Microsoft's Head Of Pc Gaming Calls It Quits.

[beebskadoo]

Roughly 6 months ago Ex Valve employee Jason Holtman was recruited by Microsoft to spearhead their PC Gaming and Entertainment division. Now some interesting news has emerged, he has left his position at Microsoft. No word what has caused his departure, but it was apparently his decision.

This may have something to do with Satya Nadella taking the wheel as the new CEO, some restructuring has been rumored to take place while the company apparently contemplates killing off Bing search and Xbox. Though we ca only speculate. what is for certain is that a lot of interesting news has sprung out about Microsoft recently, this just adds to the growing list of intriguing happenings.

Does this mean that Microsoft may be cutting back on game support?

Is Direct3D being tossed out along with Xbox and Bing?

Is Microsoft's focus going to be more on cloud and mobile computing?

 

No one knows as of yet, though Satya is being pressured by investors to trim the fat, so what goes and what stays?

 

Interesting times in Redmond...

EDIT

What do you guys think Microsoft's best strategy going forward would be? (in terms of PC gaming)

Source

[asickduckie]

Does this mean that Microsoft may be cutting back on game support?

Is Direct3D being tossed out along with Xbox and Bing?

Is Microsoft's focus going to be more on cloud and mobile computing?

Microsoft hasn't really given a horse's bum about pc gaming for years already. I don't expect that to change. It's a real shame because they could have helped pc gaming become a much bigger thing than it is today (right now pc gaming is still a small minority compared to console playing)

[SpaceSquid]

Well games for windows live is not getting along so well right now... maybe they are gonna replace Xbox with DirectX and make DirectX steamboxes?

[Imabigmac]

IMHO, I do believe that the future will be will be more focused on cloud and mobile computing so if they are focusing more it may not be such a bad thing. 

[beebskadoo]

Microsoft hasn't really given a horse's bum about pc gaming for years already. I don't expect that to change. It's a real shame because they could have helped pc gaming become a much bigger thing than it is today (right now pc gaming is still a small minority compared to console playing)

Yeah, everyone hoped that with an ex-Valve employee at the helm of the PC gaming division there would come a drastic change (for the good) to the company's approach to the PC gaming market.

They probably had him working on the shitty windows store games or something, Microsoft's idea of PC gaming is probably different than ours *cough* farmville *cough*

[beebskadoo]

Well games for windows live is not getting along so well right now... maybe they are gonna replace Xbox with DirectX and make DirectX steamboxes?

Xbox runs directX....

[beebskadoo]

IMHO, I do believe that the future will be will be more focused on cloud and mobile computing so if they are focusing more it may not be such a bad thing. 

Yeah but Microsoft will get left in the dust, Steam Machines and Nvidia Grid are on the horizon, each of them very promising technologies.

[Imabigmac]

Yeah but Microsoft will get left in the dust, Steam Machines and Nvidia Grid are on the horizon, each of them very promising technologies.

That depends if they are deeply investing in more cloud computing it or not. 

[beebskadoo]

That depends if they are deeply investing in in it or not. 

wait...what.

[asickduckie]

Yeah but Microsoft will get left in the dust, Steam Machines and Nvidia Grid are on the horizon, each of them very promising technologies.

Steam machines will be a flop, mark my words. And NVIDIA Grid is still far from becoming reality, especially because of absymal internet speeds and ping in many countries. Not to menion that I think many people wouldn't be keen on paying a monthly fee to use a computer. 

[Imabigmac]

wait...what.

Well if they are spending a boat load of money on R and D for cloud computing, they could stand a chance. Of course I don't think that is happening but you never know. 

[Imabigmac]

Steam machines will be a flop, mark my words. And NVIDIA Grid is still far from becoming reality, especially because of absymal internet speeds and ping in many countries. Not to menion that I think many people wouldn't be keen on paying a monthly fee to use a computer. 

Grid is a good 5-10 years away for sure. 

[asickduckie]

Grid is a good 5-10 years away for sure. 

not with the pathetically low speed at which internet connections in many countries are advancing. 

[beebskadoo]

Steam machines will be a flop, mark my words. And NVIDIA Grid is still far from becoming reality, especially because of absymal internet speeds and ping in many countries. Not to menion that I think many people wouldn't be keen on paying a monthly fee to use a computer. 

I agree they will be, but at least they are moving the market where it needs to go.

Steam Machines would be a lot better if valve clamped down the hardware requirements a bit, give the developers something to code for for christ sake! Open platforms are good but suffer in performance in the long run. they can do yearly releases but keep the hardware within a minimum at least.

[eQuilibrium]

You have been features by Mr.Linus himself .

[beebskadoo]

Grid is a good 5-10 years away for sure. 

But it is the future!

[Kamina]

Casuals lead the company. Clouds for everyone in 2020!

[beebskadoo]

You have been features by Mr.Linus himself .

umm what?

[SpaceSquid]

What if.... MS is working on DirectX 12 which will be a release feature of Windows 9 in collaboration with Nvidia and it's going to destroy Mantle and will give better performance?

[eQuilibrium]

umm what?

Linus featured you on his facebook page..

Go check it out.. 

This thread - Promoted/Featured by LINUSSS

[beebskadoo]

What if.... MS is working on DirectX 12 which will be a release feature of Windows 9 in collaboration with Nvidia and it's going to destroy Mantle and will give better performance?

Not likely, they chose AMD as a hardware partner for Xbox. Not likely either way honestly.

I have a feeling we will be stuck with directX 11 for a while.

[beebskadoo]

Linus featured you on his facebook page..

Go check it out.. 

This thread - Promoted/Featured by LINUSSS

Oh. cool I guess

 

#internetFamous

[Fred Castellum]

What if.... MS is working on DirectX 12 which will be a release feature of Windows 9 in collaboration with Nvidia and it's going to destroy Mantle and will give better performance?

I hope mantle doesn't get crushed... its a really interesting concept. We need more innovative competition! 

[beebskadoo]

What are your thoughts @LinusTech ?

[qwertywarrior]

i give microsoft 10 years  until its downfall