[redml]

My biggest surprise is how this all runs on Microsoft's operating system and Microsoft does very little to nothing to facilitate this as a potential revenue stream. In fact they're just sitting by and watching as the biggest player, steam, is slowly taking their library off of windows and onto mac or linux.

[bad_user]

Until now at least this has been one of the reasons for why Windows stayed the dominant operating system. I own a MacBook Pro with OS X on it. I also have an Ubuntu Linux workstation. But in my home there's also a Windows laptop for playing games, as I've got some favorite games that do not work on OS X or Linux. And it's not just because of popularity. Game developers prefer Windows as a target also because of things like Visual Studio or because of DirectX being technically superior and cleaner than OpenGL. And if they play their cards right, I don't see the situation improving as this has been going on ever since 1995.

Thing is Windows survived for so long only because it's been (sort of) neutral. I mean yeah, it has always been complementary to other Microsoft products or services, like Office, but Windows has been much more neutral or open than a console's environment, or more "modern" operating systems like, say, iOS.

But now you can see Microsoft introduce things like the Windows store, with the traditional revenue cut of course. You have to consider, for example, that Steam is pushing for Linux as a defensive move. And I tell you, if Microsoft goes even further then this, it will mean the end of Windows ;-)

[moistgorilla]

Microsoft have the biggest IP that could turn into an esport (Halo) and all they would need to do is put it on PC and Xbox one for free, throw in cosmetic microtransaction ala CSGO and they would make billions. But they will never do it.

[rasz_pl]

> esport ......Xbox

:), I dont think you understand what esports is about, it is not about playing with a pad with huge autoaim.

[moistgorilla]

The professional matches wouldn't be played on xbox obviously. I understand Esports probably better than you do, I am on a team in ESEA Open (We aren't good though)

[edias]

Halo was an eSport but lost the qualities that made it a good eSport. The oringinal and Halo 2 were incredibly competitive games, but Halo 3 and especially Reach killed these aspects in favor of casual gameplay features.

CS GO was dead in the water eSport wise on release and took major core gameplay changes for it to get to a point where people were okay with it, but 1.6 is generally considered the better ompetetive game.

The idea that companies can just make a game an eSport is incredibly flawed. A game needs the qualities to become one. It's why the Gamecube version of Super Smash Bros, Melee, destroys the brand new one in tournament viewers despite Nintendo promoting the new game as an eSport.

[moistgorilla]

Yes, you obviously can't just do a direct port of halo with autoaim and put it on pc and hope it will be a popular esport. My point was that Microsoft has the resources to MAKE halo a good esport title but they wont.

[ascagnel_]

Not really. Halo is a game designed around a ten-foot controller experience. There's a decent amount of sticky aim and banana bullets to compensate for the relative lack of accuracy in thumbsticks, and the aim reticle is 1/3 of the way up the screen, instead of the dead center like you'd expect in a PC FPS.

[moistgorilla]

> Not really. Halo is a game designed around a ten-foot controller experience. There's a decent amount of sticky aim and banana bullets to compensate for the relative lack of accuracy in thumbsticks

Most of your arguments here are based on the fact that halo is only released on console. It's obvious then that it would have these console shooter features. If it were released on PC it obviously would not have aim assist.

> and the aim reticle is 1/3 of the way up the screen, instead of the dead center like you'd expect in a PC FPS.

This is something people would easily get over.

There are still people playing Halo 1 for pc online (Even after microsoft shut down the servers) and there is an even larger community playing a reverse engineered Halo version that was released in russia as F2P. (http://www.reddit.com/r/haloonline)

[taurath]

> Most of your arguments here are based on the fact that halo is only released on console. It's obvious then that it would have these console shooter features. If it were released on PC it obviously would not have aim assist.

Its a much much bigger deal than you think. Not only is player camera movement effected but the entire flow of the game - all the weapons, the chokepoints, areas to balance all become REALLY different when you change the targeted control scheme. Go into games like Titanfall and CoD on a console and then try them on PC - PC players are MUCH more aggressive and use the map and weapons quite differently because their control scheme allows it, while on console people are much more likely to be slower and methodical in their play.

[dageshi]

I think Valve are getting games onto mac and linux in anticipation of an xBox store, or a locked down version of Win 10 with an xBox store coming in the future.

[henryboston]

It's because Steam is developing their own hardware based off Linux. They want games to be able to run on their own hardware.

[kibwen]

The original impetus for developing their own hardware and Linux-based OS was because of the imaginable threat of Microsoft locking down Windows in a post-app-store world. It's a last-ditch contingency plan as well as a way to assert their intent to Microsoft. Of course, I'm still very happy that it has the side effect of drastically improving the gaming landscape on Linux even if none of the worst-case Windows scenarios ever come to pass.