There was a myriad of new gaming content shown off this week at our industry’s biggest event of the year. Virtually every console and handheld was represented, save one. Why was PC gaming the redheaded step-child of E3 2014?
While no one really expected much from the likes of Sony or others on the PC front, some feel Microsoft had no excuse. After all, they do have that one little OS you might have heard of (Windows somethin’). So it would seem natural that Microsoft would throw a bone to those who game on their desktops.
Since Phil Spencer is now the mouth piece of Microsoft’s gaming division, PR speed bumps like this fall directly at his feet. Addressing the criticism he explains that, at a venue such as this, you really have to know your audience. According to him, E3 is where consoles are king. “E3’s a retail show. It’s a retail show, it’s a console show, so it didn’t really feel like the right place for us to talk about Windows, but Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft’s success.” He assures.
Microsoft has actually struggled a bit to reconcile the duality of both their Xbox and PC faces, with Games for Windows floundering since its launch (shutting down little more than a year ago). Spencer, however, insists that Windows based gaming is still a company priority moving forward. “I think in a lot of ways, you could argue gaming on Windows has never been healthier in that the biggest of the big franchises, League of Legends, World of Tanks, those things dwarf a lot of what we’re doing in this console space in terms of users and monetization. They’re all on PC.”
For more on Microsoft’s latest wrap-up of E3 2014, check out the Xbox Wire.