While the amount of videogame cross-pollination between Xbox One and PC is higher than expected, there’s a few games that still won’t be making it. Phil Spencer, talking at a post-keynote press Q&A during Microsoft’s //Build/ conference, has said that Halo 5 was designed for Xbox and is therefore unlikely to make the jump. He says that they don’t want to force games onto platforms where they won’t fit, like keeping Ashes of the Singularity as PC-only, even if Xbox One gets a mouse and keyboard add-on.
Plenty of upcoming PC gamesto look forward to, from Microsoft and others.
The statement comes as part of a wider point that not all games will be on both platforms.
“I get out of saying ‘all,’ because I think there are games that people want to play in front of their monitor with a keyboard and mouse,” says Spencer. “And I want to be somebody that builds those games. I don’t want to make it some kind of artificial mandate, because then I think we end up with ‘Frankengames’, games that really weren’t meant for a certain platform. And because some suit said, ‘Hey, everything’s gotta run on both platforms’, you end up with something people don’t want.”
He goes on to say that we should expect it when a franchise looks like it belongs on both platforms – so, based on Rise of the Tomb Raider and Quantum Break, big-budget action-adventures – but not always. Jokes aside, it’s not really a genre thing. Halo Wars is coming to both platforms, Spencer’s point being that the intention has to be there from the get-go, so design considerations for each can be taken into account.
While it’s my immediate, hot-blooded reaction to scream “if it’s an FPS, it’s designed for PC” at my monitor, he does have a point. You can always tell when a multiplayer FPS had console balancing at the forefront – movement is slow, sniper rifles are massively overpowered and there’s only two weapons per player. That doesn’t mean I don’t want Halo, be it 5 or the Master Chief Collection, on my PC for campaign play, but I do see what he means.
He didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of Microsoft’s biggest non-Minecraft franchise making the leap, though:
“In terms of Halo FPS on PC, I think there’s a ton of opportunity for us right now, but I don’t want to get into a world where we’re looking back, like at Halo 5. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing there that could ever end up on PC, but I’d much rather look forward with what our plans are.”
Here’s hoping.
Thanks, PCG.