When it comes to a gaming console, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is clearly on the losing side if its comparison is done with the PlayStation launched by Sony. Its Xbox One which was released in the November of 2013 along with Sony’s PlayStation 4, has only sold 18 million units in comparison to the 36 million PlayStation units that have been sold.
Lagging behind, Microsoft has come up with a plan to wire the Xbox One in such a way that it becomes closer to its other products. Case in point is the release of the forthcoming ‘Quantum Break’, an Xbox game that is also well suited for Windows 10.
Also the Microsoft Office, which now allows customers to pay their subscription fees of 10$ per month and thereby get access to the software on pretty much, every technological device. Also, by making it a subscription based service they have made it more user friendly in nature. The Microsoft One Drive cloud storage, in fact, allows you to switch your documents from one storage device to another.
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With the Xbox Live gaming service, Microsoft has made it available in two forms – a free Silver version and a Gold version, which costs $60 annually. Silver subscribers can buy games, movies and much more from the digital store but Gold users, get several advantages like a handful of ‘free’ games every month. The new Windows 10 also supports the Xbox app, with the new Xbox One update allowing Windows 10 to be at the core of the operating system.
Then there’s the stylish new action game staring Shawn Ashmore and Aidan Gillen, called ‘Quantum Break’. Buyers of the Xbox One also get free access to the game, after it was announced that a PC compatible version of the game too would be released. The game has been announced as a ‘platform feature’ where once you buy it, you can use it on both the Xbox and Windows 10.
Thus, ‘Quantum Break’ in a way is a positive leap to the future – where video games can be played on multiple devices instead of being the monopoly of a single kind of device as it was till now. Thus it paves the way for a number of other Xbox exclusive games to come to the Windows 1o platform. This puts a notch higher than Sony, which offers this kind of “cross buy support” only on select games.
But this transition only brings forth an important question: If all of Xbox One’s game are being made available for Windows 10 users, then why have an Xbox at all. Thus by paying close attention to developing games for Windows 10, it does end up alienating a lot of passionate gamers who have mastered the art of video gaming on Xbox exclusively.
But, all said and done, Nadella’s plans are no less than a masterstroke.
