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Microsoft Still Loves You, Will Bring First-Party Games To PC

Microsoft Back On PC

"I think it's fair to say that we've lost our way a bit in supporting Windows games," says Microsoft Studios VP Phil Spencer in an interview with Shacknews. "But we're back."

As spotted on PC Gamer, Spencer goes on to promise "more invdividual projects" on Windows than Microsoft Studios have had in ten years. So far, the only first-party XBox One game announced for the PC is Project Spark, and it's a Windows 8 exclusive.

Spencer's comments are somewhat contrary to those made earlier this year, when Microsoft said that they are bringing family and casual games to Windows 8, but "not what you might consider a more traditional desktop PC game," according to Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms at the XBox One launch event.

Maybe Jason Holtman joining the company from Valve has changed things, but Microsoft's PC-related promises are hollow by now.

Games for Windows Live "will continue to get better," said senior producer of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, Kevin Unangst, in 2011, before the service continued to get worse. It closed down earlier this month, trapping gamer's saved games inside with a final act of malice.

"It is our job to lead the way on PC," said Microsoft Games Studios’ general manager Dave Luehmann in an interview with MCV in 2010, before pointing to Age of Empires Online and Microsoft Flight as examples, not knowing that both games would be mediocre, that support for each would be discontinued, and that no further games would be announced.

As a bigger online store was launched in 2010, Peter Orullian, group product manager for Windows PC and Mobile, told Kotaku that they aimed to "bring some of the rigour, thought and success we've had on console to bare in the PC space. PC games is a place where we are doubling down."

"Windows 8 will represent a real new push into PC gaming," a source told TechRadar in 2010, proving simultaneously why you shouldn't quote anonymous sources and why people sometimes want to remain anonymous.

"It is absolutely important and a strategic advantage for us over, for instance, Apple," Microsoft's Leila Martine told TechRadar in 2009. "So should we be focused on involving and putting on features such as DirectX 11? Absolutely we should."

"Games for Windows truly thrived in 2007. We went from two titles in 2006 to a continually growing portfolio of over 60 titles here at CES 2008," said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, as part of a press release. "We delivered on our promise one year ago to reinvigorate the PC gaming space and bring the best portfolio of games to Windows. And this is just the beginning. With our partners, we will continue to drive the resurgence of Windows-based gaming."

"For the first time in Microsoft’s history, we’re releasing an operating system built from the ground up with gaming as a core scenario. With a worldwide presence of over 200 million gamers of all stripes, we’re taking the world’s most popular gaming platform and making it easier, safer, and more fun for everyone," wrote Peter Moore in a letter in 2007. He continues by predicting a PC gaming "renaissance", and it would be almost six months before he'd state that he was "overly optimistic".

Meanwhile the planet Earth's rotation continues to slow, each day a millionth of a second longer than the last, as humanity slides irreversibly towards the heat death of the universe and the end of all things.

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project spark

Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

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Graham Smith avatar

Graham Smith

Deputy Editorial Director

Rock Paper Shotgun's former editor-in-chief and current corporate dad. Also, he continues to write evening news posts for some reason.

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