The Ceo's of stardock and cdprojekt have both said this same thing in interviews in the last few months.

You know what. I buy all my games. The only games I've pirated in the last two years was Bioshock and Red Alert3 because of the drm.

Why are the publishers advocating piracy?

Qwikslver said:

You know what. I buy all my games. The only games I've pirated in the last two years was Bioshock and Red Alert3 because of the drm.

Why are the publishers advocating piracy?

Click to expand...

Because they are out of touch with their customers. EA and the like are shooting themselves in the foot with drm.

The companies that are thriving on the pc platform are those that offer extra content to users who bought the game for free and those who oppose drm.

Let's say I have R100. If I only have R100 I can't afford to buy the R300 full price for a game. I can use that R100 to buy a pirate copy though.

So even if piracy didn't exist I wouldn't have been able to afford the full price game anyway so no lost sale.

Click to expand...

if you had R100 and want the game badly enough you would BEG, ROB, STEAL that extra R200 to purchase the game...

I mean come on people are willing to fork over R999 just to boast they have the latest ps3 title (Little big planet)

Even @ R799 guys are lining up to purchase ps3 titles on launch day

Qwikslver said:

You know what. I buy all my games. The only games I've pirated in the last two years was Bioshock and Red Alert3 because of the drm.

Why are the publishers advocating piracy?

Click to expand...

They are losing sales and then they blame piracy.

I think they are losing sales because of the lack of great games. EA focuses a lot on it's franchises, like NFS and sport sims. Spore had a lot of potential but a lot of people said that it gets boring after a while. Crysis focused more on graphics than gameplay and storyline and it was too short. Mass Effect was very repetetive when you did the sidequests.

There are some great games that has been released, like Witcher, but it seems to be few and far between.

I think the publishers are looking for ways to make more money rather than making great games. Almost every game that seems to come out now is planned to have sequels or extra content that have to be bought.

Maybe the masses are starting to realise that EA and the like is screwing them out of their money and is taking action.

While i want to agree [knee-jerk reaction] with blaming Microsoft. I must add, that Microsoft is the ONLY OS-developer that's even BOTHERING with a PC Gaming platform!

Yes sure, they failed with Vista and DX-10 to an extend. But come on , why isn't all the zillions of LINUX people doing anything about it? Why aren't any ELSE making a DirectX killer ? All i see is emulators!

Same can be said for Apple....

At the end of the day, the only PC platform, no matter how bad it might be, is the one Microsoft provides. I won't get the same PC-Gaming platform anywhere else, and no one even bothered...so instead everyone just blame Microsoft? Huh? Linux only got stuff like WINE , which is like virtual-machine that's reverse engineering a Windows Game to make it work ..not exactly what i would say gaming platform. I'm not even going to talk about GFX drivers/support on Linux.

diabolus said:

While i want to agree [knee-jerk reaction] with blaming Microsoft. I must add, that Microsoft is the ONLY OS-developer that's even BOTHERING with a PC Gaming platform!

Yes sure, they failed with Vista and DX-10 to an extend. But come on , why isn't all the zillions of LINUX people doing anything about it? Why aren't any ELSE making a DirectX killer ? All i see is emulators!

Same can be said for Apple....

At the end of the day, the only PC platform, no matter how bad it might be, is the one Microsoft provides. I won't get the same PC-Gaming platform anywhere else, and no one even bothered...so instead everyone just blame Microsoft? Huh? Linux only got stuff like WINE , which is like virtual-machine that's reverse engineering a Windows Game to make it work ..not exactly what i would say gaming platform. I'm not even going to talk about GFX drivers/support on Linux.

Click to expand...

This is what i've said , just in a different manner ! ms is the only one bothering thats why they developed the games for windows platform, windows live etc.

diabolus said:

While i want to agree [knee-jerk reaction] with blaming Microsoft. I must add, that Microsoft is the ONLY OS-developer that's even BOTHERING with a PC Gaming platform!

Yes sure, they failed with Vista and DX-10 to an extend. But come on , why isn't all the zillions of LINUX people doing anything about it? Why aren't any ELSE making a DirectX killer ? All i see is emulators!

Same can be said for Apple....

At the end of the day, the only PC platform, no matter how bad it might be, is the one Microsoft provides. I won't get the same PC-Gaming platform anywhere else, and no one even bothered...so instead everyone just blame Microsoft? Huh? Linux only got stuff like WINE , which is like virtual-machine that's reverse engineering a Windows Game to make it work ..not exactly what i would say gaming platform. I'm not even going to talk about GFX drivers/support on Linux.

Click to expand...

As far as I know Open-GL which runs fine on Linux is arguably better than Direct-X but the developers choose not to use it. I could be wrong but it is what I have read and heard.

As for me...this is where I come from:

I am a console PS3 gamer and I have a PC running Ubuntu Linux at the moment. However I am on my way to earning my MCSE/MCITP from Microsoft using Vista and Server 2008.

The only reputable environment I don't know is Apple Mac.

So I am no fanboi of either and just commenting as I see it. I see what you are saying with regards to Windows being the only ones providing the platform but once again what I am saying is that they are throwing it away. Its one thing to have it but another to use it. They could very easily provide a front-end for entertainment on PC's and revive the market but they chose to cram everything into Vista and make it look like a dogs breakfast at the same time.