The rumor that the upcoming title, Quantum Break, was coming to both Xbox and PC came true and it seems that Xbox One owners, at least some of them aren’t too thrilled. Honestly, I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve seen complaining – either on Twitter or other various locations, with their demented reasoning on what this is a bad thing and why it shouldn’t happen. Now to me it seems, well rather silly. Sure it’s a huge and anticipated title for the Xbox One, yet now that its making it way to the PC, it’s suddenly bad? It’s not like the community is losing an Xbox One exclusive title, it’s not like it’s going to the PlayStation 4 for crying out loud.
But why are Xbox One gamers upset? Why is this such a huge deal? Why are they feeling betrayed? It is as if they simply don’t want to play with others or share their sandbox and to be quite honest, it’s like watching a child throw a tantrum. If anyone, Phil Spencer has shown both the Xbox and the PC camp exactly how much he wants to support both, yet it seems that some people just like to have it their way or not way at all. Case in point below.
There’s definitely a disconnect here on what’s going down, so let’s see if we can break this down a bit.
Alright, if you PRE-ORDER the Xbox One version of Quantum Break, you also get access to a FREE copy of the title for Windows 10. So, a bonus if you pre-order the XBOX ONE version, otherwise you would have to pay for the PC version. Keep in mind that this is a limited time deal and once it’s gone, it’s gone. That also means that the Xbox One gets a sale and the PC version gets a pass.
Price wise, Xbox One gamers still pay less here. An Xbox One costs $350 and all you need is a subscription to Xbox Live, which can be had for $50 for an entire year. Sure, we’re not counting the TV since most people already have several TV’s in their location. However things get a bit more expensive on the PC front. Let’s look at the specs for the PC version;
OS: Windows 10
DirectX Version: 12
Processor: Intel i5/AMD FX-6300
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 760 / AMD R7 260x or greater
Memory: 8GB RAM
So, just looking at the processor, the ram, the operating system and the video card, I’ve already spent 2x as much as an Xbox One and those are the minimum specs. If I wanted to run the game at recommended specs, I could easily by 3x Xbox One’s or more. An Intel i7-4790 will cost at least $250, and a GTX 980 is still around $550-$600 dollars. So price-wise, PC gamers pay more for their premium. Sure it MAY run better or look better, but that’s the price a PC gamer pays.
Yes, they don’t have to pay for Xbox Live but that’s a service and also a downfall of consoles, just like the PlayStation Network is for PlayStation gamers, and that’s just the nature of the beast. However console gamers have that lovely ecosystem that ties it all together, where on the PC we have to contend with Steam, UPlay, Battle.net, GOG, Origin and a few others for our games and sure it doesn’t apply to Quantum Break.. or wait it does. Since the PC version apparently will be available via the Microsoft Store on PC ONLY. Well, there goes that I suppose.
And let’s not forget the sales may be a huge reason this happening. Look at what happened with Remedy Entertainment’a previous hit, Alan Wake on the Xbox 360. Sure, it sold great but it didn’t sell enough, not enough to help Remedy secure the funds for a much requested sequel, so they moved on. But look what happened when the game eventually came to the PC. Alan Wake sold 1.6 million copies throughout its life time on the Xbox 360, yet in less than a week of going on the PC, Remedy stated they recouped their development costs for the port. In fact as of today’s standing, Alan Wake has sold over 1.6 million copies in Steam and Alan Wake: American Nightmare has sold over 1.1 million. That’s a lot of copies for a port that came two years later from the original release of the game. Remedy was definitely happen with that and truth be told that may have helped the decision to bring Quantum Break to the PC, it may have been planned from the start.
There’s also the reasoning that there’s no reason to own an Xbox One now. Really now? Several games go to the PC and suddenly the Xbox One is not worth it, but was a few months ago? So Forza Motorsport 5 and 6, Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, and Rare Replay don’t warrant only one, nor do the huge backlog of backwards compatible Xbox 360 games? Geez, I suppose some people just refuse to be happy. At least there’s Gears of War 4! And while i’m poking a bit of fun, perhaps those peoplee should be looking at Microsoft for the huge lack of exclusive titles in the first place for the system. Yes friends, looks like 2016 is the year of PlayStation 4 exclusives, well that and the same old 3rd party game madness.
But let’s play devil’s advocate here. What if the game does badly, i’m not saying it will, but what if it does? Those sales on both the Xbox One and PC will boost those numbers, even if it’s bad. Instead of doing just 500,000 copies, it may end up doing 1 million. And let’s be perfectly honest here, let’s not kid ourselves. The Xbox One isn’t exactly selling so well and other than in North America, the sales are less than spectacular. Sitting at 19.51 million global sales, this puts it well under the PlayStation 4’s 36 million global sales. So yes, money is a huge reason for this happening.
Also, when Phil Spencer was interviewed about Quantum Break or Scalebound coming to PC, he NEVER stated they weren’t. He stated that he would rather not change up the path that those games were on.
“In the case of things like Scalebound or Crackdown or Quantum Break, you know, just to be completely honest with you, we started those games before we really looked at expanding into Windows in the way that I wanted to bring as part of becoming head of Xbox.
“Going to those teams mid-cycle and saying: ‘Hey, by the way, I want to add a platform,’ didn’t really feel like necessarily the best way to end up with the best result for the game. They had a path that they were on. It’s not to say those games could never come to Windows, but right now we’re on the path to finish the great games that they’ve started, and I want that to be the case. These games are on a path, whereas with, like, Halo Wars 2 I had the opportunity from the beginning, when we’re sitting down with the studio, to say, ‘Here’s the target. Here’s what we wanna go do.’
It’s apparently that Microsoft and Phil Spencer are on a mission to prove to PC gamers that they do care about the platform and this is a huge olive branch offering to say the least. This is anot attempt, along with the release of Killer Instinct on the PC, as well as being able to stream Xbox One titles on the PC (Windows 10 only) and as both an Xbox One and PC gamer/owner I agree with this money. Yes, let’s build those bridges and let’s support bringing gamers together, regardless of the platform.
And what about those who don’t want to support this or just want to complain for the sake of it? They aren’t losing another AAA title and more importantly, no one is forcing them, no one is twisting their arm to pre-order or purchase Quantum Break. If they want to cancel their pre-order or boycott the game, well that’s their loss and they should think twice about being called a gamer, since a gamer does just that, they play games. And a game is a game, regardless of what platform that game is on.
Disclaimer – I am an avid gamer and I have EVERY console from the past generations to this generation, and I have a very heavily gaming appetite. If there’s a game that’s on multiple systems that I want, I get it for the system I want to play it on. Granted the reason to have all systems is for the exclusive titles, and not everyone can afford that pleasure, however calling foul because you don’t like something that DOESN’T affect you is simply crazy talk. I could understand if it was taking something away from you, but in this instance, it just isn’t happening and in fact you’re upping your chances that there may even be a Quantum Break sequel, expansion or future DLC.
Sources: PC Gamer, Twitter
