In spite of the confusion surrounding the initiative thanks to Microsoft’s recent backtracking, Xbox Play Anywhere remains an ambitious initiative, and it is a far more thorough attempt to bridge the divide between PC and console gaming than any we have gotten so far.

But Microsoft dislikes the idea that they are attempting to fuse the PC and Xbox platforms together into one, or any such notion. In an interview with The Guardian, Xbox head Phil Spencer spoke out candidly against such an idea, noting that he recognizes that the PC and console markets have very different requirements.

“PC gaming and console gaming are different, and the customer segments have capabilities and expectations that are unique to the platforms they play on,” he said. “With Xbox and Windows, there are some common things that we can put in the hands of creators and gamers – like Xbox Live, like your friends list – that help unify your gaming experience and put you at the centre as the player.

“But I bristle at the idea we’re bringing the platforms ‘together’. It’s not that I’m trying to turn PC gamers into console gamers or console gamers into PC gamers. We just know, and I’m sure you’re tracking it, the health of PC gaming is incredibly high right now, and we know some of our best and most active customers on Xbox One are also PC gamers – so we see this opportunity to service the customer and where they actually play, and they want to stay connected to their friends wherever they are.

“Things like Xbox Play Anywhere are really about choice and where they want to play,” he continued. “So if you’re at school and want to play a couple of rounds of a game and then you go back home and want to continue on your couch, that seems normal. Every other kind of media – your music, your movies – everything else works that way.”

I’m not entirely sure of the pitch, then, because it does sound to me like Microsoft are trying to make software hardware agnostic (which is a strategy that the entire company seems to be adopting of late)- that’s great, but it necessitates, by definition, a fusion of sorts of the Xbox and Windows gaming platforms. I wonder why Spencer is so adamantly denying that, then.

Yesterday, we learned that Microsoft were backing down from what was otherwise looking to be their boldest move in years, when we learned that Microsoft had changed the wording of the Xbox Anywhere program so that it no longer implied Xbox and Windows versions of all Microsoft games- so the promise of all Microsoft games going forward being on PC was one that Microsoft were already unwilling to honor.

Today, Phil Spencer clarified that on Twitter, and… yup, it seems as though yesterday’s retraction still holds. Spencer’s wording said that all Microsoft franchises would be coming to Xbox and Windows, as opposed to all games, which was the original promise of Xbox Anywhere- so, for instance, Halo 6 might not come to Windows 10 PCs, but Microsoft would consider Halo Wars 2 adequate representation of that franchise on the platform. This is a shame, and definitely far less ambitious and audacious than what had been promised.

In other news, Spencer also seems to be hinting that disabled gamers may be getting some more representative avatars on Xbox Live soon. Responding to a tweet, Spencer noted that avatars with wheelchairs was something that Microsoft had already looked at, and that it was hopefully not too far off in the future.

So that’s good news right there, definitely, and it is something that Microsoft deserve to be commended on.

Just clarifying could be unique game not right for all devices. Intent to bring our franchises to Win10 & XB1 is unchanged.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 7, 2016

No petition needed, we hear you. This is something that we've already looked at, not far off.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 4, 2016

Microsoft’s Xbox Anywhere initiative, which would bring all their Xbox games going forward to the PC, was certainly a bold move- it was ambitious and staggering in its scope, and also something that had never been attempted in the console market before, owing to the premium that the console market places on exclusives.

On their part, Microsoft have argued that putting Xbox One games on PC should not at all interfere with the Xbox One, since those games are de facto exclusives as far as the console market is concerned, and because a sale for a game is a sale for a game, in the end- however, maybe they are having second thoughts about having literally no exclusives going forward, because, as VideoGamer reports, they have changed the text on their site for Xbox Anywhere that suggested that they would put all their Xbox games going forward on PC too.

In the original statement, viewable on Wayback Machine, Yusuf Mehdi, CVP of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, explained: “Every new title published from Microsoft Studios will support Xbox Play Anywhere and will be easily accessible in the Windows Store.”

The revised statement, however, states: “Every new title published from Microsoft Studios that we showed onstage at E3 this year will support Xbox Play Anywhere and will be easily accessible in the Windows Store.”

What does this mean? This suggests that Microsoft may be having second thoughts about committing to put all their games on PC- that they may want to keep some games exclusive to Xbox One after all, to boost console sales. It may also just suggest that there will be no functional or effective change from what was previously announced, but that Microsoft want to leave themselves some wiggle room, just in case they change their mind later.

At E3 this year, Microsoft announced their Xbox Anywhere initiative, an ambitious cross play program that will put all Microsoft games on Xbox One and on Windows 10, allowing for cross compatibility between the two versions- to the extent that buying one version nets you the other, to the extent that your progress and Achievements across both versions are synched, to the extent that both versions will seamlessly interact with one another.

Now, Microsoft have confirmed that all games published by them going forward will be on PC, as well as on Xbox One- this means that Xbox will indeed have no true exclusives from now on (unless some third party developer decides to make a game only for Xbox in the future for some reason); it also means that highly vaunted Microsoft franchises like Halo shall be available on PC again at last.

So, when Halo 6 is eventually released? It will be on PC. Ditto with Forza 7. Ditto with any other Microsoft game you might care to think of. Now if only Microsoft would go back and release some older Xbox One games like Sunset Overdrive and Halo 5 on PC, too…

Once not so long ago, Microsoft tried to create their own storefront for PC gaming. It was called Games For Windows Live, and the big selling point for it was at the time unprecedented cross functionality with Xbox (notably, you would have the same Gamertag and you would also share your Gamerscore and Achievements across Xbox and GFWL).

It was a major bust, but the biggest reason for that was Microsoft’s insistence of charging an actual subscription fee for the service- on a platform like PC, where so many other, free alternatives suggest, that went about as well as you might imagine.

Now, they are trying again. The pitch is the same- an Xbox and PC ecosystem, and they have their games that they are selling from their storefront. How do we know they won’t be charging for the service this time? Well, because they said so. We’ve already reported before that Microsoft will not charge users extra for the Xbox Anywhere initiative, which is a complete and extensive Cross Play program for all Microsoft published games. But now, they are also confirming that no extra fees will be required for PC players who wish to play with Xbox players- in spite of the need to interface with Xbox Live in that case.

“If you are on a Windows 10 PC, and log into your Xbox Live account, you can play multiplayer games and take advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere [without any extra charge],” Microsoft’s Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg confirmed in an interview with GamerTag Radio. When asked specifically about cross platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10, he confirmed that there would be no extra charge.

“You can do Cross-Play with games like Gears of War 4 [with no extra charge].”

So there you go- Microsoft may be going for the same pitch again this time that they did the last time, but at least they seem to have learned from their mistakes. Will that be enough to overcome all the other issues with their Windows Store and UWP propositions? I think that Xbox Anywhere provides a value proposition good enough that it might be- but that remains to be seen going forward.

A lot has been written about this, and there are enough compelling arguments on both sides that the discussion is fated to remain relevant for a good while now. However, that is not what I wanted to talk about today. Today, instead, I wanted to follow a different line of reasoning that I have seen since Microsoft’s E3- there seems to be, you see, a small, but outspoken, group of PC players who believe that Microsoft’s move to PC marks the end of dedicated console gaming as we know it, and that Sony would, as a result, do well to start putting their exclusives on PC as well.

The arguments I usually hear are simple- those who wish to purchase a console to play their games will continue to purchase a PS4 to play Bloodborne or Uncharted, while others, who would like the best possible experience for their games, will simply purchase them on PC. What would be the harm here? Sony would be opening up their games to a much wider install base, and therefore stand to gain a lot in terms of software sales.

"There seems to be a small, but outspoken, group of PC players who believe that Microsoft’s move to PC marks the end of dedicated console gaming as we know it, and that Sony would, as a result, do well to start putting their exclusives on PC as well."

This argument, however, is fallaciously simplistic, and does not account for one very simple thing- Sony have no reason to put their games on PC. Microsoft making a move to consolidate their PC and Xbox gaming efforts makes sense from their perspective. They have to sell not just Xbox, but more importantly, at least to the company’s long term plans and future, they need Windows 10 to take root. They need their UWP initiative to take off. They need the Windows Store to become popular. The success of all of these is tied, in some part, to PC gaming. By putting their own games on PC, Microsoft may even in the short term be damaging the prospects of Xbox a little bit (although it is unclear if they are- maybe there is a substantial market for people interested in Microsoft’s games, but not interested in PC gaming in any capacity), but they are entrenching their long term strategy, bolstering and reinforcing it.

On the other hand, Sony gain nothing from putting their games on PC- Windows is not their OS. They don’t have an OS. By putting games on PC, Sony lose out on hardware sales they gain from sales of PS4 as a result of their exclusives, they lose out revenue, thanks to having to share it with whatever storefront they put their games on, they lose out on their own network and services revenue, because PS+ is no longer a necessity to play their games (and trying to have a paid subscription for video games on PC doesn’t work, as Games for Windows Live demonstrated), and finally, by losing hardware sales, their third party licensing revenues are diminished too. It’s a lose-lose situation for them all around.

The counter argument: they can make their own storefront on PC, and not necessarily put their games on Steam or Windows Store. And sure, they can do that. That still doesn’t address all the other loss of revenue they suffer. Even if they manage to not have to split revenue with a storeholder by having their own store, they do lose out on hardware revenue, they do lose out on network and services revenue, and they do lose out on third party licensing revenues, as a result of lower PS4 sales. It is hard to believe that revenue from increased sales thanks to a PC install base would be enough to cover all three of those other losses, especially now that Sony sell their hardware at a hefty profit. And unlike Microsoft, Sony can’t even justify the loss of immediate revenue by pointing to intangibles such as a long term gain- unlike Microsoft, Sony don’t have anything to gain by having their games on PC.

"Sony gain nothing from putting their games, such as Bloodborne, on PC."

Another variant of this argument I often hear is that Sony should only put their games on PC after a few years- so, let Uncharted and Bloodborne be exclusive to PS4 for 3-4 years, and then put those games on PC after that. This line of thinking argues that these games will have already sold the bulk of consoles they are supposed to sell by this point- anyone interested in buying a PlayStation console to play these exclusives has done so 3-4 years down the line, and if they haven’t, then they are not likely to ever. So it is in Sony’s best interest to extract further revenue by putting those games on PC, and opening up a new line of revenue from them, long after the other lines of revenue mentioned above are exhausted.

This is a sounder argument than the previous one- but it is still fallacious. Simply because if one were to know that Sony’s games will be eventually coming to PC regardless, then there would be those people who would simply decide to wait it out a few years, and buy those games on PC, instead of buckling and buying a PS4 to play them. This would lead to the same problems as in the previous scenario- Sony lose out on revenue from hardware, licensing, and network and services.

And yes, there would be a substantial number of people who would opt to just wait. Unlike the bulk of console gaming, where sales and mindshare are ephemeral, PC gamers are content to wait for a game they want to play, rather than buying it right now, and playing it right now. Years of Steam sales, and late ports, serve as both evidence, and justification, for this- PC gamers won’t decide to spend an extra $400 to play Bloodborne now, when they can wait it out a few years, and just get it on PC, in a superior form (simply by virtue of the game being on PC) at that. And of course, all of this still sidesteps the central point: unlike Microsoft, Sony have nothing to gain by putting their games on PC. Unlike Microsoft, who would sacrifice some short term revenue for some long term gains, Sony would be gaining short term revenue, but sacrificing long term gains. Fewer and fewer people would be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a new PlayStation if they knew that their favorite PlayStation exclusives were all going to end up coming to some other platform in a few years anyway. Sony would lose out on the integrity and halo of the PlayStation brand, and they would also end up with greatly diminished hardware and network related revenue in the process, especially since PlayStation is central to many non gaming related initiatives for Sony, such as TV, streaming, and network infrastructure.

"Fewer and fewer people would be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a new PlayStation if they knew that their favorite PlayStation exclusives were all going to end up coming to some other platform in a few years anyway."

But wait, some smartass reading this person says, rushing to the comments section to type out a retort furiously. Sony already are putting games on PC! Both, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Helldivers were put by them on Steam! Take that! It’s very clear none of my counterarguments seem to apply after all!

To which I only ave to say, hypothetical reader: if you really, truly, believe that Helldivers or Rapture were selling any PlayStation consoles, or that they have the same standing as a high budget, 90+ Metascore retail exclusive from From or Naughty Dog, then, my friend, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I want to sell you.

There is a possibility that, many years into the future, there is no place for dedicated console hardware, and that at that point, Sony are forced to adopt a hardware agnostic strategy for their gaming initiatives- but if and when that time comes, then this will be a viable argument to make. As it stands right now, consoles are selling, and no company is gaining more from console sales than Sony is. They would be foolish to rock the boat right now.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

That has been the sentiment regarding the company and its gaming offerings with Xbox for the last few years, now. The Xbox 360 was a gamer focused console- what the PS4 is today, the Xbox 360 was back then, and that’s why it caught on so quickly, and so much, with developers and the general gaming public. The face of modern console gaming is shaped in the image of the Xbox 360- because it was, at its core, a truly focused product that delivered exactly what people wanted, without presuming to impose something upon them that they did not.

Somewhere between the launch of the Xbox 360 and the reveal of the Xbox One, however, Microsoft lost the plot. Maybe it was the initial success of Kinect, maybe it was the casual demographic with whom the Xbox 360 did remarkably well, or maybe it was the Xbox 360’s newfound success as a media box over time- but the Xbox One, when originally revealed, was everything the Xbox 360 was not. It was a product focused on anything but games, with media box ambitions and trappings, with intrusive and unwanted features imposed upon consumers, such as the Kinect, with a high price and low value, thanks to it having hobbled and weaker specs, and with intrusive DRM that actively hindered the game playing experience.

Gamers revolted, and Microsoft hastily backtracked. Gone was the Kinect, as well as the DRM. Prices were dropped across the board, new SDKs developed so developers could extract more power from the hardware, but in the end, the initial reception stuck- for the average mainstream customer, first impressions are often the only impression, and too many of them still believe that the Xbox One needs to be always online, and doesn’t have used games. For these people, the Xbox brand is toxic and something fundamentally unappealing- the bad press for the Xbox One from before the console even launched has stuck, and this demographic, the same one that made the Xbox 360 as big as it was, are unwilling to buy into its successor, instead buying the PS4 en masse, in droves.

"Somewhere between the launch of the Xbox 360 and the reveal of the Xbox One, Microsoft lost the plot."

Prior to E3 this year, we speculated that if Microsoft unveiled the Scorpio at the event, it could be a chance for them to reverse all that negative perception and stigma that surrounds the Xbox brand, and the Xbox One console specifically. And if the early reactions to Microsoft’s just concluded E3 presser are anything to go by, that is exactly what they may have done just now.

If Microsoft’s 2013 debut of the Xbox One was them abandoning the core gamer, instead misguidedly chasing a broader audience, tonight represented them doubling down on that very same core gamer, recommitting to them in a way they haven’t done in a decade now. Here are five ways that Microsoft’s conference tonight represented them being more serious about gaming than they have been in a very long time.

SO. MANY. GAMES

Of course, the single most important thing you need if you want to commit to video games as a medium is, well, games. And there were a lot of games that Microsoft showed off tonight at the conference. From ReCore to Sea of Thieves, Gears of War 4 to Halo Wars 2, Forza Horizon 3 to Scalebound, State of Decay 2 to Dead Rising 4, Tekken 7 to Final Fantasy 15, Battlefield 1 to The Division, Inside to We Happy Few, there was a staggering quantity of games on display- AAA games, indie games, Japanese games, western games, first party games, third party games, and everything in between.

The kind of diversity and breadth in game lineup that I had honestly begun to think was the exclusive domain of PlayStation was exhibited by Microsoft for their Xbox lineup today. No matter what kind of gamer you are, no matter what kinds of games you like, no matter how you like to play them, tonight, Xbox had you covered.

"No matter what kind of gamer you are, no matter what kinds of games you like, no matter how you like to play them, tonight, Xbox had you covered."

VALUE

For a company that has been as monopolistic and singularly obsessed with making money in the past as Microsoft, tonight’s showing cast them in a positively benign light. For instance, take their newly announced Xbox One S hardware- it’s a smaller, better built Xbox One unit, which will be available at the extremely attractive price of $299. That’s damn good, and what’s also good is that all existing accessories and controllers will work for the new console just fine, without needing to fiddle around with any adaptors and what-have-you.

Equally impressive was Microsoft’s Xbox Anywhere initiative, which is essentially their take on Cross Buy, except it extends to literally every single game in their portfolio. All Microsoft games for Xbox One, upcoming as well already released ones, will be made available on Windows 10 as well as Xbox One- and all of them will be available to anyone who buys them once on both platforms. Essentially, you only purchase the license to a game once, and then you can play it anywhere you want, on your terms. That’s some incredible value, right there. Cross Buy is something that Sony and Nintendo have experimented with in the past, but it’s usually been for smaller titles and indie games- Microsoft doing this across their entire lineup is something commendable that deserves to be praised.

MAKING IT ABOUT THE PLAYER

Where the original Xbox One concept was one that only very grudgingly conceded ground to players and gamers, Microsoft’s show today put the player in the front and center- and this was most evident in some of the services that Microsoft announced today. Improvements to the Xbox Live network such as clubs (which seems to be an Xbox riff on the communities concept that already exists on PS4 and Wii U), Looking For groups (to let you basically put out an ad for the kind of player you want to play with on Xbox) to Arena, which is Microsoft’s bid to have a formalized platform for competitive gaming on Xbox Live, it was clear that they were thinking of how to enhance the player’s experience on Xbox through and through. Unlike in 2013, when Microsoft talking about something other than games was your cue to tune out their media or TV nonsense, tonight, when they stopped talking about games, it was only to talk about the player. And that is something that needs to be given due credit.

"Unlike in 2013, when Microsoft talking about something other than games was your cue to tune out their media or TV nonsense, tonight, when they stopped talking about games, it was only to talk about the player."

NO ANNOUNCEMENTS WITHOUT DATES

The one big sticking point for me with E3 in recent years has been the propensity for companies to make announcements for games that are literally years away- often so far from release that they never do release, they get canceled or unrecognizably altered somewhere along the way. And therefore, it is only right that I recognize that Microsoft, who filled their conference to the brim with games, to the extent that it was hard for me to be able to keep up with all the announcements, resisted the temptation to show off anything that was too far from release. In fact, almost every single game that they showed is a game that will be out by this time next year. Very few games, if any at all, were shown off without a date attached to them, and that date was almost always within the next 12 months.

That’s very impressive- it’s a way to properly have an exciting conference without relying on products that literally don’t exist beyond just a name in their creators’ minds.

THE HARDWARE ADVANTAGE

No matter what Microsoft do, however, there is one thing they cannot change, and that is the fact that the Xbox One is weak hardware. It’s not just weaker than the PS4, it’s just weak period. No amount of games, policy changes, or services will change that. So of course, for the final act in their coup de état, Microsoft went ahead and nullified Sony and PS4’s power advantage too. Against all odds, they went ahead and announced the Xbox One Scorpio today- their new, next generation console, one that will be fully backward and forward compatible with the existing Xbox One. The new machine is absurdly powerful, with 6 TFLOPs, and the promise of high end console VR and 4K gaming, and a steady 60Hz frame rate. The Xbox One was hobbled in terms of hardware because Microsoft spent those resources on needless nonsense like Kinect and multimedia functionality instead- and the Xbox One’s weak specs were a ringing reminder of Microsoft’s loss of focus on a daily basis. Now, with the Scorpio being the most powerful console in the world that there is, we have the final, ultimate proof that Microsoft truly are thinking about the players yet again.

The rumors and leaks are being confirmed pretty fast- Microsoft announced today at their E3 press conference their ‘Xbox Anywhere’ initiative, which is essentially going to be their attempt to unify the Windows 10 and Xbox One gaming ecosystems. With Xbox Anywhere, Microsoft will attempt to bring their games to Windows 10, phones, and Xbox, and allow users to play their games anywhere, after paying for them only once- so basically, Cross Buy. This is an idea that the company had already experimented with somewhat with Quantum Break earlier this year.

Microsoft and The Coalition confirmed that Gears of War 4 will be among the very first games to support this feature and initiative, although it will probably not be an unreasonable supposition to assume that all Microsoft first party games going forward will support the program.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information from the Microsoft E3 keynote, right as it comes.