this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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Steam Ate Microsoft's Lunch On PC, It's About To Do The Same On Handhelds (kotaku.com)
submitted 1 day ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] __nobodynowhere@startrek.website 37 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

Microsoft understood in the 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2V9TFrmQ_Q

St. John recognized the resistances for game development under Windows would be a limitation, and recruited two additional engineers, Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom, to develop a better solution to get more programmers to develop games for Windows. The project was codenamed the Manhattan Project, like the World War II project of the same name, and the idea was to displace the Japanese-developed video game consoles with personal computers running Microsoft's operating system.

To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

[...]codenamed the Manhattan Project, like the World War II project of the same name, and the idea was to displace the Japanese[...]

a bit on the nose huh

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, Microsoft has had brief moments like this but systematically they have behaved consistently like the only thing that matters to them is enshittifying the work environment of office workers.

The examples you gave are interesting precisely because they are a brief departure from the norm.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

Microsoft made Flight Simulator before they made Windows, so I'm sure they must have cared about games more during that time period.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 19 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I know it's correct but reading "Microsoft's Gabe Newell" actually made my eye twitch.

[–] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe -5 points 8 hours ago

Did you not know other people had jobs before their current?

[–] Toribor@corndog.social 10 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

It's kind of wild how much Microsoft failed to capitalize on PC gaming over the last 20 years. Arguably PC Gaming has thrived in spite of them, not because of them.

Valve was smart to understand how Microsoft could threaten their business model but it barely mattered considering how many rakes Microsoft stepped on over the years. Don't even get me started on Games For Windows Live.

[–] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 0 points 8 hours ago

Microsoft prevented PC gaming from dying and moved the industry from "sometimes there are pc games" to "occasionally there is a platform exclusive other than Nintendo". That was all Xbox. Valve did a much better job of sitting back and raking in 30% for their glorified downloader, but the games existed because of the compatibility efforts of Xbox.

[–] TheWilliamist@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

It doesn’t make them money. Most of Microsoft is focused on business, enterprise, add AI. Everything edge is just part lip service.

[–] ineffable@sh.itjust.works 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

"Microsoft's Gabe Newell"

Lol

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 23 points 21 hours ago

He left Microsoft almost immediately after Doom 95 was released specifically because he didn't like the direction Microsoft was going.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago

Unrelated tidbit gleaned from reading the entry:

the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX.