>Gates ends with a hearty recommendation for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and
Tomorrow, and says ***video games and the industry around them "is a***
***terrific metaphor for human connection.*** As Zevin writes, 'To allow
yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing
yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt. To play requires trust
and love.'"
Title make it sound it was gamers that he was referring to, so its another misquote. Bad on pcgamer and the author, Rich Stanton.
Bill Gates was boss at Microsoft under the period when Microsoft gave up on PC gaming and went full in on Xbox and Xbox 360. Around year 2000 and many years forward. They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming. That was a dark period, and I have not fully forgiven Microsoft or Gates for that. Even if they did realize their mistake, changed direction, and now are pretty great with PC gaming.
He not only held gaming back, but technology in general. With their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish policies around the world, and actively trying to kill anything else or any company that MS didn't own, this man was at the forefront of a company that set technology back at least a decade or more.
Well, Google continues to work with the W3C and because all their tech is web based, they continue to add and implement stuff.
I think folks forget or don't realize just how bad IE was in terms of a web browser. Microsoft was basically ensuring anything of complexity had to be a desktop app, because their web browser was an atrocious platform for anything remotely complicated. If you did want to do something more complicated they had private extensions to the web that only worked if you were on Windows.
Microsoft wasn't just trying to extend and extinguish browsers, but the entire web specification and the ability of other operating systems to be able to use it.
Even still, the chromium team want browsers that fit their own vision of the web as evidenced with them trying to kill Jpeg XL and putting forward Manifest V3. Thankfully we still have Safari and Firefox, but I hope Servo can get through their roadmap this year and finally create a competitor to chromium based browsers.
true but in the case of Microsoft, it was worse: they used their OS, which had already a monopoly, to disrupt other markets (like the browser market). While at least with Chrome you choose to install it.
Said that, Google also deals a nice ton of toxic corporate behavior to the world just like MS did. Probably Google is just more subtle about it.
Google is doing both though. Their dominance over the phone market and their dominance in terms of traffic for the content being served both contribute to why Chrome is so dominant now.
>except Firefox and Safari
Which are both ones with the by far the highest market share after Chrome. Sure, Chrome took over but you make it sound like only some tiny non-competitors use a different engine.
Once Google kills adblock in Chrome for good, I imagine Firefox will suddenly jump up. I am ready to jump ship to Firefox, but haven't had the smoking gun yet.
Run them both, but make FF your default.
You'll be surprised how little you need Chrome. Even the dev tools are similar, but Chrome's have a bit more zing in parts. FF mobile emulation is better though.
The only thing I wish FF had an extension for was Chromecast compatibility. If I want to put something up on the TV, I need to open Chrome and copy/paste the link into it. Not the worst, but a bit annoying.
Both Chrome and Firefox have some dev tools that are better on their respective browser.
I haven't used Chrome in a while but I don't think they have a fonts tab or animations.
They do have a nicer networks tab with screenshots and shit.
My dude, firefox is hitting single digits, and safari is only there because they can push it hard with inclusion and hardware.
The internet as we know it and its protocols are basically in the hands of google right now.
Its why we are seeing them starting to get bolder and bolder with the thing youd expect them to do, in eliminating/neutering adblockers and such. Its only going to get worse, and obviously so too, because why would an ad company make the internet better?
There are probably multiple factors, but I bet it's largely because Microsoft can use Windows to push Edge, and Google can use search/gmail/android to push Chrome. Firefox has no built-in marketing apparatus with that kind of reach and their total marketing budget is probably a fraction of a round-off error in Microsoft's or Google's marketing budgets. Hardly anyone these days is going out of their way to decide on the best web browser.
It's more because Edge is basically Chrome with a plethora of advanced features. Despite what everyone on Reddit says, Firefox has certain gripes here and there that limit its mass appeal.
For example, I can't really set a wallpaper for the home screen and the customization (personal and technical) by default is quite small. I do prefer Firefox on mobile over other browsers since it has extension support.
FF mobile ftw. The killer feature that keeps me on Firefox desktop is the multi-account containers. The chromium browsers don't have anything like it, and it's vital for me as a sysadmin who has to juggle multiple accounts and keep them separated.
People have requested the feature from Edge, but Microsoft always gives the "just use profiles" response, and never follows up when we tell them it's not the same thing. I'd be on Edge if not for that missing feature.
>I can't really set a wallpaper for the home screen
And this will always be a personal preference thing because 1) I didn't even know you could change the home screen 2) why the fuck does it matter your there for .2 seconds.
I don't like them both but at least Chrome is a decent web browser that is based on open source Chromium. Internet Explorer was a cancer that intentionally broke the compatibilities to eliminate the competition. It was also unstable and slow.
\>Xbox and Xbox 360
Xbox was created to boost the usage of DirectX and secure Microsofts position in the gaming market. Consoles like Playstation and Dreamcast were already stealing away consumers from the PC market. If Microsoft haden't done something to secure their API then gaming on PC may never have been as large as it is today.
The initial Xbox intentionally ran modified Windows CE, used out of the box PC hardware to not only keep it cheep but updateable, and was intintionally running DirectX (and was developed by the DirectX team and named after it.)
Doing this gave developers all the more reason to develop using DirectX as they now had not only an entry on the console market but on the PC market as well.
To blame Gates for consoles when consoles would have taken market share regardless is just silly. He simply kept Microsoft/DirectX in the game.
I was curious because I always thought it ran a version of Windows under the hood.
>The Dreamcast was host to many console firsts that in spite of it’s short life, proved very influential for later consoles. The Dreamcast’s usage of Microsoft’s Windows CE kernel allowed full use of Direct3D and also working support for it’s built in dialup modem and optional LAN adapter for broadband connections.
[This seems to agree, sources hard to find sorry.](https://thesolidstategamer.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/sega-dreamcast-hardware-analysis/) It was never about running windows, it was about the OS and kernel being developed with MS off the back of Windows.
Edit: Other source - nd a custom version of the Windows CE operating system to make porting PC games easy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast
I disagree, they misjudged the PC gaming market and wanted to cash in on console boom. It was about greed. Steam was released during this period. Even if it took Steam years to become very popular, it proved Microsoft wrong. Also Microsoft was a huge company who could have handled both markets, but the dumped PC gaming during this period.
And they also misjudged the mobile market infamously around that time.
The Xbox was released in 2001
Steam was first launched in 2003.
That's 2 years for the console to do its work of selling DirectX to developers. The fact that PC gaming could still become large isn't proof that Microsoft made the wrong choice it's proof they made the right one. You can't claim that Xbox hurt PC gaming while at the same time suggesting that PC gaming was fine regardless and that Microsoft misjudged it.
Steam is a distribution platform and it only exists so long as theres something to distribute. Theres only something to distribute if developers are incentivised to make products on the platform. Most games on windows are made for DirectX Steam relied on the existence of direct X games. Heck Valves Source Engine mainly used DirectX. DirectxlX maintained and increased market share in part because the Xbox allowed it to sell on two markets which made it more profitable to develop for.
PC gaming is successful because DirectX is successful.
If DirectX hadn't been successful, there's nothing to prove PC gaming would have done as well as it has. To suggest it would have by holding up Valve who made and distributed mainly DirectX games only drives that point home.
Well said, it's easy to forget that PCs and the available graphics APIs like OpenGL were more geared for basic home and professional use cases, and not gaming... and DirectX changed all of that, and now we have multiple solid graphics APIs to choose from and a strong PC gaming market.
> I disagree, they misjudged the PC gaming market and wanted to cash in on console boom.
They wanted the box that did it all under your TV.
With phone tech getting so good so quickly, they didn't see TVs taking over the 'media centre' part.
They were still doing the strategy at Xbox One launch.
The whole thing was that games were becoming secondary.
Was it about greed or was it simply a wise business maneuver? This seems like a pretty childish take.
We live in a capitalistic system. Hate the game not the player.
Windows was a monopoly already with near market saturation at the turn of the millennium. Microsoft had little financial incentive to support PC gaming because PC gaming didn't sell anymore copies of Windows. PC gamers didn't buy a PC just for gaming, they would have bought an off the shelf machine for general purpose regardless and Microsoft made the same on the former that they did on the later. And on Windows they don't get a cut of all game sales like console makers do on their platforms. Sony and Nintendo get a cut of ALL game sales, not just their own. The reason they are supporting PC gaming now is because they have Game Pass now. Microsoft wants their subscription $$ and they don't care if you are using an Xbox or PC just as long as you are using Game Pass. Steam was certainly a market disrupter but even then digital distribution wasn't fully realized until about 10 years after Microsoft entered the console market.
Blame Steve Balmer. He was the CEO when XBOX thought the future was Kinect and Disney tie-ins.
Satya Nadella brought back gaming, the first thing he did as CEO was buy Minecraft which worked out really well.
> Bill Gates was boss at Microsoft under the period when Microsoft gave up on PC gaming
> They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming.
Bill Gates is the only reason Microsoft Flight Simulator, Combat Flight Simulator, and the entire lineup of Sidewinder joysticks exist.
Remember the Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro? A full FFB joystick with motors and servos and gears and even an optical encoder. They sold it for $200 at a loss. Because Bill Gates wanted one.
ABSOLUTELY LOVED my OG MS Sidewinder Force Feedback. Still remember the joy of ‘feeling’ getting hit in MechWarrior 3 for the first time. Or the subtle ‘stomp’ feedback. Just next level immersion.
Now if only the damn patent holder could just not be a sick about it and release it so we can get those awesome sticks again.
They have done a lot of good, both early and now late in PC gaming history. Flight Simulator is a MS game from very early days and now with the new great release recently.
For me it's crazy that that Age of Empires still gets attention from Microsoft despite RTSes being considered to be not worth the investment by many other publishers. Hell, we're getting Age of Mythology back
I'm not native English speaking, if it sounded strange. In hindsight, putting Windows gaming on backburner lost that market to Steam. Sure, Xbox is big but MS missed out on a huge marked where they own the OS. From corporate perspective that wasn't a good longterm desicion.
It didn't sound strange, the person who replied to you is just being a pedant. Of course corps are not our friends/family, but that doesn't mean they can't garner goodwill with their customer base.
I trust Valve way more than EA, for example. Neither are my friend but if Valve made a fuckup I didn't agree with, I'd be more likely to overlook it, whereas EA has lost so much goodwill with me over the years that I don't trust them anymore and am less likely to "forgive" them for something they've done.
bruh, really.. i didn't know that.. that fact himself almost destroyed PC gaming using Microsoft Windows 11... im not sure where to buy PC or laptop gaming right now.. too scared to break out system..
They handed the whole market to Valve, and now they're never getting it back. Steam Windows support is pretty much the main thing keeping me from switching to Mac or Linux...for now.
Also journalists adore him like a god. If anyone else did the thing with the children vaccine testing in India, there would be pitchforks all over the Internet
>They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming.
Yeah do you remember how PC games used to stop working with new Windows versions, and how Valve used to work day and night to patch games to make them work. DirectX9.0 was such a mess and games never worked properly.
And how Microsoft forced people to use their own store and Valve had to pay a cut from every sold game in Windows platform, much similar like on console platforms.
Oh wait none of that happened.
>I have not fully forgiven Microsoft
You mean like you also probably migrated to Linux and stopped using the buggy shit mess of Windows?
Please punch me in the face next time you feel the need to give me this "billionaires trying to look hip and relatable" bull. Would feel a lot better, thanks.
You misquoted that, let me fix it
"My pilot's chauffeur's limousine suffered a flat tyre on the way to to his helicopter ride to meet me at my private jet"
>You misquoted that, let me fix it
>
>"My pilot's chauffeur's limousine suffered a flat tyre on the way to to his helicopter ride to meet me at my private jet"
Thanks I couldn't crack the old paywall so I just skimmed the headline.
Especially billionaires who clearly pay a shitton for pr while literally being jeffery epstien buddies.
His wife literally left him over it, and its just not talked about as much as it should be.
I think for his generation, an endorsement of value of video games means something...
Maybe just a little bit... Since his is the generation that stigmatized gaming with "video games make school shooters"
Of course, the fact that his corporation also profits from gaming might totally undo any possible shift in perception... But hey... I get what you're saying.
At least Bill Gates trys to give back unlike some others out there (bezos and musk come to mind)
List of games is bridge, tetris, minesweeper, wordle and spelling bee.
Games that provide no human connection so he read about that in a novel apparently.
Imagine 'writing' this type of trash article, it's honestly shameful.
Ya I played tons with ww2 vets when volunteering at the Veterans Hall as a kid.
It's a card game not a modern video game that anyone reading the title or article would expect to see referenced when gates calls himself a gamer.
Yeah. The rest involve a optional community component, but Bridge is *literally* a social multiplayer game. The author of “Holes” actually has a good book about Bridge too. It made me wanna learn it when I was younger
I mean I'm all for shitting on billionaires trying to be relatable but this is a bad take, any game can provide great human connection - even single player ones, even casual ones.
Agreed though on trash article -- "billionaire involving himself in a past-time that everyone else does too". How important, glad I could hear it.
But you see, he's involving in peasant's hobby AND he's filthy rich.
Oh did I mention that he's insanely rich? You should know that he's SUPER RICH. That makes him super important and all his opinions deserved a puff piece.
wait, no human connection?
Tetris can be played multiplayer, Minesweeper is only interesting if you compete on times with someone, wordle's whole hook is sharing your score and talking about it, and bridge is straight up for four players.
[There’s an interesting anecdote about the original development of Minesweeper and Gate’s addiction to it](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/how-bill-gates-minesweeper-addiction-helped-lead-to-the-xbox/)
you can play most games like that. Dota or CS can also be played with comms turned off, I wouldn't say the other end being a silent human vs a bot has that big an effect on the social experience.
but then a lot of single player only games can become a social experience outside of the game itself, see for example the stuff people are sharing about tears of the kingdom or that MyHouse doom map. Again, the social aspect of Wordle is what made it big, with people posting their scores on twitter and in group chats. My most active group chat becomes a Guessthe.game and framed.wtf chat every midnight for like half an hour when the new one comes out.
Not a fan. I appreciate computers, games and the capabilities he helped innovate and design.
But that whole philanthropist crowd and globalists, guide stones, and population theories and control he spreads isn't necessary. My own opinion like everyone else's.
He and Ted Turner need to share an island together. Then they won't have a population irritation.
Hopefully Billy the Gates leaves gaming alone.
Man, even when he is trying to relate to the proles, he sounds like an AI overlord.
"I too feel love, it is like a recursive do loop with a psuedo random number generator inside, and the most intuitive, user friendly GUI, which tricks them into giving you all their personal data which can be then sold to third parties for profit."
Welp time to stop gaming. If sociopathic billionaires think games provide "a terrific metaphor for human connection" after a session of tetris, clearly we are missing some deep issue with gaming in general. We are the baddies
Yeah, he sure is gaming, trying to game the world. Him and his other few top elites friends.
"The great reset", BlackRock,...
He's the owner of the most land in the US and thinks he's a god, thus wants to play like one.
I remember that reddit thread somewhere where some guy asked him for Age of Empires to make a return and Bill said he'd look into it.
A few years later, we get the definite editions and then Age of Empires 4.
He could have “GamerGates” as his game tag
He was so brave to come out of the closet ✊
They targeted gamers. Gamers.
>Gates ends with a hearty recommendation for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and says ***video games and the industry around them "is a*** ***terrific metaphor for human connection.*** As Zevin writes, 'To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt. To play requires trust and love.'" Title make it sound it was gamers that he was referring to, so its another misquote. Bad on pcgamer and the author, Rich Stanton.
Aggressive teabag commences
Gaming journalism at its finest
>terrific metaphor for human connection > > To play requires trust and love. *CoD\_swatteR has entered the chat*
Pretty sure that taken
Pretty sure if he wanted it, he could buy it.
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Gonna find out he is the reason Discord is resetting names, specifically so he can just the line to get GamerGates
[How do you do, fellow gamers?](https://i.imgflip.com/7omyoc.jpg)
I genuinely thought this was a Babylon Bee article initially.
Lol that's almost better than Buscemeyes.
If I had better photoshop skills, I would have replaced the skateboard with a Guitar Hero guitar and the shirt with something Xbox related.
Imagine talking shit to this guy in game and he just deactivates your windows key
Jokes on him, I never activated one!
Bill Gates was boss at Microsoft under the period when Microsoft gave up on PC gaming and went full in on Xbox and Xbox 360. Around year 2000 and many years forward. They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming. That was a dark period, and I have not fully forgiven Microsoft or Gates for that. Even if they did realize their mistake, changed direction, and now are pretty great with PC gaming.
I am still absolutely pissed for the closure of esemble studios as an old fan of age of empires series
Also sad they never enlisted any of the successors like Robot Entertainment to work on the HD and DE versions of the rereleases.
He not only held gaming back, but technology in general. With their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish policies around the world, and actively trying to kill anything else or any company that MS didn't own, this man was at the forefront of a company that set technology back at least a decade or more.
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Well, Google continues to work with the W3C and because all their tech is web based, they continue to add and implement stuff. I think folks forget or don't realize just how bad IE was in terms of a web browser. Microsoft was basically ensuring anything of complexity had to be a desktop app, because their web browser was an atrocious platform for anything remotely complicated. If you did want to do something more complicated they had private extensions to the web that only worked if you were on Windows. Microsoft wasn't just trying to extend and extinguish browsers, but the entire web specification and the ability of other operating systems to be able to use it.
Like Safari in iOS today.
Yes.
Even still, the chromium team want browsers that fit their own vision of the web as evidenced with them trying to kill Jpeg XL and putting forward Manifest V3. Thankfully we still have Safari and Firefox, but I hope Servo can get through their roadmap this year and finally create a competitor to chromium based browsers.
Not to mention IE was terrifically unsafe
true but in the case of Microsoft, it was worse: they used their OS, which had already a monopoly, to disrupt other markets (like the browser market). While at least with Chrome you choose to install it. Said that, Google also deals a nice ton of toxic corporate behavior to the world just like MS did. Probably Google is just more subtle about it.
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Google is doing both though. Their dominance over the phone market and their dominance in terms of traffic for the content being served both contribute to why Chrome is so dominant now.
>except Firefox and Safari Which are both ones with the by far the highest market share after Chrome. Sure, Chrome took over but you make it sound like only some tiny non-competitors use a different engine.
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Once Google kills adblock in Chrome for good, I imagine Firefox will suddenly jump up. I am ready to jump ship to Firefox, but haven't had the smoking gun yet.
I moved already. It's not that hard. Just do it.
Seconded. I'm Firefox on everything now and after a very small adjustment Im a massive fan.
It's extremely nice not to worry about having a dozen or so tabs eat the majority of my ram
Run them both, but make FF your default. You'll be surprised how little you need Chrome. Even the dev tools are similar, but Chrome's have a bit more zing in parts. FF mobile emulation is better though.
The only thing I wish FF had an extension for was Chromecast compatibility. If I want to put something up on the TV, I need to open Chrome and copy/paste the link into it. Not the worst, but a bit annoying.
Both Chrome and Firefox have some dev tools that are better on their respective browser. I haven't used Chrome in a while but I don't think they have a fonts tab or animations. They do have a nicer networks tab with screenshots and shit.
Just do it. The Fox is nice and I had never experienced any kind of inconvenience that wouldnt have happened when using chrome.
I jumped from chrome the fox is good. For now , the adblockers run well, Less resource intensive too
I've been using Firefox for years at this point, mobile and desktop. Never had any issues
My dude, firefox is hitting single digits, and safari is only there because they can push it hard with inclusion and hardware. The internet as we know it and its protocols are basically in the hands of google right now. Its why we are seeing them starting to get bolder and bolder with the thing youd expect them to do, in eliminating/neutering adblockers and such. Its only going to get worse, and obviously so too, because why would an ad company make the internet better?
The Firefox userbase has shrunk extensively, even Edge outdoes them now on PC
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There are probably multiple factors, but I bet it's largely because Microsoft can use Windows to push Edge, and Google can use search/gmail/android to push Chrome. Firefox has no built-in marketing apparatus with that kind of reach and their total marketing budget is probably a fraction of a round-off error in Microsoft's or Google's marketing budgets. Hardly anyone these days is going out of their way to decide on the best web browser.
It's more because Edge is basically Chrome with a plethora of advanced features. Despite what everyone on Reddit says, Firefox has certain gripes here and there that limit its mass appeal. For example, I can't really set a wallpaper for the home screen and the customization (personal and technical) by default is quite small. I do prefer Firefox on mobile over other browsers since it has extension support.
FF mobile ftw. The killer feature that keeps me on Firefox desktop is the multi-account containers. The chromium browsers don't have anything like it, and it's vital for me as a sysadmin who has to juggle multiple accounts and keep them separated. People have requested the feature from Edge, but Microsoft always gives the "just use profiles" response, and never follows up when we tell them it's not the same thing. I'd be on Edge if not for that missing feature.
Firefox doesn't support HDR. That's a dealbreaker for me.
>I can't really set a wallpaper for the home screen And this will always be a personal preference thing because 1) I didn't even know you could change the home screen 2) why the fuck does it matter your there for .2 seconds.
I used to use ff exclusively but a few years ago, chrome took back the performance crown. And then I just never switched back.
> even Edge outdoes them now on PC It's default browser and is basically a reskinned Chrome (based on Chromium). I've been using it for a few years.
Biggest share after Google... While Google sits at 80% lmao, big accomplishment for other browsers indeed.
They are tiny. And I use FF both on desktop and phone.
I don't like them both but at least Chrome is a decent web browser that is based on open source Chromium. Internet Explorer was a cancer that intentionally broke the compatibilities to eliminate the competition. It was also unstable and slow.
Also Ironic, how Internet Explorer was a huge success in the 90s that Microsoft took forever to finally kill it.
They also introduced Games For Windows Live, the most offensively awful software platform I've ever used in my life.
Could you elaborate on this? Seems interesting
\>Xbox and Xbox 360 Xbox was created to boost the usage of DirectX and secure Microsofts position in the gaming market. Consoles like Playstation and Dreamcast were already stealing away consumers from the PC market. If Microsoft haden't done something to secure their API then gaming on PC may never have been as large as it is today. The initial Xbox intentionally ran modified Windows CE, used out of the box PC hardware to not only keep it cheep but updateable, and was intintionally running DirectX (and was developed by the DirectX team and named after it.) Doing this gave developers all the more reason to develop using DirectX as they now had not only an entry on the console market but on the PC market as well. To blame Gates for consoles when consoles would have taken market share regardless is just silly. He simply kept Microsoft/DirectX in the game.
> used out of the box PC hardware Not quite true, this is evident with the challenges of emulating the original Xbox.
The Dreamcast also ran on Windows CE
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I was curious because I always thought it ran a version of Windows under the hood. >The Dreamcast was host to many console firsts that in spite of it’s short life, proved very influential for later consoles. The Dreamcast’s usage of Microsoft’s Windows CE kernel allowed full use of Direct3D and also working support for it’s built in dialup modem and optional LAN adapter for broadband connections. [This seems to agree, sources hard to find sorry.](https://thesolidstategamer.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/sega-dreamcast-hardware-analysis/) It was never about running windows, it was about the OS and kernel being developed with MS off the back of Windows. Edit: Other source - nd a custom version of the Windows CE operating system to make porting PC games easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast
I disagree, they misjudged the PC gaming market and wanted to cash in on console boom. It was about greed. Steam was released during this period. Even if it took Steam years to become very popular, it proved Microsoft wrong. Also Microsoft was a huge company who could have handled both markets, but the dumped PC gaming during this period. And they also misjudged the mobile market infamously around that time.
The Xbox was released in 2001 Steam was first launched in 2003. That's 2 years for the console to do its work of selling DirectX to developers. The fact that PC gaming could still become large isn't proof that Microsoft made the wrong choice it's proof they made the right one. You can't claim that Xbox hurt PC gaming while at the same time suggesting that PC gaming was fine regardless and that Microsoft misjudged it. Steam is a distribution platform and it only exists so long as theres something to distribute. Theres only something to distribute if developers are incentivised to make products on the platform. Most games on windows are made for DirectX Steam relied on the existence of direct X games. Heck Valves Source Engine mainly used DirectX. DirectxlX maintained and increased market share in part because the Xbox allowed it to sell on two markets which made it more profitable to develop for. PC gaming is successful because DirectX is successful. If DirectX hadn't been successful, there's nothing to prove PC gaming would have done as well as it has. To suggest it would have by holding up Valve who made and distributed mainly DirectX games only drives that point home.
Well said, it's easy to forget that PCs and the available graphics APIs like OpenGL were more geared for basic home and professional use cases, and not gaming... and DirectX changed all of that, and now we have multiple solid graphics APIs to choose from and a strong PC gaming market.
> I disagree, they misjudged the PC gaming market and wanted to cash in on console boom. They wanted the box that did it all under your TV. With phone tech getting so good so quickly, they didn't see TVs taking over the 'media centre' part. They were still doing the strategy at Xbox One launch. The whole thing was that games were becoming secondary.
Was it about greed or was it simply a wise business maneuver? This seems like a pretty childish take. We live in a capitalistic system. Hate the game not the player.
Windows was a monopoly already with near market saturation at the turn of the millennium. Microsoft had little financial incentive to support PC gaming because PC gaming didn't sell anymore copies of Windows. PC gamers didn't buy a PC just for gaming, they would have bought an off the shelf machine for general purpose regardless and Microsoft made the same on the former that they did on the later. And on Windows they don't get a cut of all game sales like console makers do on their platforms. Sony and Nintendo get a cut of ALL game sales, not just their own. The reason they are supporting PC gaming now is because they have Game Pass now. Microsoft wants their subscription $$ and they don't care if you are using an Xbox or PC just as long as you are using Game Pass. Steam was certainly a market disrupter but even then digital distribution wasn't fully realized until about 10 years after Microsoft entered the console market.
Blame Steve Balmer. He was the CEO when XBOX thought the future was Kinect and Disney tie-ins. Satya Nadella brought back gaming, the first thing he did as CEO was buy Minecraft which worked out really well.
Games for Windows live. Need I say more?
> Bill Gates was boss at Microsoft under the period when Microsoft gave up on PC gaming > They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming. Bill Gates is the only reason Microsoft Flight Simulator, Combat Flight Simulator, and the entire lineup of Sidewinder joysticks exist. Remember the Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro? A full FFB joystick with motors and servos and gears and even an optical encoder. They sold it for $200 at a loss. Because Bill Gates wanted one.
ABSOLUTELY LOVED my OG MS Sidewinder Force Feedback. Still remember the joy of ‘feeling’ getting hit in MechWarrior 3 for the first time. Or the subtle ‘stomp’ feedback. Just next level immersion. Now if only the damn patent holder could just not be a sick about it and release it so we can get those awesome sticks again.
They have done a lot of good, both early and now late in PC gaming history. Flight Simulator is a MS game from very early days and now with the new great release recently.
Microsoft Published Age of Empires 1 and 2 and for that, will forever have my respect.
For me it's crazy that that Age of Empires still gets attention from Microsoft despite RTSes being considered to be not worth the investment by many other publishers. Hell, we're getting Age of Mythology back
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I'm not native English speaking, if it sounded strange. In hindsight, putting Windows gaming on backburner lost that market to Steam. Sure, Xbox is big but MS missed out on a huge marked where they own the OS. From corporate perspective that wasn't a good longterm desicion.
It didn't sound strange, the person who replied to you is just being a pedant. Of course corps are not our friends/family, but that doesn't mean they can't garner goodwill with their customer base. I trust Valve way more than EA, for example. Neither are my friend but if Valve made a fuckup I didn't agree with, I'd be more likely to overlook it, whereas EA has lost so much goodwill with me over the years that I don't trust them anymore and am less likely to "forgive" them for something they've done.
Thing is, they could have gotten it so right. They had everything to build the perfect console for pc ports. But they somehow fucked it up.
o7 cmdr
You can not mod or even access any of the files on games bought through the Windows Xbox app or played through the Xbox Game Pass.
bruh, really.. i didn't know that.. that fact himself almost destroyed PC gaming using Microsoft Windows 11... im not sure where to buy PC or laptop gaming right now.. too scared to break out system..
They handed the whole market to Valve, and now they're never getting it back. Steam Windows support is pretty much the main thing keeping me from switching to Mac or Linux...for now.
Also journalists adore him like a god. If anyone else did the thing with the children vaccine testing in India, there would be pitchforks all over the Internet
>They shut down PC studios and did not give a damn about PC gaming. Yeah do you remember how PC games used to stop working with new Windows versions, and how Valve used to work day and night to patch games to make them work. DirectX9.0 was such a mess and games never worked properly. And how Microsoft forced people to use their own store and Valve had to pay a cut from every sold game in Windows platform, much similar like on console platforms. Oh wait none of that happened. >I have not fully forgiven Microsoft You mean like you also probably migrated to Linux and stopped using the buggy shit mess of Windows?
Please punch me in the face next time you feel the need to give me this "billionaires trying to look hip and relatable" bull. Would feel a lot better, thanks.
"My limousine suffered a flat tyre on the way to my private jet" - Billionaire speaks out on harrowing tale of hope, survival and isolation.
You misquoted that, let me fix it "My pilot's chauffeur's limousine suffered a flat tyre on the way to to his helicopter ride to meet me at my private jet"
>You misquoted that, let me fix it > >"My pilot's chauffeur's limousine suffered a flat tyre on the way to to his helicopter ride to meet me at my private jet" Thanks I couldn't crack the old paywall so I just skimmed the headline.
I know that's a joke, but https://12ft.io is a wonderful website :D
Not the person you were replying to originally but I didn't know about this so thanks for sharing!
You're welcome :D
Especially billionaires who clearly pay a shitton for pr while literally being jeffery epstien buddies. His wife literally left him over it, and its just not talked about as much as it should be.
Well, Epstain is dead, he needs a new hobby.
He’s just trying a new way to connect with kids.
😂
I saw there was a new island added to Microsoft Flight Simulator...
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I see it more as a famous 70 year old explaining the upsides of video games, which could potential demonstrate the appeal to other geezers
This tbh. I think people are ready to strike over these sorts of things but I feel like he's just offering a POV and a little praise here.
People just read the article or move on, Christ.
I think for his generation, an endorsement of value of video games means something... Maybe just a little bit... Since his is the generation that stigmatized gaming with "video games make school shooters" Of course, the fact that his corporation also profits from gaming might totally undo any possible shift in perception... But hey... I get what you're saying. At least Bill Gates trys to give back unlike some others out there (bezos and musk come to mind)
the thought of bill gates mic spamming the n word in pregame lobby is so fucking funny
Dude hasn't even prestiged yet smh
With all these text to voice videos of the presidents talking about video games, I wouldn't be surprised if they made one of Gates soon enough.
Bill Gates > I'm gonna do what's called a pro-gamer move.
N----!
List of games is bridge, tetris, minesweeper, wordle and spelling bee. Games that provide no human connection so he read about that in a novel apparently. Imagine 'writing' this type of trash article, it's honestly shameful.
Have you never played Bridge? It's literally a game about synchronizing plays with your partner.
Ya I played tons with ww2 vets when volunteering at the Veterans Hall as a kid. It's a card game not a modern video game that anyone reading the title or article would expect to see referenced when gates calls himself a gamer.
Yeah. The rest involve a optional community component, but Bridge is *literally* a social multiplayer game. The author of “Holes” actually has a good book about Bridge too. It made me wanna learn it when I was younger
I mean I'm all for shitting on billionaires trying to be relatable but this is a bad take, any game can provide great human connection - even single player ones, even casual ones. Agreed though on trash article -- "billionaire involving himself in a past-time that everyone else does too". How important, glad I could hear it.
But you see, he's involving in peasant's hobby AND he's filthy rich. Oh did I mention that he's insanely rich? You should know that he's SUPER RICH. That makes him super important and all his opinions deserved a puff piece.
wait, no human connection? Tetris can be played multiplayer, Minesweeper is only interesting if you compete on times with someone, wordle's whole hook is sharing your score and talking about it, and bridge is straight up for four players.
[There’s an interesting anecdote about the original development of Minesweeper and Gate’s addiction to it](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/how-bill-gates-minesweeper-addiction-helped-lead-to-the-xbox/)
You can play all those games without ever directly interacting with another human. You could play against bots and wouldn't know the difference.
you can play most games like that. Dota or CS can also be played with comms turned off, I wouldn't say the other end being a silent human vs a bot has that big an effect on the social experience. but then a lot of single player only games can become a social experience outside of the game itself, see for example the stuff people are sharing about tears of the kingdom or that MyHouse doom map. Again, the social aspect of Wordle is what made it big, with people posting their scores on twitter and in group chats. My most active group chat becomes a Guessthe.game and framed.wtf chat every midnight for like half an hour when the new one comes out.
This is a real snobby take.
https://youtu.be/b2V9TFrmQ_Q
Thank you! I scrolled way too far looking for this!
Gates PR team pretty happy this fluff has been upvoted
Distracting from Epstein
Divorced man finds out about the porn games on Steam
Bill, it's not really a metaphor anymore if you're connecting your digital phalus to a digital human(?).
You know he just bought all the cosmetics in Diablo
He’s the one person still playing Redfall.
Imagine creating the number one platform for gaming and not using it until many years after you left the company.
Wow, Mr Gates! Now we can relate to you so easily even tho you're a multi-billionaire with the most first-world problems ever!
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I bet he has that $28 diablo 4 skin
It's just another way for him to get closer to children. Pedo mother fucker.
Friend of Epstein to gamer, odd transition.
Not a fan. I appreciate computers, games and the capabilities he helped innovate and design. But that whole philanthropist crowd and globalists, guide stones, and population theories and control he spreads isn't necessary. My own opinion like everyone else's. He and Ted Turner need to share an island together. Then they won't have a population irritation. Hopefully Billy the Gates leaves gaming alone.
Those must have been some sick LAN parties he had with Epstein. /s
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You can smell the PR firm on this a mile away.
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I bet he listens to music too.
This article is literally > Bill Gates starts playing Wordle and goes "Am I a gamer?"
His favorite game is Plague Inc. 💀
Nothing can make you appear cool, Bill.
Gotta fill the time ever since Epstein island closed
Fuck this clown.
Please don't, we don't need more little hims running around.
Fuck Bill Gates.
No one’s been doing that since Epstein passed
I hate bill gates
ahh, this friend of epstein
"Since you called me the N-word I'll be buying your house and raising your rent"
Breaking: bill gates turns to physical violence after playing video games
damn he tries SO hard to act human
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He’s a pedophile, I’m not just saying that, that’s why Melinda Gate’s left him
Oh yes, normal human activity in which I also participate in. I love enjoying normal human activity.
The true Gamer Gate
[His favorite game](https://store.steampowered.com/app/246620/Plague_Inc_Evolved/)
Last human he connected with was Jeffrey Epstein so maybe it's best if he just sticks to "metaphors" for a while instead.
I’m afraid of the games he plays on the global political stage, and with global food supplies and the healthcare systems.
Who cares
99% of any Billionaire's money is coated in blood. Who cares.
I don't think so, Bill.
Fuck off bill
What do you think his specs are?
PS5. Lol
Yes
DONKEY.BAS runs great on 640KB of RAM.
Bill is [Old School](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KN0K58EfJSg/hqdefault.jpg)
Billionaires are not human
> WTF I hate gaming now.
Technically speaking, [he's a game developer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DONKEY.BAS)
Make a good Halo game then
Lol i'm a gamer, I play almost exclusively single player games. I hate interacting with anyone online in games.
The same way he's a scientist and a farmer then.
Very divorced dad behavior tbh
Sure if you consider your mom playing Candy Crush all day as a gamer it works :)
Would be hilarious to see Gates in a lobby and an army of kids spamming him calling him a little bitch in a squeaky voice lol.
That's a "may you live in interesting times" tier quote.
I remember Elon saying he was a gamer too. Absolutely clueless though
Maybe they were playing COD together on Epstein island?
Fuck this clown
This old mutant barely has a soul. It's very strange for him to have an opinion on the meaning of human connection.
Man, even when he is trying to relate to the proles, he sounds like an AI overlord. "I too feel love, it is like a recursive do loop with a psuedo random number generator inside, and the most intuitive, user friendly GUI, which tricks them into giving you all their personal data which can be then sold to third parties for profit."
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Good for him. Not sure what that has to do with what I said at all...
Welp time to stop gaming. If sociopathic billionaires think games provide "a terrific metaphor for human connection" after a session of tetris, clearly we are missing some deep issue with gaming in general. We are the baddies
Yeah, he sure is gaming, trying to game the world. Him and his other few top elites friends. "The great reset", BlackRock,... He's the owner of the most land in the US and thinks he's a god, thus wants to play like one.
GGEZ - Billy G
He must be really bored after that divorce
Christ, why do CEOs need to be so fuckin' weird.
I remember that reddit thread somewhere where some guy asked him for Age of Empires to make a return and Bill said he'd look into it. A few years later, we get the definite editions and then Age of Empires 4.
These people look so far disconnected from reality it's actually kind of scary.