Yeah, that’s the tough part, but I think they should’ve prepped to make ports easy for this gen. I’m not a dev of course, but they should’ve had tools ready for this gen to make pc ports very simple to have a play anywhere future for xbox. It would’ve made sense to do that because it could help them gain a bit of market share in PC space and differentiate themselves from Steam.
They could say for Play Anywhere they’ll take 10% instead of the 30 % cut . They just need to get this done somehow.
I think the ideal move to improve that is all of our recent talk about bringing Xbox and PC closer, so the Xbox build and PC build are one and the same. Hopefully they’ve been working towards that.
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Here is something. They can at least have the developers make a PC port for their PC store even if it isn’t Play Anywhere. It’s really bad when you can’t even get GTA 5 or rockstar games or any of the big publisher games on their store, heck you can’t even get COD or Ubisoft games. The store is just so empty. There’s a reason they don’t compete with Steam since they have nothing to compete with. How do you expect a PC store that has no games to compete even Epic games store has a good deal of games more. If these games were available on their PC store, they could at least offer them at a discount or on Game Pass which would help their business a lot more.
Would be great but there is no incentive for them to port and maintain a Xbox store version without a deal in place. It’s honestly wild how much of a stranglehold that Steam has on the PC market. Xbox could put their games exclusively in the Xbox store and PC dudes would rather just not play them lol.
I do think their carrot is going to be ‘Xbox Everywhere’ but like we’re all in agreement of here, the library needs to come with across device both streaming and native. That’s the only play they have IMO. They’ll have to get through a bunch of licensing issues for old games and convince publishers that they should give up the possibility of double dipped purchases. Will be exciting to watch it all play out lol.
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I didn’t say an Xbox store version just a PC version would be fine. There is no reason why all these developers can’t make a PC version after all the more places or stores they get the better for business.
I also don’t think Steam has any stranglehold. The biggest games on their platform are usually indies. some of the big third party have their own storefront but use Steam as a place to market. If the PC store can’t even compete with Epic that is sad. Heck if Sony launched a store on PC today it will have more than the windows store.
To me it’s simple have it built into your GDK which I believe it is and then convince the publishers even if you have to take smaller cuts, heck tell them no need for Play Anywhere. I can guarantee if the Windows store had games, they would be in a better place than where they are now. Heck like someone said Game Pass on windows only should be above 30 million not in 5 or 6’s.
You have Sega and SE games on there after Phil and Sara’s many travels to Japan, why should it be harder convincing those at home to do just as much. Why have EA in Game Pass if you can’t even get them to bring their games to the Windows store. This is just crazy; Epic is getting these games, and they came out late to the party and yet Microsoft can’t even get it. Things like this are what frustrates many on how Xbox is all over the place with no direction. When a newcomer can get it and a veteran doesn’t. Makes me wish there was a Q and A from the press on this with the Xbox and Windows heads.
Steam is the Windows Store.
For many years, Microsoft has neglected the PC gamers and Steam has been the solution of all bad things. When Microsoft saw there was money to be made on PC they tried to convince people that they needed a Windows PC store, but people have already chosen. PC is an open platform and you can not enforce a distribution delivery and sales system here. Even Epic is too late and despite the many games on its store, it is losing money despite bleeding free games every week. Nobody cares about those recent stores, it is about trust, which they do not have.
Windows Store has no relevant 3rd party games, But even Epic, who knows King Dom Hearts series, Alan Wake 2 and some other games are on Epic Store. Those were sales failures and will only be considered when they are on Steam.
This is true that some games are big despite nt obeing on Steam (Fortnite, Leagues of Legend, etc) but these games are all of some kind of F2P type, which is not what gamers here consider.
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It is a pity that even now the Windows Store has more bad reputation on downloading and installing games than a 3rd party client. Xbox App has improved tremendously but it is still problematic. MS can not build a good App on their own system and they wonder why their presence does not improve.
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They did unify the GDK (games development kit) of Xbox and the PC Windows store at the start of this generation - it’s why we had so many unoptimised ports at the start as developers were still learning it.
So it is much easier to create a game that runs well on both with few changes - the issue is many developers don’t initially build with the Xbox GDK, instead preferring to build on the PS GDK (which is said to be very user friendly) or a PC standard one
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Then they think they are actually going to sucessfully build a whole new storefront on mobile lol.
What we learned? Buy the games & consoles which interest you… & don’t let the so-called ‘insiders’ or online discourse shape your views.
The madness over the last month reached such levels where a circlejerk took place, i.e. orchestrated by rabid fanboys dancing on Xbox’s grave who for some bizarre reason now have more say than I can ever remember. Sh*tting on Xbox is like a sport to them.
In the meantime, Gamepass still exists, I still get great special offers on the Xbox store (I literally just picked up the Metro games for a handful of euros) & my Series X still performs great with most games. Oh & MS have confirmed they’re committed to releasing more hardware in the future.
I mean if I never ever read social media or forums, I wouldn’t even be aware there was a ‘problem’ with Xbox.
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So this thread has just turned into an extension of the other thread for some people, amazing.
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Yes they do . The Xbox app is actually nice and for me works well. The windows store is another thing though and that to me is where the problem lies. I think the Xbox division is pretty good at building hardware and software for Xbox however they don’t control the Windows side. In my opinion content is the key problem here. If the content is their people will use it more and they will be able to test and make fixes to the problem. However, the Xbox app uses the windows PC games. We are talking about a PC store that doesn’t have EA, Activision, Rockstar or Ubisoft games. You can’t buy GTA 5. any COD games or Assassins Creed games on the store. How can one expect people to even use a bare bones store. The only reason people use the store is because of Game Pass and the biggest game on it is Palworld heck you can’t even get Fortnite on it. I think if the content is there gamers will come. If Game Pass brings them, they will stay if they can build a library. The thing now will be can the ABK games jumpstart the store with COD and Blizzard titles?
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Depends what they do with battlenet honestly. Its hard to know without figures, but i could only find growth for the actual windows store, which makes me hope they dont shelve it (it being battlenet)
They should dump Battle.net and move everything to the store.
They will not do it because “angry gamers” but this is the only option.
Epic Store has many games, it is still losing money. For most console-compatible gamers on PC (not including F2p) Steam is launching with the PC.
UbiStore and EAapp are also pitiful, they both came back to Steam after a period of revolt.
Another solution is to dump the Xbox app and move all to Battle.net including adopting the Battle.net delivery service, which I never see any complains.
Epic store has some games not that many. There are no COD games for example on Epic games don’t think RIOT games are there either. I think Epic store lacks a lot and the exclusive games there are just not that big or enough to build a library with. I will say they’re trying and have much better content than the Windows Store. Perhaps they should keep Battle.net but still have all the games in the Windows store and by virtue the Xbox app. Keeping both stores might be good and maybe just have them link to each other.
Sadly seems so but at least this thread seems more balanced
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If it continues along the same trajectory it will be assimilated into the other thread. No sense in having it be in two locations.
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Yep, this is EXACTLY correct. If you are not a hyper Gamer involved in forums/twitter and other social media about gaming you would have no idea part of the community were rioting the last couple of weeks about a decision meant to help Xbox expand.
If you are an Xbox gamer and just stay off twitter and any of the other “era” forums and ignored one thread here you’d have pretty much no idea what was going on and would be excited about new hardware, ABK coming to gamepass and all the killer games lined up for this year.
Instead some people seem hell bent on dooming and gloomin and slippery slopes and freak out over everything, then you have Sony trolls all over the internet trying to dance on Xbox grave that they are trying so hard to push happening.
If you step out of that bubble Xbox has a lot to look forward to and are on the cutting edge of pushing gaming in a better direction for actual gamers.
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