Should Halo Infinite drop Xbox One and go Scarlet exclusive?

[Mr Puggsly]

Pemalite said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Sony and Nintendo don't own a fairly successful OS called Windows. MS also runs the digital store included with Windows.

Regardless how well Xbox does, much of which will only be a few western countries, the PC/Windows market is a huge audience being ignored. I always felt MS should do a better job supporting PC gaming and their day one support with Windows Store is more than I ever expected.

Putting all their games on PC might eat some console sales, but its also worth considering they're making their games available to a much bigger audience that's considered neutral. There are many people who game on PC that really don't want to buy a Xbox, we even see them on this forum. Think of it this way, MS is getting more people to play MS games on a MS platform, Windows.

A lot of people are creating a scenario where Scarlett sales struggle simply because people are opting to play Xbox games on Windows. That can arguably be seen as a good thing in my opinion.

A more realistic scenario is maybe Scarlett has respectable sales like Xbox One, maybe better. While the Windows Store thrives because notable content is constantly added and Game Pass is a great deal. That's a scenario I imagine MS is aiming for.

To be fair, no PC gamer takes the Windows Store seriously, it's viewed very much as Games for Windows Live~ 2.0 which was a colossal failure.
It seems to be doing a bit better than GFWL... But the multiplayer populations of games are pretty barren to the point where Microsoft even issued refunds for people. (I.E. Gears of War 4.)

On PC, Steam is where it is at... And until recently Microsoft was ignoring Steam entirely, which wasn't doing their "commitment to PC" any favors. (Where is Halo Wars 2 Microsoft? Hows about more Fable 3 keys?)

As for Xbox vs PC... Both platforms have a different place in the gaming landscape, I primarily game on PC, but I do own consoles in the lounge room when I wish to relax with friends and have a few games... But I would imagine I am the exception, not the rule on that front.

However... What drew me to the Xbox in the first place was Halo: Combat evolved and Halo 2... And to a lesser extent Fable. - Yes they got a PC release, but you couldn't do split screen multiplayer... And what will keep me buying Xbox consoles is more of that... Those "small features". - Thus it is games like Halo 5 that omits such features that makes the purchase of a console less desirable.

Yeah... yeah... no digital PC game store is taken seriously compared to Steam. Yet others continue to exist. Blah... blah...

I dont need a history lesson on GFW, I agree it was half assed effort. The Windows Store has been much better in virtually every way.

For PvP content, I'm not even sure adding games to Steam is guaranteed to bring significant MP numbers. Maybe for Halo:MCC atleast. Do PC users care about Gears MP, not a guarantee.

However, there are crossplay experiences that are fine between Xbox and PC. Like Sea of Theives, Forza, Killer Instinct, etc. Gears 4 for example atleast allows players to play co-op stuff like horde mode.

Halo Wars 1 did well on Steam I believe. As did State of Decay 1. Maybe the sequels are being used to attract users but could come to Steam eventually.

Fable 3 doesent need more keys. It needs to have the GFW content removed and no reliance on keys. But I imagine MS has bigger plans than that down the road.

Even MS said no split screen in Halo 5 was bad move. I'm still hoping they add split screen to that game via Scarlett.