Speaking with Gameplanet, Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer reflected upon Microsoft’s first attempt at gaming on Windows PC: Games for Windows Live.
“I built games for Games for Windows Live – prior to this, when I ran first party,” he began. “As platform features would come along like Games for Windows Live, I would build like [Shadowrun], like Gears of War. The fact that the platform support went away hurt us as a publisher. For better of for worse, I am now in a position to remember that pain. So, when I say things like we are going to go do things on PC, because it was a couple of years ago that I started saying we are doing more work on PC than we have ever done, I would see the PC audience groan.”
Support for Games for Windows Live (mercifully) ended back in 2014.
Spencer was less pained to talk of recent Microsoft forays into PC gaming, including the cross-platform Xbox Play Anywhere.
“I look at it this year, and I don’t know if this is true. You’d have to do the math and say if I am a liar or not, but I don’t know if there is anybody who has published more PC games than we have this year,” he said. “If I think about Killer Instinct, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Quantum Break, Ori and the Blind Forest, and now Forza Horizon 3 and ReCore, plus we have Gears of War 4 coming. I mean, I am really proud! Quality, we have learnt! I mean, if I think about some of the earlier launches and how well they did, I wonder if we really hit the mark in terms of what it meant to build PC games. We’ve been learning. But I’m really proud of the work that has been done as a PC game publisher this year, that’s been a strong part of what we think about our identity.”
You can read Gameplanet’s full interview with Spencer here. Stevivor has more from the Head of Xbox in the weeks to come.
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