Is the Microsoft culture changing?(LOOOONG READ)

I was inspired to create this thread after briefly chatting with a Microsoft employee when I was in New York city recently. One thing he said that caught my attention was that the culture of Microsoft is slowly changing from one that is men in business suits to one that mostly cares about tech and the future of tech. And it caught my attention because I too been noticing that. This thread isn't just about Microsoft in gaming but Microsoft as a whole.

Microsoft gets a lot of hate whether in gaming or outside of it and for good reasons. They are looked at as a archetypal of what an evil big corporation is about in electronics. Back in the day the tried to monopolize the OS market. When it came to PC gaming they tried to nickel and dime PC gamers which left even till this day very hated scar on PC gamers from MS. We all know about Games for Windows Live. And with the Xbox they also tried nickel and diming and the one I hated the most was having to have an Xbox Live subscription just to use netflix(which I'm GLAD is gone now!)....

Again my point is MS has left a very bad taste in peoples mouth outside and inside of gaming. You had Steve Ballmer who in my opinion was a big quack who didn't give to sh*ts about making MS innovative, but was just a man in a business suit who only cared if products were selling. He wasn't a tech guy like at least Bill Gates was.

But going into the Xbox brand. The original Xbox was an alright console but it was the 360 that really put the Xbox brand on the map. Whether you liked the 360 or not it was a GAMING console for GAMERS from 2005-2009. It was kicking a lot of ass especially in 2006 and 2007 with games like Gears, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Crackdown and many more. Its wicked bladed interface(god I miss it!) was even themed for gamers. Sure the 360 was a faulty piss of shit with hardware issues but the 360 early on was when MS was for GAMERS. Peter Moore knew what gamers wanted because he too was a gamer.

Then came only the Lucifer himself aka Don Mattrick. Instead of getting another person that gamers resonate with, MS got a man in a business suit. Who only did not give a sh*t about gamers and what gamers wanted, but he dangerously tried changing and by FORCE the main demographic of the Xbox 360 who were hardcore gamers. And by that he forced the kinect down our throats along with its casual games, not because the Kinect was "evolutionary" but because he wanted to chase after that Wii money. Although the market for casuals in consoles was soon becoming almost non-existent with the arrival of gaming on smart phones.

Don Matttrick turned the once hardcore gaming machine known as the Xbox 360 into a poor mans console Wii. Not only that but ignoring to build up the Xbox's first party games with quality exclusives By then I already jumped ship to Sony even before the disastrous Xbox launch.

After the apocalyptic like Xbox One launch I promised myself I would never touch another Xbox console ever. And of course we all remember this!

That was until a man named Phil Spencer came in, Phil Spencer who is not just some man in a business suit but an actual GAMER! Phil Spencer literally fixed almost ALL of Don's idiotic mistakes(I don't feel like addressing all of them) and even some of the nickel and diming mistakes from the 360 days. Phil Spencer has made the Xbox brand BACK into a gaming brand for gamers whether we agree or not. Phil Spencer has tried being innovative with things like backwards compatibility. But the one thing I love most about Spencer's Xbox era is the fact that he is trying his best to build up the Xbox first party which is NEEDED. Phil Spencer MADE me trust the Xbox brand again because he is trying to make the Xbox brand into something like the early days of the 360 with kickass games.

But more importantly what shocked me MOST about Phil and MS is their growing support for PC gaming. We always use to hear how MS would post BS saying they would support PC gaming but never do. But this time we are seeing one of their biggest games Gear 4 being on the PC which surprised. Hell before Gears 4 we've seen games like Forza, Quantum Break, KI, etc,etc come to the PC. We've seen them add cross-play(which early they said they'd never do), free online for PC gamers and even attending the PC gaming conference. At least from this we are seeing MS attempting to support PC gaming and a changing culture within MS.

But MS still has a problem they have to fix their windows store(and make it LOOK like a store for PC gamers), but more importantly they have to SHOW and PROVE to PC gamers that they can trust them. A lot of PC gamers and I mean A LOT have a ugly scar from MS back in the GFWL days. And not even Spencer(they see him as a console guy) and his strategy to support PC gaming can fix that. If MS wants a guy to connect with PC gamers it needs to be a former Valve guy who really understands the nature of PC gaming and knows what PC gamers as a demographic likes and dislikes.

Now finally moving on from gaming and addressing my biggest points with Microsoft as a WHOLE... After Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as CEO I am starting to see MS be a company more about the innovative, about tech and the future of tech. Unlike the Microsoft that was men in business suits with Steve Ballmer. I'm starting to see MS take more risk with going more and more into hardware(which we hardly saw) like the Surface Book which I love. Then we have Hololens which is just amazing. I'm not trying to be a Microsoft dick rider but I believe MS as a company now is very innovative(even inside gaming whether some wants to admit or not), but their problem is that they are bad a execution and then another company takes the idea and does it better.

I just hope that they keep with the approaches they been doing and do not revert back to the Steve Ballmer days. I feel if they keep with this approach it will spell go for not only gaming but the tech world as a whole because it would encourage good competition.

To me I am slowly seeing a culture change within MS but does anyone agree?

Anyways I apologize for some grammar errors, spelling or repetitiveness. Was in a big hurry.

Yea, you must be new here.

No one is going to read all that even if you make good points.

Better to keep it under 2 paragraphs and use pictures/videos.

Your thread will die if you dont edit or condense into at least a numbered list that people can read quickly.

It could be that they've finally realised that having Xbox completely separate from Windows was always a dumb idea, when they should have unified their two eco systems in the first place. As you said though, they have a long way to go before I'm convinced they're not about to put a cash wall up on Xbox Live on PC, when and if that happens MS will fail again in the same way they did with GfWL. On the other hand, just how long are the console gamers going to continue accepting a subscription service that's free on PC.

The Windows App store is a horrible travesty that's designed to work on phones, navigating through it is horrendous on a desktop. They is an enormous list of things they need to change if they are expecting the PC community to actually start using it. I made the mistake of trusting them with QB (actually I made the mistake of trusting Remedy) and for the first several weeks the only way I could get proper frame rates out of it was to run the Windows video recorder in the background! I'd like to get Forza Horizon 3 and Gears of War 4 but, more than anything else, the App store is a big blocker for me. Right now they put the games on Steam, Origin, GoG or even Uplay, hell, anywhere but the App store or I won't be buying them.

How about apologize for making this angry damn rant thread!

MS screwed up big time and they knew that which is why Mattrick was fired. Correcting the problem wasn't going to be an easy, overnight fix cause a lot of gamers made up their minds and jumped on the PS4. No excuse for MS to charge more for the weaker gaming console even though they wanted it to be the center of your entertainment cause the 360 gain it's popularity on being a gamers console first and they paid the price for the 1st 2 1/2 years. Phil was a great choose to replace Mattick, making their games is a great plan to double and sometimes maybe even triple their revenue on their software and making them cross buy and cross play enlarges the gaming community for their games. They slowly but surely had an idea to turn thing around and now they are starting to see a change in the perception that people and gamers have of the Xbox and with the Scorpio coming they starting to look to push forward so they have made strides. They won't win this gen but they can still win back the gamers that they lost with their arrogance and stupidity and I think that's what they want right now.

Could've said it better man. I also find it ironic MS CEO didn't address the problems after Xbox One reveal in May 2013. Even when MS fired that foolish Don Mattrick, MS continue to shove Kinect down into gamers throat, making it expensive console over PS4 was a stupid move to begin with and had to wait almost a year later to finally drop Kinect in order to lower the price of the console. Even when Mattrick was fired, MS continue to be stupid until Kinect and price drop came into effect and they finally turn the ship around.

Nobody expects Xbox One wining this gen, but at the very least there selling there Xbox One well enough and that's as good as it's gonna get.

Pretty much. The first year of the Xbox One was the blue print on how not to release your follow-up console when you had a successful one prior to it. I thought Sony was bad when they launched the PS3 with their arrogance but MS trumped them with the Xbox One. With that said they have really turned things around. The Xbox S is a very good console and a small step to an even larger impact which will be the Scropio. Everyone knows they not winning this gen but just get back the gamers that was on their side last gen is a doable goal.

You're right. I read the first paragraph and beginning of the second, then scrolled to see what I am in store for and realized this is someone's blog. Keep it there, TC

this isnt a rant...

this you sucking microsoft's cock. lol

a rant means you are angry.

Microsoft has came along way. They fired that don mattrick guy and adam orth jerk on twitter (what an asshat he was telling gamers to always be online)

I wanna PUNCH ADAM ORTH IN THE FACE guys a friggin jerk to other gamers who might not have internet.

I'm starting like nadella the guy is getting some swagger lately. I heard he didn't like video games but now he seems more cool with video games lately I dunno hes just growing on me ya know?

I wasn't a big fan of foreigner indian guys I can't understand them well on the phone but ya know hes growing on me ya know like that one actor I love that one india actor who was in ironman 3 love that guy.

*Shrugs*

I actually read the whole thing

:)

Where's the TLDR version?

@blessedbyhorus: Companies are run by humans hence companies are only as good as the people who runs them.

Forza 6 Apex runs well and Windows Store seems to be fine.

I'm surprised because a lot of people especially on PC Gamer avoid it like the plague and say it needs more work.

I read the whole thing and I agree with alot of what you said. The Xbox one when it first game out was a giant what the Fcuk machine. Other than the TV and snap feature it was a giant slap in the face to most gamers. I have a kinnect but it is only really a glorified mic when I don't use my head set or aren't snapping NFL off to the side to see football scores. I said it once and I'll say it again E3 2012 was seal of fate for the Xbox one and have been playing catch up the entire time to Sony. I personally hope MS never exists the console business just because it is nice to have a machine where I don't have to play around with specs. Hence I kinda hate the idea of upgrades for the consoles because then you might as well have gotten a PC.

@360ru13r:

I read the whole thing and I agree with alot of what you said.

The Xbox one when it first game out was a giant what the Fcuk machine. Other than the TV and snap feature it was a giant slap in the face to most gamers. I have a kinnect but it is only really a glorified mic when I don't use my head set or aren't snapping NFL off to the side to see football scores. I said it once and I'll say it again E3 2012 was seal of fate for the Xbox one and have been playing catch up the entire time to Sony. I personally hope MS never exists the console business just because it is nice to have a machine where I don't have to play around with specs. Hence I kinda hate the idea of upgrades for the consoles because then you might as well have gotten a PC.

Yeah MS basically destroyed themselves with the X1. Even though they did not have the world on lock like Japan or even Europe, they had North America on lock(like it or not) which is the largest market. And is like a winner takes all. That was how Xbox 360 was able to maintain its position in second place even though the PS3 was selling better in non-North America. But then of course the Xbox One came along and now MS has to start all over again and reclaim its homebase(America) before it can even think about competing world wide or even beating Sony with the Xbox One or even future consoles.

After that rant did MS ended up having games? Let me answer that: NO

So, I'm sorry but TLHBO

MS is cool right now. They are still licking their wounds so they are acting more consumer friendly. We'll see if they change face again now that they seem on the rise.

Mattrick and Balmer weren't the only ones behind all of MS's blunders at the beginning of this generation. Spencer was part too.

They need to focus in delivering great products while not trying to screw their fanbase.

How much money did Spencer shell out to the NFL for content deals before he was put in charge of the xbox division?

He was every bit a part of the design process for the Xbox as anyone. He is a suit. He is just a relatively uninown suit who can faithfully execute a rebranding because most gamers are not educated to the degree they would need to be to see it coming.

I have recently downloaded Killer Instincts and Forza 6 Apex from Windows Store and it seems fine. Windows Store seems be on par with EA's Origin app store.

I have unlimited 25Mbs home broadband internet and backups are not a big issue for me.

Windows Store works fast on my Dell Venue 8 Pro 8 inch tablet while Steam is bloated slow.

Microsoft isn't relevant anymore. They're dead in the Mobile OS market, people use Windows out of necessity, and game on Xbox One because 360 was great.

Interesting, I don't know why some say they have horror stories with it. Besides maybe Quantum Break I have not heard that many bad things with it(excluding the people from PC Gamer).

MS was NEVER relevant in the Mobile market. MS still dominates the OS market so they are still relevant necessity or not. Then we have Microsoft Office which people still use a lot. In terms of making products for companies MS is still very relevant.