Gaming and Microsoft: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I was right!

Back in November, I wrote an article about the Steam Controller and mentioned that its success would be contingent upon the actions of Microsoft. Specifically, I felt that it would not do well if Microsoft decided to narrow the gap between Xbox and PC.

Here's the excerpt:

Microsoft has been working on much higher levels of integration between Windows 10 and the XBOX One. It is entirely conceivable that they will use these changes to take hold of the PC gaming industry by allowing PCs to act as XBOXs, and vice-versa.

The Guardian reported last week that Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has announced plans to unify the PC and Xbox One "into one ecosystem". The core of this ecosystem is the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Developers will be able to produce games as Universal Windows Applications (UWAs) that are capable of running on an Xbox or a PC without any modification. Maybe that strikes you as neat. Maybe that terrifies you. Or maybe you're asking, "I'm not a game developer, why should I even care?". In any case, there's a lot of implications that will affect all Xbox and PC gamers.

The Good

There's one development platform. Developers can make games for both Xbox and PC without additional effort. That means they're more likely to produce for both systems. This means:

1. We will probably see formerly Xbox exclusive titles like Halo and Forza on PC. 
2. We will likely see many games in the massive PC game library available on Xbox.
3. We might see more PC games with local multiplayer support.

The Bad

PC gaming hardware is always better than console hardware because it's upgradeable long before the next console is released. This will lead to one of two negative effects:

1. Games developed for the UWP will be lower quality than other PC games because they have to be able to run on an Xbox
2. Xbox hardware will be upgradeable or new versions will be release very frequently so they can keep up. This will mean higher costs for Xbox gamers wanting to play the next big title.

The Ugly

Cross-platform gaming... A mouse and keyboard is objectively a more precise set of controls than a handheld controller. While many players may prefer using a controller, I feel many will be frustrated by the performance gap they find when playing in a cross-platform match. Nothing is worse than constantly dying in Call of Duty without having time to get a shot in. Simply put, control differences will cause lots of issues for players just wanting to have fun.

Kinda going back to my discussion of the Steam Controller, if developers only produce a UWA version of their game, the game will only be available in the Windows Store. For some this might not be an issue. But for many, this will be a big issue for a couple reasons:

1. Windows Store items are locked down pretty heavily in order to keep the experience consistent. This means games will lose mod support.
2. You can't get the games on Steam (beyond that, UWAs cannot be launched from an .exe file, so you won't be able to add the game to your Steam library as "a non-Steam" game).
3. This isn't like Origin where people adopted it begrudgingly because EA refused to put their games on Steam. You'll actually be forced to use it for games from lots of developers because it's the easiest way for them to co-develop between the system and it's the only way they'll be able to achieve cross-platform support from Microsoft. 

Conclusions

Microsoft is playing hardball and most people don't realize it. The move to unify PC and Xbox through the Universal Windows Platform will have serious negative impacts on the gaming environment. What can you do as a consumer? Probably nothing. If you're really an activist, petition your favorite video game developers to steer clear of the UWP.