Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella Reaffirms Gaming Is Key at Microsoft

[Showan]

Xbox One, Games, and HoloLens Are Key For Microsoft's Future, Says CEO Satya Nadella delivers Microsoft's mission statement, and gaming is a core pillar.

by Tamoor Hussain on  June 26, 2015

 

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has said gaming--across Xbox One, PC, and HoloLens--belongs at the heart of his vision for the future of the company.

In a new mission statement sent to Microsoft employees, posted online by Geekwire, Nadella said gaming will be key in realising a "broader vision for Windows," as the company seeks to unite all its gaming-oriented initiatives.

 

"We will pursue our gaming ambition as part of this broader vision for Windows and increase its appeal to consumers," he said.

"We will bring together Xbox Live and our first-party gaming efforts across PC, console, mobile and new categories like HoloLens into one integrated play."

 

Nadella also said Microsoft will aim to deliver experiences centered on the mobility that is enabled by the cloud.

"We will build the best instantiation of this vision through our Windows device platform and our devices, which will serve to delight our customers, increase distribution of our services, drive gross margin, enable fundamentally new product categories, and generate opportunity for the Windows ecosystem more broadly."

Microsoft named Nadella as its chief executive in February 2014, following the departure of Steve Ballmer. When announcing his appointment, Microsoft highlighted Nadella's work in establishing the cloud infrastructure behind Xbox, as well as Bing and Office.

In January 2015, Xbox head Phil Spencer announced Windows 10 will support Xbox One game streaming, allowing games to be played on PCs and tablets running the latest version of Microsoft's operating system.

"We have to put the gamer at the centre of every experience," Spencer said at the time.

Days before E3 2015, VR giant Oculus revealed its Rift device will include the Xbox One controller, andXbox One owners will be able to stream their games to the Rift.

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-games-and-hololens-are-key-for-microsofts/1100-6428459/

[Mulrian]

Pretty sure we've heard this multiple times before, and nothing has ever really come from it.

[thealexweb]

As long as Games for Windows Live remains a ruin his words have no credibility.

[vcfan]

Pretty sure we've heard this multiple times before, and nothing has ever really come from it.

 

pretty sure you willfully ignored the following just to make your tired recycled comment

 

xbox live, dx12, first party titles, cross play,game streaming, hololens and vr support, windows store support, and potentially xbox 360 game emulation.

[Mulrian]

pretty sure you willfully ignored the following just to make your tired recycled comment

 

xbox live, dx12, first party titles, cross play,game streaming, hololens and vr support, windows store support, and potentially xbox 360 game emulation.

 

With the exclusion of Hololens (the main use of which isn't really gaming), you could have listed pretty much the exact same things a few years back. Don't get me wrong I do hope it goes well this time, just history tells us that these promises have been made before and have ultimately given us GFWL.

[vcfan]

With the exclusion of Hololens (the main use of which isn't really gaming), you could have listed pretty much the exact same things a few years back. Don't get me wrong I do hope it goes well this time, just history tells us that these promises have been made before and have ultimately given us GFWL.

 

I think some people will never be happy unless they simultaneously release all their flagship xbox titles with windows, but we all know with the current business model, that will never happen, and this shouldn't be the criteria used to assess whether they can about gaming on windows.

[Showan]

With the exclusion of Hololens (the main use of which isn't really gaming), you could have listed pretty much the exact same things a few years back. Don't get me wrong I do hope it goes well this time, just history tells us that these promises have been made before and have ultimately given us GFWL.

 

 

This may be true..

 

But Satya was NOT Microsoft's CEO at that time...

 

Has anyone noticed Phil Spencer's confidence as of late as well?  You can tell that Nadella is backing gaming, just by the announcements on the gaming side as of late.

[trooper11]

I know alot of people around here are down on MS in general, but just wait and watch the moves they make.

 

As weird as it may sound, MS is serious about the idea that Windows is what matters, not exclusive platforms.  So while Xbox is a case where they can't just stop creating exclusive experiences now, they seem hell bent on changing the status quo.  They want a single app store that offers content on all MS hardware, including Xbox.  They want to push cross buy and cross play.  They have already committed 1st party titles to it, and I expect them to slowly move to all 1st party content getting that treatment.

 

Xbox will slowly become a windows Steam box, a device that runs windows, but with a gaming focused UI.  This makes sense on so many levels and it seems like a better deal for both gamers and developers in the long run.

[LaP]

Until Halo 5 is on PC or Microsoft revives their old PC franchise like Age of Empire (or create new ones) this is all b******* to me.

 

We will see how serious MS is with that new Flight Sim i guess ...

[LaP]

I think some people will never be happy unless they simultaneously release all their flagship xbox titles with windows, but we all know with the current business model, that will never happen, and this shouldn't be the criteria used to assess whether they can about gaming on windows.

 

Why not?

 

I don't understand why the xbox and windows need to be separate entities. This is not helping Microsoft. This is hurting Microsoft actually. As long as Microsoft will try hard to make the xbox looks better than PC Microsoft wont be committed to gaming as far as i'm concerned.

 

There should be one os, one market, one online service across all devices. Unification. This is the key.

 

If i would be able to play the xbox games i digitally bought on PC without having to buy them twice and if i would be able to log on xbox live on PC using a full featured steam like client then i would instantly buy the xbox one.

 

I really wish the Steam Boxes gather some success to force Microsoft to wake up.

[Emn1ty]

Why not?

I don't understand why the xbox and windows need to be separate entities. This is not helping Microsoft. This is hurting Microsoft actually. As long as Microsoft will try hard to make the xbox looks better than PC Microsoft wont be committed to gaming as far as i'm concerned.

There should be one os, one market, one online service across all devices. Unification. This is the key.

If i would be able to play the xbox games i digitally bought on PC without having to buy them twice and if i would be able to log on xbox live on PC using a full featured steam like client then i would instantly buy the xbox one.

I really wish the Steam Boxes gather some success to force Microsoft to wake up.

It's funny I had the exact opposite discussion with some friends the other day. They said it didn't make sense that Microsoft released so many of their games on pc and that it diluted the XBox platform.

[+Asmodai MVC]

Why not?

 

I don't understand why the xbox and windows need to be separate entities. This is not helping Microsoft. This is hurting Microsoft actually. As long as Microsoft will try hard to make the xbox looks better than PC Microsoft wont be committed to gaming as far as i'm concerned.

 

There should be one os, one market, one online service across all devices. Unification. This is the key.

I'm right with you up to here. I'm a Windows gamer first (thus a Microsoft customer), I enjoy building my own PC and upgrading it, it's a hobby of mine.

I'd love to be able to play Halo 5 or Gears of War or Forza on my Windows 10 PC.

 

If i would be able to play the xbox games i digitally bought on PC without having to buy them twice and if i would be able to log on xbox live on PC using a full featured steam like client then i would instantly buy the xbox one.

I still wouldn't buy an Xbox One. But I don't see how they proves why they won't release the games on PC.

In your case they're losing money because you'd buy an Xbox One AND presumably more "universal" games if they released on both.

In my case they're still losing money because I'm still not buying an Xbox One to get the games, I'm just not playing the games, so they're losing money on every game I would have bought if it had a PC version.

So they're losing software money from me and hardware and software money from you.

The idea that releasing on both Win10 and Xbox One at the same time would be bad seems to be prefaced on the belief that if that were the case then Xbox One gamers would stop buying the consoles and start building gaming PCs.

I really don't see that happening to any large degree, console gamers typically don't want to buy much more expensive PCs, they don't typically want to screw around with settings, etc.

[LaP]

The idea that releasing on both Win10 and Xbox One at the same time would be bad seems to be prefaced on the belief that if that were the case then Xbox One gamers would stop buying the consoles and start building gaming PCs.

I really don't see that happening to any large degree, console gamers typically don't want to buy much more expensive PCs, they don't typically want to screw around with settings, etc.

 

Exactly. And in the end why does it matter if an Xbox customer becomes a PC customers? Windows and Xbox are both Microsoft's products. The only reason it does matter now is because MS ignored PC gaming for a while and now people are buying on Steam/GOG instead of the defunct live for PC.

 

Like you said most console gamers don't care if a game is available on PC. They care if it is available on Xbox only. Will Tom Raider not released on PC day 1 will sell more Xbox than if it was Xbox/PC? I don't think so.

 

The reason why i would buy an Xbox One if MS supported cross buy and live for PC is i have lot of Xbox fan friends who play on Xbox only. I bought the 360 to play with them but i had to buy couple of games twice (PC/360) and i wont do it again it's too much expensive.

[+Asmodai MVC]

The reason why i would buy an Xbox One if MS supported cross buy and live for PC is i have lot of Xbox fan friends who play on Xbox only. I bought the 360 to play with them but i had to buy couple of games twice (PC/360) and i wont do it again it's too much expensive.

 

You shouldn't even have to do that.  If you've spent the money to build a solid gaming PC with Windows 10 you should be able to play with your Xbox One friends without even having to buy an Xbox One.  If they are "universal" apps from a single store then you should be able to play on your Windows 10 box with your Xbox One console friends.

 

Steam and GOG are branching out into Linux and Mac support.  MS is hurting Windows by keeping games off of PC.  MS could push games as Win10/Xbox One and promote Windows 10 as a first class gaming platform for those with the money and interest to buy/build a gaming PC.  They could lock out prior versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac along with Sony and Nintendo consoles.  They should have one Microsoft platform that just happens to run on both PCs and Xbox One (one Windows) and that's what their marketing makes it sound like they're doing but they're really not, it's just PR B.S.  Windows 10 PC gaming is very much a second class citizen to Xbox One and I honestly don't get why.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Releasing all XB1 games day 1 with PC would eat into the potential XB1 userbase. Exclusives for some games, even if just timed between PC/XB1 are needed to keep the XB1 healthy.

 

Completely understandable why MS wouldn't put Halo 5 or Gears 4 on PC day 1 (or even at all).

[+DDG3595 Subscriber²]

Porting the remaining Gears of War and Halo titles to the PC would be a nice gesture.

[LaP]

 

 

Completely understandable why MS wouldn't put Halo 5 or Gears 4 on PC day 1 (or even at all).

 

Maybe. But it doesn't explain why MS published PC franchises like Age of Empire, Flight Sim, Madness or Mechwarrior did not see a proper sequel in ages.

 

Xbox exclusives would be fine is there was PC exclusives too. The bottom line is right now it's all talk and nothing else. It's been this way for a while. I'll believe it when a peoper new Age of Empire and Flight Sim will be done or when MS will fully merge both ecosystem.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Maybe. But it doesn't explain why MS published PC franchises like Age of Empire, Flight Sim, Madness or Mechwarrior did not see a proper sequel in ages.

 

Xbox exclusives would be fine is there was PC exclusives too. The bottom line is right now it's all talk and nothing else. It's been this way for a while. I'll believe it when a peoper new Age of Empire and Flight Sim will be done or when MS will fully merge both ecosystem.

 

Well, they have made some horrendous decisions with some of the old loved PC franchises. Gutting the companies, or outright closing them. There are a few styles of PC games that do not really translate well to the console and sadly MS threw them out in favour of the console bux.