Microsoft ruined gaming

[Trotsky]

The more I analyze the problems in the industry the more I realize where the cancer comes from. This company has done almost nothing positive in the last ten years. I say that as someone who actually liked the original xbox and still view it as their only good console. All their top innovations from good hardware, online play, slick interface, and excellent exclusives came from that era as well. Since then its been nothing but downhill and all the warnings that xbox was a M$ Trojan horse into the industry have proven accurate. Now they're damaging both console and PC gaming in a multitude of ways. The future of gaming would be much brighter without them and I hope that day is somewhere on the horizon.

 

[Jaesun]

What ruined gaming was a focus on the general console gaming public and specifically making games for them. Just for the point of making more PROFIT (and it continues to work to this day).

The End.

 

[Trotsky]

Microsoft is the worst embodiment of that. However I'm not sure how much profit they even make. I've read mixed things about their gaming division and its long term viability.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Don't remind me!

 

[toro]

The more I analyze the problems in the industry the more I realize where the cancer comes from. This company has done almost nothing positive in the last ten years. I say that as someone who actually liked the original xbox and still view it as their only good console. All their top innovations from good hardware, online play, slick interface, and excellent exclusives came from that era as well. Since then its been nothing but downhill and all the warnings that xbox was a M$ Trojan horse into the industry have proven accurate. Now they're damaging both console and PC gaming in a multitude of ways. The future of gaming would be much brighter without them and I hope that day is somewhere on the horizon.

For the sake of argument, can you mention a couple of those problems?

 

[Outlander]

specifically making games for them

I believe we're of the same opinion, however to clarify this point, that's actually what should have happened but didn't.

Dev1: Hey I have a great idea! Let's take all those successful PC games and do them for consoles too!
Dev2: Ok!

Dev2: Holy shit, these dumb boxes can't handle the same level of detail, level design and other stuff that PC can do! What do we do?
Dev1: Easy, let's dumb down the shit outta these games so they can function in the consoles.
Dev2: Ok, so we make a proper PC version and then a more limited, less-features version for consoles?
Dev1: No, that would be too expensive, let's just make shit games for everybody!

Consoles should have stick to platformers, racing, and sports games.

 

[abnaxus]

urmom ruined gaming

 

[FreeKaner]

Microsoft just answered a demand, if there was no demand the supply would get nowhere.

 

[taxalot]

Supply creates its own demand.

 

[pippin]

I think Microsoft's forced bundling is worse than Microsoft's gaming department. But I do remember the butthurt when Halo was declared a 100% console exclusive. What's weird is that PC mags were trying to sell Halo as the big next thing, with emphasis on the gunplay and vehicles, but looking at the pics, I had nothing to be excited about, and I was like 12, the perfect age to be excited about anything. Probably that was me noticing the earliest signs of PR bullshit in gaming media.

 

[Andhaira]

The main problem was Sony's growing share of the console market and seeing the amounts of profit being made. But there was and still is another problem that, IMO, is at the crux of it:

Since the turn of the century and the recent advent of Voodoo1 (aka 3dfx cards) just a few years prior, developers had more and more problems developing stable games for a multitude of PC types. If hardware remained consistent it would not be a problem, but with multiple types of 3D cards it caused major headaches for devs. With consoles they could just focus on making games, instead of pounding their heads on hardware requirements and projecting sales/gaining funding based on assuming how many people would be able to play their game and how many would not due to outdated hardware or other issues.

Honestly, graphic tards and their masturbation over the latest 3d cards and graphical power led us to this day. Just look at the Arkham Knight fiasco.

Now it's assumed as normal for a developer to release 'early access' crap, force players to playtest then release the final version, which by that time will already be bundle fodder as people will have grown bored of the early access alpha + beta and moved onto the next early access tripe.

 

[DeepOcean]

Strategy games don't work on the xbox = dead
Adventure games don't work on the xbox = dead
Flight/space flight games don't work on the xbox = dead
Traditional RPGs don't work on the xbox = dead
First person shooters don't work on the xbox = so dumb down they are pratically dead
Third person shooters don't work on the xbox = so dumb down they are pratically dead

Hmmmm... I see a pattern here.

Someone could argue that some other company would kill PC gamming anyway, there was too much profit involved, but I don't forgive Microsoft for their murder.

 

[pippin]

Strategy games don't work on the xbox = dead
Adventure games don't work on the xbox = dead
Flight/space flight games don't work on the xbox = dead
Traditional RPGs don't work on the xbox = dead
First person shooters don't work on the xbox = so dumb down they are pratically dead
Third person shooters don't work on the xbox = so dumb down they are pratically dead

Hmmmm... I see a pattern here.

Someone could argue that some other company would kill PC gamming anyway, there was too much profit involved, but I don't forgive Microsoft for their murder.

Strategy games on console are fucking dumb, even when C&C got tons of console ports.
Adventure games... well, many people consider Telltale and David Cage's stuff as "adventure".... to each their own.
Flight sims, yeah, they were always a thing only nerds got excited about. Dudebros can barely drive a car as it is.
The rpg's are oddly the strangest thing, since console gamers have received tons of semi-turn based or 100% turn based shit from Japan. But Microsoft won't touch that since Japan is already conquered by Sony and Nintendo.
Shooter games have become objectively dumbed down by consolization though, and it's mostly due to the controller, aiming is just too slow to work.

 

[Telengard]

Don't you consider the Dreamcast to be Microsoft's first foray into consoles?

I know I do.

Then there were all those statements from former execs that Microsoft was even in negotiations to buy Sega at one point.

And at about the same time there were even weird statements from Sony about their wanting to enter into the PC hardware and software business. And how Microsoft was freaked out about that (being as that was its breadbasket), as well as Sony's pushing away negotiations with Microsoft for both its hardware and software, thus sending Microsoft into the console sphere to check Sony. And Sony did indeed move into the PC sphere, with a line of PCs and software. So, did they really want to use their mega-millions to control both PC and console space? Are the rumors true after all?

Anyway, the Sony PC division ran out of money. So, we may never know what a Sony uber-alles vision would be like.

 

[Dyskolos]

Let's not forget that at least some Microsoft execs apparently thought they owned Donkey Kong when they bought Rare back in 2002

 

[FreeKaner]

Supply creates its own demand.

It does to some extent but that generally is supplying for another demand that's not met in its own league, so it is switch of demand to a different supply. Microsoft and some other technology and game companies created a lot of supply over the years, a little too much and not all of them were met with demand, some tanked as a result.

The reality is, when xbox first came out, gaming consoles were in demand, they still are. Blame the consumers not the company, Microsoft done has a lot of mistakes and wrongdoings over the years but this is not one of them. If anything, their recent attempt to combine everything microsoft related to a single account or device is what they are doing wrong, trying to link your xbox, phone, computer and whatever else accounts together, to try to get monopoly over other platforms via Windows.

 

[Telengard]

Microsoft is dumb, thuggish, and has long been a bane upon gaming (even shoving the Sierra games division into the oncoming train - pet peeve).

But on the other hand, did they save PC gaming from a Sony console dictatorship? Did their maneuvering preserve the PC as an independent space? Are they the heroes we deserve?

 

[mondblut]

Microsoft ruined gaming back in 1995, by allowing in the stupid people who cannot into editing autoexec.bat.

 

[Archibald]

This narrative on how consoles or some single company ruined gaming is getting more and more ridiculous each year. Life was perfect, but then evil Playstation 2 was released 15 years ago and everything went to shit.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Microsoft is nothing but a joke. Worst run company nowadays, who destroy their best products and copy inferior ideas.

 

[Burning Bridges]

This narrative on how consoles or some single company ruined gaming is getting more and more ridiculous each year. Life was perfect, but then evil Playstation 2 was released 15 years ago and everything went to shit.

PC gaming was pretty much at its best when Microsoft invented the XBox. What kind of fucking idea was this, destroy your own monopoly for fear someone could wrestle it away from you?

 

[Durian Eater]

Gaming was ruined by rising technical requirements, which led to rising budgets, which led to the consolidation or shuttering of small and midsize studios, which led to MBAs being in control of the gaming industry, which led to creative control of gaming being put into the hands of 'interactive cinematic experience' types who couldn't hack it in Hollywood.

If anything, lack of swift technical progress saved gaming... for a while. Just imagine if the 'visionaries' of the FMV era had machines capable of doing what they wanted. That last bloom of mainstream gaming creativity of the late 90s and early 00s never would've happened.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Gaming was ruined by rising technical requirements

No it wasn't. Rising technical requirements was one of the life bloods of gaming. Technical progress being neutered by consoles only made PC gaming worse.

If anything, lack of swift technical progress saved gaming... for a while.

When was that?

 

[Lyric Suite]

This narrative on how consoles or some single company ruined gaming is getting more and more ridiculous each year. Life was perfect, but then evil Playstation 2 was released 15 years ago and everything went to shit.

Except we aren't talking about the PS2 you lying faggot. We are talking about the Xbox. You know, when making a game multiplatform suddenly translated to making a game for consoles first with PC as a distant afterthought.

 

[SCO]

That reminds me


Reminder Christopher Walken has a oscar