Does microsoft get some profit from games made for PC?

[Dendio]

Microsoft is all about the xbox. They tend to leave windows gaming to its own devices. Do they get profit from the pc gaming master race? If they don't maybe they should figure out a way to tap into the pc market. Maybe we'd get better ports and access to more exclusives if they did

 

[DazZ.]

Only for GWFL games, and nobody wants GFWL to be attached to a game they're anticipating.
Thankfully it's dying next month I think. (edit: "discontinued on July 1, 2014" says wiki)

So to answer some of your questions, they did try, we got worse ports, Microsoft please stay away from the games I like, thank you.

 

[Weaver]

There is no license fee to develop software for Windows, so no they don't.
If someone uses GFWL (which dies in June btw) then I imagine they get some kind of cut.

What they should be worried about is SteamOS actually displacing some of their market share.
I won't lie, the only reason I'm not on a Linux only boot is because i want to play games.

Gaming has a surprising amount of sway in the OS market. We saw this even in the DOS days where people weren't upgrading to Windows 95 because Doom was DOS only and they wanted to keep playing Doom. Gabe Newell, who was working at MS at the time, actually started the team at MS to make Doom95; the Windows 95 compliant version of Doom (previously called WinDoom).

 

[pilouuuu]

No, because they don't invest in PC games. In fact I believe they hate PC gaming. I still remember when they had the brilliant idea to make Halo 2 Windows Vista only. And when they paid Alan Wake developers so they made it an XBox exclusive.

In my opinion they can go eff themselves and PC gaming will be much better without them.

 

[DoPo]

Microsoft is all about the xbox. They tend to leave windows gaming to its own devices.

Not surprising - they get mroe money out of Xbox. As in, they get money. For every single game. As opposed to the PC market, where they will only get money if they release a game on it and if enough people get it. Well, there is probably a small source of revenue in the face of GFWL but considering it's being shut down, one can reasonably assume it costed more (combined money and effort) than it generated.

All in all, there is no competition when it comes to which platform is ultimately more profitable.

It should also be noted that Microsoft do try to ensure that Windows is compatible with games - if it's not, for a lot of gamers there would be little reason to stay and MS will lose a customer base.

With that said, Microsoft seem eager to embrace the Apple model and incorporate a Windows Marketplace which could be used as a sole point of installing anything (or at least the alternatives could be made less desirable). So there is that.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Microsoft is all about the xbox. They tend to leave windows gaming to its own devices. Do they get profit from the pc gaming master race? If they don't maybe they should figure out a way to tap into the pc market. Maybe we'd get better ports and access to more exclusives if they did

There is no "platform holder fee" as there is for consoles,which is also why games on PC have always been more inexpensive than in consoles.
Microsoft earns money from PC gamers,by selling them Operating Systems though,well at least each time they include in their next operating system some really fresh and worthwhile DirectX functionality that is.


On another note Microsoft couldn't force such fees on PCs as it does with its console,simply because if they did that for Windows,then Windows would stop being an OS for 'PCs'.

For a computing system to be considered a 'PC',it has to meet the following criteria:

#The operating system is not locked to run only on specified first party hardware.
#The operating system maker has no control on what is made for,or released for the operating system.

Failing to meet the above 2 criteria is also why Mac machines while they are functional computers aren't called 'PCs'.
If Microsoft made it so everyone who wants to publish software on Windows has to pay Microsoft a fee,then computers that would run Windows wouldn't be PCs any more.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Nope.

They could have done, Windows having the biggest piece of the PC market, making an MS console, GFWL. All they needed to be was smart, and they could be where Valve is (for better or worse) in terms of PC gaming.

If from the xbox they went cross platrom with their exclusives, distributed games through GFWL the way Valve does with Steam, integrate PC gaming to the Xbox like it was a low teir PC, same to to the 360, I guess their original plans with the Xbone might have been quite sucessful

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

No, because they don't invest in PC games. In fact I believe they hate PC gaming. I still remember when they had the brilliant idea to make Halo 2 Windows Vista only. And when they paid Alan Wake developers so they made it an XBox exclusive.

In my opinion they can go eff themselves and PC gaming will be much better without them.

Why yes, PC Gaming would be much better off without the creators of the only operating system that PC Gaming is viable on. /sarcasm

Considering the cancer that was GFWL (may it burn forever in computer hell), MS's attempt at introducing Xbox Live Gold style subscriptions for multiplayer, locking off version of DirectX for the newest version of Windows and their attempts at creating a 'walled garden' similar to Apple with Windows 8...

Yes, PC gaming actually would be better off with nearly anyone else at the OS helm.

There was a reason why people were jumping for joy at the announcement of SteamOS, and no wasn't because they were all Valve fanboys. SteamOS represents a greater push away from Windows and toward PC gaming also using Linux based distros.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Only directly with GFW/GWFL, and by proxy with simply holding down the only option to PC gaming which is Microsoft's software.

And don't worry they are well under way to turn Windows into their Appstore space, which I'm sure sounds delightful for some but for the knowledgeable PC audience it is absolutely horrific.
"Oh but that will mean better ports" ... yeah in no conceivable scenario is that true, the worst ports for PC came with GWFL while Appstore is a cesspool of hustling/theft and all around horror because you just have no other options to get games, so no MS locking things down for themselves is in no way shape or form ever going to ever be a good idea.

 

[sanquin]

I believe they do get a bit of money for sales on their new marketplace thing in win 8. Just like Valve gets money for games on steam and such. But that's about it.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Also as far as MS is concerned, the future isn't in the home PC market for them. Apple and mobile devices are displacing them very quickly. They'll surely be concentrating on the corporate market.

Well if Windows 8 is their strategy for keeping the corporate market then they might as well give up now.

The Uni I work for didn't even purchase a review copy, something even Windows Vista achieved. And if the rumours are true ITS is using it as a reason to stitch of a Linux distro post Windows 7.

MS really screwed the moneymaking pooch with 8.