Microsoft’s PC gaming efforts so far have been a bust. Not only are they tied to Microsoft’s proprietary storefront (the Windows Store), and to a format that seems to be met with a lot of resistance, due to the various problems and restrictions it introduces that didn’t exist on legacy Win32 applications (UWP), but the ports themselves just plain suck- they are broken across the board, lacking basic optimization, features, and drivers. They are bad enough that one questions how they were allowed to release in their launch state to begin with- let alone the company responsible for the OS that they are launching on.
Responding to fan complaints on Twitter, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer vowed that the company would try to do better with its PC releases going forward. “We want to do a better job with PC releases, no question. We are taking the feedback and working to get better,” he said. He also noted that a lot of the frustration will go away with time- games like Gears Ultimate got better with time, which he hopes will be the case for Quantum Break too. Killer Instinct, he notes, launched without issues on PCs.
Let’s hope that this isn’t just empty talk from Spencer, and that Microsoft does intend to do something about the quality of their PC ports. Right now it is shameful.
