Spencer on why some Xbox One games aren't coming to PC
With the announcement that Halo Wars 2 was coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, and following recent confirmation that games like Killer Instinct and Gears of War: Unlimited Edition are both heading to PC and console alike, it's clear that Microsoft is taking the platform seriously.
Of course there's still plenty of Xbox One games that are not planned to release on both platforms, and PC Gamer put the question to Xbox chief Phil Spencer, asking why games like Quantum Break weren't coming to PC:
"In the case of things like Scalebound or Crackdown or Quantum Break, you know, just to be completely honest with you, we started those games before we really looked at expanding into Windows in the way that I wanted to bring as part of becoming head of Xbox.
"Going to those teams mid-cycle and saying: ‘Hey, by the way, I want to add a platform,' didn't really feel like necessarily the best way to end up with the best result for the game. They had a path that they were on. It's not to say those games could never come to Windows, but right now we're on the path to finish the great games that they've started, and I want that to be the case. These games are on a path, whereas with, like, Halo Wars 2 I had the opportunity from the beginning, when we're sitting down with the studio, to say, ‘Here's the target. Here's what we wanna go do.'
"Even with Gears, like the Gears 1 remake, we thought about framerate, we thought about multiplayer. The opportunity to bring it to Windows in a refreshed way felt like a great opportunity from the beginning. I'm trying to be more deliberate in the choices that we make."
So there you have it, confirmation that as it stands all three games are only heading to Microsoft's console, but also a hint that they might one day make it to PC too.
