So why even mention it? Fanboys are completely irrelevant.

a very strange way to spin the numbers. Windows is the largest gaming platform, because of the revenue browser-games create... MS won't see one cent of that revenue. People can play their browser games on other OS as well, but Windows is by far the most used and best (There I said it) OS.

This is like saying Windows is by far the best platform for marketing, because most of the marketing revenue on the internet is because of Windows users. I doubt Google or Yahoo paid MS a dollar for it though.

There is a reason why Epic, Valve and iD are not PC only anymore.

I think they try to build up their Games on Demand service nothing more and nothing less.

@Cross-X and Foamer

the stupid fanboys both of you mentioned... There is a rule on VGC that supports this way of thinking. You are not allowed to call PC / 360 games exclusive. I was banned for this.

Yeah, of course MS are interested in PC gaming. Just look at their E3 showing. A whole 1 PC game (Fable 3). Even Sony had more PC games than MS with SOE! That's just sad considering MS used to be one of the top PC publishers.

Seriously MS, stop saying you support PC gaming when all evidence points to the opposite.

Wow, don't tell me you really believe the revenue of browser-based games is anywhere near as much as traditional PC sales or MMO revenue?! Browser-based games revenue is only a tiny fraction of PC Gaming...

The reason Epic "moved" to consoles is because Microsoft gave them loads of money to go exclusive. They were already making exclusive Xbox games long before Gears of War, with those Unreal Championship games. In the mean time, UT2k3 and UT2k4 were HUGE successes, selling millions on PC (despite UT2k3's criticism).
The only flop Epic ever had on PC was UT3, and that was because the game was mediocre and hammered down by PC gamers. Somehow they still sold 1 million. Epic even admitted they were wrong, and they released a HUGE update that completely overhauled the consolized interface, added Steam support, and brought new modes/maps for free.

Valve, lol?! Valve is 100% PC. They only release games on consoles to get a few more bucks. Gabe Newell himself said consoles are not the future. He said Consoles will die "soon".

id Software I don't know. The last game they made sold millions on PC. As far as I can see, they have no reason to even be thanking consoles, since they never anywhere near the success with them as with the PC.

Microsoft is afraid of Steam. Valve is pushing non-Windows gaming with the release of Steam on MAC, and soon LINUX. Now that Steam is has most major publishers and studios, Microsoft doesn't want the situation to become even worse.

Were you trying to be deliberately obtuse?

Explain to me how gaming is worse now than it was when I had to use several boot disks in DOS to run my games and how each game had settings for the hardware in my PC.  Microsoft revelutionized gaming with Windows 95 and have created many evolutions on the platform since.  why should they as a company keep elements going that aren't making enough money or meeting the company goals.  I'm afraid you'll find many publishers ignoring the PC long before Microsoft focused on the 360 did the damage.

You're either very young or someone with a irrational dislike for a company.

What exactly have MS done since 2004 that has promoted PC gaming? They used to be one of the major PC publishers with some top games like Age of Empires, Rise of Nations Flight Simulator etc. Since 2004/2005 Microsoft have shifted focus to 360 and deliberately reduced the PC gaming side of their business.

• Closing and selling PC centric developers in favour of 360 developers.
• Trying to charge PC gamers for using a version of Live that had almost no game support and to play online, something that'd been free on PC for many years.
• Having old X-box 1 games (Halo 2) require Dirext X10 to run even though the graphics were outdated on release

@ underlined

Which PC devs and publishers ignored PC exactly? And before MS concentrated on 360? Most games are now multiplatform, that doesn't mean the PC isn't getting those games, it means devs and publishers have expanded to consoles.

Maybe I should have said this, instead-

For context, i'm in my 40s and am a programmer who works exclusively with Microsoft programs (Visual Studio, SQL Server, Excel, Access, etc), simply because the ecosystem MS have created around Windows development is so pleasant to work with. Doesn't stop me acknowledging that their half-hearted and often insulting efforts towards PC gaming have been harmful to the platform though, and I doubt that could be sensibly refuted.

As Scoobes has pointed out, games are now generally multi-platform because of the rising cost of them. Exclusives are pretty rare on any system- why lose out on millions of extra potential customers?

Epic: The money is on console

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/05/16/epic-president-the-moneys-on-console/

Valve is not 100% PC. Every major Valve game was released on consoles since Counter Strike Source.

Half-Life 2 / Orange Box / Team Fortress 2
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal
Portal 2

All of those games are playable on Xbox 360 and Valve expands to PS3 now.

What about Crytek. Once the new highly praised PC only developer. Now with Crysis 2 they are PC / consoles and with Kingdoms they will be probably consoles (Xbox 360) only. You can add them on that list.

And btw MS won't see a cent of the MMO fees either.

PC is about Blizzard and browser games these days. And yeah, maybe sims.

You'd better hope it isn't, otherwise you'll be paying £1000 for your next console as whoever makes it will have to pay for the graphics card design from scratch. Fortunately, you're completely ignorant on the subject as PC gaming is doing just fine, as evidenced by the 70 million graphics cards that will be sold this year and the continuing support from the likes of EA, Bioware, id, Bethesda, Valve et al.

How about YOU give sources for all the lies you're spouting?

But since I actually know what I'm talking about, and can back it up, here: http://kotaku.com/5038833/pc-gaming-a-107-billion-industry

From PC's $10.7bln in 2007, only $800mln were from ads (part of which came from hardcore games). $4.8bln was from Online revenue, which digital item sales and subscriptions. Expect nearly all of it to come from MMOs (World of Warcraft alone had $1.1bln).

Now matter how much you spin it, you'd be lucky if even 10% came from browser games.

--------------------------------------

As for Epic, why would they not release Gears of War on PS3 or PC? Don't they want more sales or what?!

It's obvious that they have an exclusivity contract with Microsoft with Gears of War atleast, and with console unreal games before that. UT2k3/UT2k4 was a success, and Epic never had a flop before UT3 (which coincidentally was also their first "consolized" PC game).

Still, I'm glad they admitted they updated UT3 to feel more like a true PC game. And also, they just integrated Steamworks with the UE3.

---------------------------------------

Valve: http://5by5.tv/conversation/16

In the interview Gabe Newell said, among other things, that proprietary hardware(consoles) will be irrelevant and disappear in the future. He also said that the future will be about digital services like Steam and Xbox Live.

He also said that Xbox 360 is there to generate extra revenue.

When Valve has a much bigger service than Xbox Live and PSN combined, you think he cry for lost money on consoles?

------------------------------------------

In January 2007, they said Doom 3 sold 3.5 millions: http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/010710_id_carmack_emmys.x

That was 3.5 years ago, so Doom 3 should be over 4.5 millions by now. And that was a game that was criticized by the PC community.

--------------------------------------------

No high-profile developer goes console exclusive without some sort of deal, especially if it comes from the PC side. Take a look at Remedy and their Alan Wake game.

Crysis was a success, not only from sales (even though it got some flak for the specs), 1,5 million in just 6 months (faster than Starcraft's sales), but also for showcasing their new engine.

Crysis will reach 3 million when all is said and done, if it hasn't already. PC games have HUGE legs, hell, just last week Crysis showed up #5 on Steam's best sellers: http://store.steampowered.com/feeds/weeklytopsellers.xml

Their Kingdoms game is, no doubt, from an exclusive deal. Why wouldn't put it on PC and PS3 otherwise?