Microsoft is a public corporation.  It has an obligation to its shareholders to try to maximize its profits.  Business' all the time try to ensure that you buy not just one product from them, but multiple ones.  Certainly strategies such as gaining exclusives for platforms is one tool that multiple companies use.

Here is a real world example.  When I first saw Gears (the first one) I was extremely tempted to by an Xbox 360.  Now I held off on that temptation at that time.  But many did not.  And I did not hold out forever, when Mass Effect came out I went and bought a 360.  This is business.  For me I was able to wait for Gears on PC, but I was not able to wait for Mass Effect at the time.

These companies don't owe you anything.  Its impossible for them to "cockblock" your gaming experience.  If you want to PC game these games you wait and cross your fingers.  On the plus side, if they do come out, they retail for $10 less typically and Live on PC is free.  If you don't want to, or can't pony up the money then you just pay in time waiting instead.  This is not even touching on the fact that its easier for developers to tweak a title for the Xbox 360, as they know what the hardware exactly is which reduces in house testing time, vs. the PC world, where they need to keep combinations of hardware in mind to write realistic system requirements and recommendations.  And then reviews will also be more consistent which is preferable since all reviewers will be running the game on the same box, vs. varying PC hardware.  Welcome to the real world.

And PC gaming is not dead.  I own Fallout 3 for my PC, not my Xbox 360.  It was cheaper, woohoo!  The graphics look better on my PC, woohoo!  And if one cares, Windows Live is now tied to your Xbox Live account and my friends with Xbox 360s can follow my achievement progress in Fallout 3 for PC, just as if I owned Fallout 3 for Xbox 360 instead.

World of Warcraft kinda puts this "Which franchise/title sells more?" on its head. With WoW, it DOESN'T MATTER if it doesn't have the largest amount of sales. What it does have is more ongoing revenues than the other games listed above. It is more profitable for Blizzard than the other games are. Sure, it is GREAT Nintendo can keep pumping out titles with Mario, but I don't believe they generate over a BILLION dollars annually from Mario titles.

So, can we stop discussing World of Warcraft here? It is in an entirely different class of gaming than console titles. I would say similar for free games that are supported by ad revenue. They are a different kind of animal.

Piracy is killing PC gaming. Consoles are less prone to piracy, but even then the 360 will lose many thousands of sales due to piracy.

Just over the last year piracy of games, movies, songs, etc. accounted for $50 billion of lost income. When pretty much every game on PC is available free via piracy, it makes developers want to switch to safer platforms. No one listen to Megadude. He's an anti-MS, PS3 fanboy.

The fact that PC gaming is actually increasing faster than Console gaming proves your entire opinion wrong.

There are too many reasons why PC is the best platform for many developers: lower development costs, no royalties/fees, varied business models.

Java based web games doesn't exactly count as "PC gaming increasing faster than console gaming".

Oh and regardless if developers still make games for PC and people still buy them, they are still missing out on a potential $50 billion because of piracy.  The PC either needs to find a way to beat piracy without annoying DRMs or the developers will eventually move.  Just as "PC gaming is increasing" so is the amount of piracy, and piracy is increasing faster than PC gaming.

See this was a reasonable post until you had to tack on the personal attack at the end.

Aside from people trying to brush off the thread as a "fanboy rant" some good points have been brought up.

Piracy is one, royalty fees are another and difficulty optimizing during development. And I would also like to add XBox live fees. These seem to be the reason behind Microsofts waning support for games for Windows in favor (heavy favor) of the X-Box.

So most here would agree that it is not a mistake to concentrate on the X-Box brand over PC gaming. That's fine if that is your opinion.

In the grand scheme it doesn't really matter how much piracy is increasing. What developers/publishers should look at is how healthy are the sales of PC games and how is PC gaming's growth:

- China's Online Gaming Market increased over 75% in 2008
- Digital Distribution Services Steam and Gagersgate grew 100% in 2008
- MMOs grew 22% in 2008, in western countries

Developers are indeed fighting piracy by offering better value for your money from a bigger variation of business models.

What about actual sales for 2008? How do overall PC software sales of 2008 compare to previous years?

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/npd-pc-game-sales-fall-14-in-2008/?biz=1

Sure digital distribution probably took some of that change, but the rest was due to piracy.

Most likely because Microsoft thinks they can make more money from the 360 than PC gaming.

PC Gaming has been transitioning to online for ages, and Retail is declining because of that. Come on, did you not know that Retail Sales were only worth 30% of PC Gaming's Total Revenue in 2007?

Right now PC Retail Sales are much, much less than 30%, and no doubt the Digital Sales of games already surpassed the Retail Sales. And since Retail goes down 14% while Digital goes up 100%, we can assume the overall sales of PC games are increasing quite well.