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goopy20 on 19 August 2020
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shikamaru317 said:
goopy20 said:

That is true, but just look at all of MS's 1st party games and the direction it's been going in 2020.

  • Gears Tactics
  • Flightsim
  • Minecraft Dungeons
  • Flightsim
  • Wasteland 3
  • Bard's tale remastered
  • Bleeding Edge
  • Ori 
  • Battletoads

Except for Ori, Bleeding Edge and Battletoads, those are all the type of games that typically don't do well on consoles. PC gamers love em, though, and that's why some of them didn't even get a console release yet.

But you're ignoring the Microsoft 1st/2nd party games that we know to be in development, most of which are either console focused or are designed equally for console and PC:

  • Halo Infinite
  • Fable reboot
  • Avowed (Obsidian's first AAA RPG since South Park: The Stick of Truth, rather than the AA PC focused RPG's they were doing for awhile like Pillars and Tyranny)
  • Everwild
  • Hellblade 2
  • Project Mara
  • Forza Motorsport reboot
  • Forza Horizon 5
  • inXile's planned 3D AAA RPG (their first ever AAA RPG)
  • State of Decay 3
  • Compulsion's new IP
  • Double Fine's upcoming projects after Psychonauts 2 (they have always had multiple teams)
  • The Initiative/The Coalition co-developed AAA game (rumored to be a Perfect Dark reboot)
  • As Dusk Falls

Then you have Microsoft's 3rd party exclusives/timed exclusives, most of which are also either console focused or designed equally for PC and console:

  • Second Extinction
  • Call of the Sea
  • The Medium
  • Scorn
  • The Ascent
  • The Gunk
  • Yakuza 7
  • Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis
  • Exomecha
  • Hello Neighbor 2
  • Echo Generation
  • CrossFireX

The only announced but unreleased MS 1st/2nd party titles designed primarily for PC gamers currently are Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4, while the only 3rd party timed exclusives that are primarily PC focused are Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tide and STALKER 2. 2020 was clearly a year designed to get Microsoft back into PC gamers good graces after losing them by trying to force Windows Store on them earlier this gen, but their future development seems to be mainly focused on Xbox games or games that will do well on both Xbox and PC.

Halo was supposed to be their big console game for the year, which is why they likely felt they didn't need more than 1 big console focused game for 2020, but the delay on Halo clearly threw a wrench into their plans by making the year look very PC focused in the end. But that doesn't mean that MS has a PC focus going forward just because this year was mainly PC games, future development clearly shows that console is still top priority for MS, with PC being nearly as important but still taking a back seat to console.

I can only look at the games we're seeing released now and the way they've been promoting Series X. With almost every game on that list we just don't really know how they'll end up because they didn't show us anything. All I know is that Halo is going GAAS, Inexile has always been a PC developer and Fable and Avowed could very well be GAAS too.

For better or worse, MS is obviously aiming for different experiences than fans have come to expect from a Xbox console. There's a ton more variety, so that is great. But MS's focus in on growing GP subscriber, and for that they'll need episodic, online/GAAS titles. Games that'll keep people engaged with the service, not next gen SP blockbuster that take years to make and typically offer a one time playthrough.