With Julie Larson-Green recently announced as head of hardware at Microsoft (and the company reorganization under the new “One Microsoft” banner), we now learn this move could help the Xbox maker tackle PC gaming in a more decisive way.
Microsoft’s Creative Director Ken Lobb recently talked about how the unification of various departments within the company will make them better prepared to handle the PC market. “The reality is that in years past we were the Xbox division. Although many of us love playing on PC, we can only make so many games…Now we’re one unified Microsoft…We have more support internally to support PC more. That’s great!” touts Lobb.
He also acknowledges how the landscape has changed in PC gaming, with subscription services being less appealing to consumers vs. the free-to-play model that relies on micro-transactions. Lobb suggests that, “Free-to-play, to me, is not a decision to be made as a business model at the end of development. It really comes down to what type of game are you building, developer, and how do you want to monetize it? Do you pay upfront, do you want to have DLC, do you want to have a sustainable ongoing experience, do you want to go after free-to-play.”
We’ll have more on the restructuring and how the “One Microsoft” venture will affect both the PC and Xbox One, coming soon!