You couldn't be blamed for thinking that Microsoft has focused more on the Xbox 360 side of its gaming operations that it has on the PC side. Despite having launched the Games for Windows and GfW Live initiatives several years ago, it's been Valve's Steam service that has gained a tremendous amount of ground in the past few years. Microsoft Game Studios general manager Dave Luehmann has said that Microsoft needs "to step up" in becoming a leader in the PC space.
"There's been a fair bit of criticism aimed at Microsoft that we were spending a lot of our focus on console, and we need to be putting resources behind PC as well," Luehmann told MCV. "Other companies should look to Microsoft for leadership, but I'm not sure they do. It is our job to lead the way on PC. And in some ways we are doing that and in other ways we are not. So we need to step up."
Microsoft does have three big games coming down the pipe for PC, which is more than can be said for what it has released on PC in recent years. "We are putting some real investment and big IPs behind the Windows platform. We've spoken of the first three, Fable III, Age of Empires Online and Microsoft Flight. However we are not going to stop there."
He didn't go on to detail what else Microsoft is working on, as you would expect. Hopefully there are more substantial games on the way besides those three, and we won't have to go through another Microsoft-published PC-game drought.
Luehmann suggested, "I think it is the responsibility of first parties to push the business models in to new directions. We will test some ideas -- some will work and some won't."
Besides the three games we know are coming, what would you like to see from Microsoft on PC? Corporate VP Phil Spencer recently proclaimed that Microsoft would like to increase the rate of Halo releases, so perhaps a PC release of a Halo game -- only Halo and Halo 2 have seen a release on PC -- could be something we'll see down the line.
What games would you like to see Microsoft release on PC?
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