Microsoft Wants to Know Why Some Developers Aren’t Interested in Xbox

Tsing

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Microsoft has shared an update regarding Xbox Research, a division that the company launched to help shape the future of Xbox game development, and with it comes the news that the Windows maker is now using it to get a better idea of why some developers are avoiding the Xbox platform.

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Probably because players aren't interested in XB either? 😁

I suppose you are correct.

Why spend the money to develop a game for a platform if the player base is smaller?

Seeing that Xbox is essentially just a streamlined and embedded windows machine at this point, why not just create xbox interface "wrappers" with pre-set config files and controller bindings that set optimal settings for xbox, and just run the PC version of the games?

This should make it easier and cheaper for developers to launch on the platform if they plan on making a PC version anyway.
 
... and yet, PC gamers salivate all over themselves whenever they hear a Sony PS title is being ported over to PC.
 
... and yet, PC gamers salivate all over themselves whenever they hear a Sony PS title is being ported over to PC.

They do?

I can't think of a single one I have been interested in playing. I guess I'm no longer the mainstream gamer though. I feel like back in 1999-2003 or so I may have been, but I guess that was a long time ago now. :/
 
I'm thinking it's a combination of lower playerbase and the Xbox Series S requirement.

Sure, you could argue why port a title to Xbox from the PS because the playerbase is small, but there is still a playerbase, and I bet porting a PS5 to Xbox Series X is fairly trivial due to their hardware similarities. However, when you throw on the Series S requirement (and don't forget the bulk of the Xbox playerbase is using a Series S), that porting isn't so trivial.
 
A friend of mine said that it's "obvious that MS isn't prioritizing Xbox, so why should devs?" Indeed, GamePass is their platform now. And Microsoft doesn't do big-name exclusives anymore (or at least ones that anyone cares about, cuz some like Halo Infinite are basically flops), and that's always been what mainly drives sales of consoles. 3rd-party games can be played on most platforms, and the player gets the choice of choosing the platform they feel the game plays best on. But exclusives are locked to the system, and those become the real reason why a console gamer chooses to buy one platform over another. Sony and Nintendo still roll with those old-school rules, although Sony is wisening up and putting their big hits on PC, even if it's a few years later. Nintendo doesn't, hence the widespread use of Switch emulation, which they've finally been getting real sore about. But Microsoft, they don't really got much to pull players in to their platform. They own a lot of IPs now with the companies they've bought, but they're not really making good use, or any use, of any of them.

I do appreciate that Microsoft started throwing their games on PC long before Sony did, cuz people like me who have been grabbing consoles since 2nd-gen are grateful that we can play these games on PC where we wanted to play them to begin with. But Microsoft should understand that having games available on PC means less reason to buy their consoles (probably why Sony waits a few years). On PC Microsoft tried to make their games exclusive to UWP (just like GFW/GFWL before it) but PC gamers weren't having that bullsh1t, so they relented and allowed their games to be sold on other storefronts like Steam (still waiting for them to put their games on GOG though, as Sony did with some of their games). But they HOPE we'll choose UWP/GamePass instead (we won't). So if there are other choices on PC, and there's no heavy-hitting excusives on their Xbox consoles, what good then is the Xbox brand really? Why would devs wants to put their sh1t on a Microsoft platform when Sony and even Nintendo have a higher installed base? There's nothing drawing people to Xbox, aside from those who find value in GamePass. Microsoft essentially did that to themselves.


I'm thinking it's a combination of lower playerbase and the Xbox Series S requirement.

Sure, you could argue why port a title to Xbox from the PS because the playerbase is small, but there is still a playerbase, and I bet porting a PS5 to Xbox Series X is fairly trivial due to their hardware similarities. However, when you throw on the Series S requirement (and don't forget the bulk of the Xbox playerbase is using a Series S), that porting isn't so trivial.
I keep forgetting about XBSS. Yeah, devs have been real sore about it, and how it's been holding back development and releases of games. Really holding back 9th-gen as a whole. Console devs used to love how consoles were fixed hardware. PS4 Pro and XB1X changed all that (and honestly before that, the Nintendo DSi compared to the DS, and the New 3DS compared to the 3DS). Console hardware was no longer a single SKU performance wise, and console devs had to get more used to a PC-like way of things, with different settings for games depending on the hardware. By the end of 8th-gen you saw base XB1 and PS4 struggling to run games cuz devs were focusing development around the more powerful versions. Same thing happened too with the DS and especially 3DS. Probably gonna happen again for 9th-gen too. Well technically it already has thanks to XBSS. PS5 and XBSX set a bare minimum for 9th-gen, and XBSS falling below that has kinda f*cked with devs.
 
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I'm thinking it's a combination of lower playerbase and the Xbox Series S requirement.

Sure, you could argue why port a title to Xbox from the PS because the playerbase is small, but there is still a playerbase, and I bet porting a PS5 to Xbox Series X is fairly trivial due to their hardware similarities. However, when you throw on the Series S requirement (and don't forget the bulk of the Xbox playerbase is using a Series S), that porting isn't so trivial.

Huh. I always pictured it would just be a matter of hard coding different quality level settings to make it playable, and otherwise pretty much the same.

You know, similar to pulling out a RX 6800, installing an RX 6400 and changing the settings to low, on a PC :p

I mean, the architecture is the same (just lower clocks and fewer cores) and the operating system is the same...

How hard could it be?
 
They do?

I can't think of a single one I have been interested in playing. I guess I'm no longer the mainstream gamer though. I feel like back in 1999-2003 or so I may have been, but I guess that was a long time ago now. :/
I’m right there with you. The last time I wanted a platform for a specific game was a Sega Genesis for Sonic and mortal kombat. I did pickup a Wii to play a few games with the wife, and that was my only console purchase since the genesis. This year, according to Steam, I’ve played: Baulder’s Gate 3, Stellaris, Battletech, and warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. Outside of Steam I’ve played Mechwarrior Online. don’t really feel like I’m missing anything
 
Sure, you could argue why port a title to Xbox from the PS because the playerbase is small,
Smaller, not that small, you can easily sell a couple million extra games if the game is good, Xbox series has what? 40 million consoles sold, that's substantial enough to warrant a port, but as you said the series S is holding them back
 
Huh. I always pictured it would just be a matter of hard coding different quality level settings to make it playable, and otherwise pretty much the same.

You know, similar to pulling out a RX 6800, installing an RX 6400 and changing the settings to low, on a PC :p

I mean, the architecture is the same (just lower clocks and fewer cores) and the operating system is the same...

How hard could it be?

Yeah, that's what I thought the S conversion would be like when MS first announced it (and it made sense). Going by what rumour sites leak out, it was the lower RAM of the S that's been the biggest hurdle for ports.
 
This should make it easier and cheaper for developers to launch on the platform if they plan on making a PC version anyway.
I’ve always been confused on why they haven’t done this. Seems like a no brainer that their APIs should allow for easy portability. I’m sure MS would argue they already do - but it’s obviously not nearly close enough or you wouldn’t be asking this question.
 
... or you wouldn’t be asking this question.

I don't work in game development, so I don't know how hard it is or isn't, but just based on the fact that this type of developer reluctance to port is happening, I'm assuming that this isn't the case. Who knows though. Maybe they just like being whiny.
 
Going by what rumour sites leak out, it was the lower RAM of the S that's been the biggest hurdle for ports.

Doesn't it have like 10 gigs of RAM though?

I mean, I know this is split between the GPU and main system, but if it is designed intelligently that shouldn't matter much, as on a PC most games have to have the assets both in system RAM and in GPU RAM in case they need to be dropped and quickly reacquired. I would assume (but I don't know for a fact) that having unified video/GPU RAM results in a lot of deduplication and more efficient use of RAM.
 
It is my understanding that developing games for the XBOX platform is rather difficult. If that's the case, it probably comes down to the tools that Microsoft gives developers to create titles for their platform that suck. The platform may also have certain limitations compared to the PS4/5, I do not know enough about their technical capabilities to say that for certain but it could be a factor.

Plus, for the longest time the Playstation had far better exclusives for their console compared to Microsoft.

Then as I understand it, the sales numbers are getting to the point where people don't want to develop for the XBOX because the return on investment isn't really there. That seems like a chicken or the egg kind of argument to me. If there were more games on the platform, the ROI would likely be there.
 
I don't work in game development, so I don't know how hard it is or isn't, but just based on the fact that this type of developer reluctance to port is happening, I'm assuming that this isn't the case. Who knows though. Maybe they just like being whiny.
Sorry, I should have made my post clear - when I said "you wouldn't be asking this question" I was speaking more to the title of the article: Microsoft or the general public. Not "you" as in Zath. But that is exactly how it reads, so my mistake.
 
IT's probably why single parents of special needs children have a hard time finding a wife/husband/partner.

It's not them... it's the xbox series S.
 
It is my understanding that developing games for the XBOX platform is rather difficult. If that's the case, it probably comes down to the tools that Microsoft gives developers to create titles for their platform that suck.
See, this is exactly what I was wondering about. The reason Xbox 360 was the lead development platform during 7th-gen (even among Japanese devs) was because of Microsoft's tools and development environment. Back then I was loosely working in the game industry, in a company that did freelance software QA. Most our clients were game devs. Developers used to praise Microsoft's development tools back then. It's what made them focus development around the X360, then port over to PS3. Microsoft was also known for having other superior features in their console, like the upscaler for example. Most 7th-gen games were 720p games, but the X360 usually showed them at 1080p, while PS3 stuck to 720p output. If you forced the PS3 to present the games at 1080p, they looked worse. Other devs like id Software used their own techniques that were superior, but most devs used the default Microsoft one, and it worked pretty dang well. There were all these little bits and pieces across the software stack here and there that devs just really appreciated.

So my question is, what the F*CK happened between then and now to make Microsoft's development environment the lesser one? Now I do realize that PS4 and PS5 were made by Mark Cerny, and a lot of PS4's success with developers was due to the better development environment and tools (which especially coming right after PS3, that and the sensible hardware design were like an oasis in a desert, and devs were thirsty). But I didn't think Sony could beat Microsoft at their own game. Apparently that has happened though. Yeah base XB1 having worst specs than base PS4 didn't help, but I heard dev tools was a large factor. So I assume the same advantage remains for PS5. But what's going on at Microsoft that they can't get their SDK crown back?

Plus, for the longest time the Playstation had far better exclusives for their console compared to Microsoft.
Indeed, which I touched upon in my previous post. That's one of the main things that got Microsoft during 8th-gen, and I think the trend continued for this current gen.
 
But what's going on at Microsoft that they can't get their SDK crown back?
Honestly... I think MS is more interested in cloud than console any more. The purpose of a console for them is to consume cloud resources. If they were not competing with PlayStation and others they would already have a small set box that just enables console play and supports multiple peripherals at additional cost.

Heck they tried to do that a couple decades ago but were largely ahead of their time and too expensive.
 
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