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Fable III PC To Spearhead Another Microsoft-Led PC Push?

A leaked Q&A says it's a 'first step.'

Accurate or not, there's a perception amongst enthusiasts that Microsoft doesn't put enough oomph into its support of PC games. It's a PR battle that the publisher will have to fight with the PC release of Fable III, and if another leaked internal Q&A document obtained by Kotaku is legit, the Lionhead-developed RPG will be a sign that another push--a "no, for serious" push--is coming in the near future.

The question asked in the document is quite pointed, asking if Fable III will signal a meaningful "reinvestment" by Microsoft in the PC realm. It goes on, then asking if this push will be different than others.
 

No Caption Provided
The response? It's a long one: "In terms of revenue, Windows is far and away the largest gaming platform in the world, so it's an incredibly important part of Microsoft's business. From core games like Fable III to casual, social and Facebook titles, more gaming happens on Windows than anywhere else.   

== TEASER =="Windows 7 is a world-class gaming platform, and you can bet Microsoft has a vested interest in using it as a platform for amazing first party content. Fable III on Windows as well as Xbox 360 this holiday is a great first step, and we'll have more news for you later this summer." (Emphasis added.)

Before E3 2010, Microsoft announced plans to offer day-and-date releases through Games on Demand for Windows, in addition to building up its lacking back-catalogue of non-Live games. It's a step in the right direction, for sure, but it's still no Steam. 
 
But what is this great summer surprise? The published portion of the Q&A didn't have the natural follow-up, not that Microsoft would spoil the mystery beforehand anyway. 
  

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BradNicholson

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Edited By BradNicholson

Accurate or not, there's a perception amongst enthusiasts that Microsoft doesn't put enough oomph into its support of PC games. It's a PR battle that the publisher will have to fight with the PC release of Fable III, and if another leaked internal Q&A document obtained by Kotaku is legit, the Lionhead-developed RPG will be a sign that another push--a "no, for serious" push--is coming in the near future.

The question asked in the document is quite pointed, asking if Fable III will signal a meaningful "reinvestment" by Microsoft in the PC realm. It goes on, then asking if this push will be different than others.
 

No Caption Provided
The response? It's a long one: "In terms of revenue, Windows is far and away the largest gaming platform in the world, so it's an incredibly important part of Microsoft's business. From core games like Fable III to casual, social and Facebook titles, more gaming happens on Windows than anywhere else.   

== TEASER =="Windows 7 is a world-class gaming platform, and you can bet Microsoft has a vested interest in using it as a platform for amazing first party content. Fable III on Windows as well as Xbox 360 this holiday is a great first step, and we'll have more news for you later this summer." (Emphasis added.)

Before E3 2010, Microsoft announced plans to offer day-and-date releases through Games on Demand for Windows, in addition to building up its lacking back-catalogue of non-Live games. It's a step in the right direction, for sure, but it's still no Steam. 
 
But what is this great summer surprise? The published portion of the Q&A didn't have the natural follow-up, not that Microsoft would spoil the mystery beforehand anyway. 
  
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TheGTAvaccine

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Edited By TheGTAvaccine

Nice!
 
Actually pretty stoked for F3.

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Jayzilla

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Edited By Jayzilla

that is rad!

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MadeinFinland

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Edited By MadeinFinland

I'm happy to see they might actually start giving us PC gamers some slice of the action. 

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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti

Whatever.
After Fable 2 was denied PC releases I kinda stopped caring.
It's a "consolified" rpg through and through anyway.

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Kaigan

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Edited By Kaigan

As much as I love PC games, devs should just abandon the PC as a gaming platform. 
 
No matter what they do, they're always gonna get shafted.

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Vorbis

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Edited By Vorbis

Doesn't it read your Fable 2 save? can't see many switch over if so.

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gbrading

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Edited By gbrading

Well I can only hope so. After they cancelled the PC version of Alan Wake for no sensible reason whatsoever other than to make it an Xbox 360 "exclusive" I'm starting to think that Microsoft simply cut of the nose to spite the face. It's like the Games division routinely forgets what Microsoft's other divisions do, and where Microsoft made its money in the first place.
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SlasherMan

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Edited By SlasherMan
@Tennmuerti: Fable was on PC. It's only Fable II that isn't. Consolified or not, I enjoyed it immensely when I played it a few years ago.
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RobJ

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Edited By RobJ

I would have liked to see Microsoft use this rationale for "Alan Wake" and not another Fable game.

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mariussmit

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Edited By mariussmit

Typically if a company spends some time to support PC games, they are only rewarded by rampant piracy because of : 
 
a) the DRM 
b) the way the multiplayer is handled, 
c) DLC 
d) any other excuse pirates soothe their conscience with. 
 
Hopefully my cynicism is proven wrong since a resurgent PC games market is exactly the shot in the arm the industry needs. Cutting edge graphics, mods, a strong indie community, the return of "dead" genres - all of these things can only improve games as a whole and rid us of the sequelitis that console games have started suffering from. 

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Skooky

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Edited By Skooky
@Tennmuerti said:
" Whatever. After Fable 1 and 2 were denied PC releases I kinda stopped caring. It's a "consolified" rpg through and through anyway. "
Fable: The Lost Chapters came out on PC.
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korsair_13

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Edited By korsair_13

I would prefer this if they brought Fable 2 to PC before they brought Fable 3 out. Especially if having played the game bestows some sort of benefit (story or otherwise) on the later game.

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indus

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Edited By indus

 Interesting but an odd change of heart, since Fable 2 did not have a PC port. Expecting PC gamers to be excited about this after getting screwed is some weird thinking. One of the features of this game is carrying over your saves which will be especially frustrating.

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zaglis

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Edited By zaglis

Gears 3 PC pls.

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Wiseblood

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Edited By Wiseblood

If they're really going to make some actual effort into PC gaming, they really need to get GFWL up to snuff. 

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ITSSEXYTIME

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Edited By ITSSEXYTIME

We don't want them back.  Their legacy (GFWL) is bad enough as it is.  


As a bit of a side note, anyone know the last game Microsoft published on PC?  I think it was Shadowrun but it could have been Halo 2.  It's been a few years atleast since their last game came over though.

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FiveGrand

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Edited By FiveGrand

This is great, but Fable seems like an odd first step. The series seems like a much better fit for consoles, and a push for more quality PC games doesn't have to mean ports of console titles

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Gnerma

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Edited By Gnerma

Microsoft Game Studios hasn't published a PC game since 2007. If that not a way to express a "vested interest" in the platform I don't know what is.

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oDawg

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Edited By oDawg

Brad,
 
You are a journalist covering video games, please tell me you agree Microsoft has done everything it can to kill PC gaming (by making their pc gaming services inferior to their 360 ones). Valve and Blizzard kept it alive against Microsofts wishes and now Apple is starting to target gamers.  
 
Games for Windows Live has been pure crap - a halfass port of their console services. They keep blocking develoeprs from releasing games on the PC, in order to get exclusives for console fanboys. Their client has had a very rough history, with way too many bugs. I could go on, but its pointless. Microsoft can only play catchup now, as they've already launched kinect as a 360 device and not a general pc device...
 
But I'm sure microsoft is going to push back eventually now that Apple is threatening to take over what is left of the pc gaming market. The largest PC game developers, Valve and Blizzard,  are no longer tied to Windows. Mac's are slowly becoming gaming PC's.  
 
And I know so many PC gamers dream of a "gaming os" that would replace Microsoft. I think I had a dream Google made the ultimate gaming linux distro that all the devs embraced 100%... then I woke up... but anyways...

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theduke

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Edited By theduke

if this is true than great. They probably want their GFWL to get more of the market and especially since Steam launched on Mac and soon Linux. Then with Nvidia and ATI promising to improve drivers on Mac for games this probably put some pressure on Microsoft to push their GFWL platform harder.
 
Gears would be a better choice to show their support for PC
Halo would probably be going to far

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theguido

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Edited By theguido

This is either a) pure marketing pap 
  
or b) a realization that Valve, one of the main drivers of PC gaming, going to Mac signaled that they needed to get involved on the Windows side of things

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Edited By DJJoeJoe
@TheDuke: Right, Halo 3 and ODST haven't even seen the PC yet right? Last venture for halo on pc was via proxy devs Gearbox, and I think they are too busy these days doing their own games to help with Halo again. Also Halo is and always has been a console shooter, I really do enjoy it but it's definitely from the ground up made for use with a controller, and I don't feel like using some 'other' online service for gaming as opposed to Live on 360 etc. Gearbox seems to like Gamespy for some retarded reason, I'd hate to play halo over that service :(
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phrosnite

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Edited By phrosnite

I hope they do something for the PC gamers. MS has  almost  abandoned games for windows live.

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morningthief

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Edited By morningthief

Makes no sense after denying PC gamers the chance to play Fable 2. Great job, Microsoft.

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stephengotlost

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Edited By stephengotlost

Gears 3 ok

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clubsammich

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Edited By clubsammich

It's nice to see the PC get some action. I'm not gonna sit here and say "PC gaming is dying" But I will say the platform isn't the powerhouse that is was back in the 90s.  Blame pirates, blame the econamy, but really it's just the direction the gaming industry is going.

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defaulttag

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Edited By defaulttag
@stephengotlost said:
" Gears 3 ok "
I still want Gears 2 port
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CommanderZx2

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Edited By CommanderZx2

Looking at the previously published microsoft games studio games it is a pretty sorry sight
 http://www.microsoft.com/games/pc/default.aspx

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donaldkhogan

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Edited By donaldkhogan

I hope Fable 3 is actually good.  I thought Fable 2 was a real disappointment.  Of course I beat it, and played a bunch of side missions and all that, but I feel it was a step backward compared to "The Lost Chapters" that was on PC.  I really am looking forward to a bit of a more finished game this time around.   
 
Bring back mega chicken kicking!

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djaoni

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Edited By djaoni

 Basically they're saying that they've sold all the consoles they will by not porting games by now? Hopefully no more excuses about piracy being so rampant that they're living on the streets because all the "lost sales" now.. "Crysis only sold 3 million copies waah waah" and that's not even counting steam sales and still Crytek whined to have an excuse to get more money from having it on consoles as well.
 
I don't blame them but can they just tell the truth instead of making up reasons that idiots will eat up like it's candy?

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FMinus

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Edited By FMinus
@oDawg said:

" Brad,  You are a journalist covering video games, please tell me you agree Microsoft has done everything it can to kill PC gaming (by making their pc gaming services inferior to their 360 ones). Valve and Blizzard kept it alive against Microsofts wishes and now Apple is starting to target gamers.    Games for Windows Live has been pure crap - a halfass port of their console services. They keep blocking develoeprs from releasing games on the PC, in order to get exclusives for console fanboys. Their client has had a very rough history, with way too many bugs. I could go on, but its pointless. Microsoft can only play catchup now, as they've already launched kinect as a 360 device and not a general pc device...  But I'm sure microsoft is going to push back eventually now that Apple is threatening to take over what is left of the pc gaming market. The largest PC game developers, Valve and Blizzard,  are no longer tied to Windows. Mac's are slowly becoming gaming PC's.    And I know so many PC gamers dream of a "gaming os" that would replace Microsoft. I think I had a dream Google made the ultimate gaming linux distro that all the devs embraced 100%... then I woke up... but anyways... "

 
Apple needs to start offering recent graphics card models, before they can start mixing in the gaming market. They might get there eventually when Jobs pulls his head out of his arse and drops the restrictions on his Macs, but right now Macs can barely handle 3-4 year old games on playable frame rate, not to mention newer more GPU demanding games.   
 
On another note, PC gaming isn't dependable on Windows Live!, so If Microsfot decides to kill of that pos, it really doesn't matter. Sure you and I might miss a couple of Xbox ports but there shit loads of other great games available for the PC on a daily basis. 
 
For everything else there's Xbox360, PS3 and Wii - if you need your console fix. 
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rolento

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Edited By rolento

This announcement comes how long exactly after they stole Alan Wake from us?

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Innovacious

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Edited By Innovacious

Ive spent 15mins typing and retyping a paragraph over and over again here. But i just cant get it right... Its too little too late from Microsoft, they screwed us all over by buying out Bungie. Not really because they stole al the PC/Mac games for consoles but because of the quality of PC games since then. If it never happened i dont think this whole dumbing down of games and terrible ports would have gone so far.

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nick69

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Edited By nick69
@phrosnite said:
" I hope they do something for the PC gamers. MS has  almost  abandoned games for windows live. "
games for windows live is a terrible service, so I really hope that they just stop it completely..
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TehJedicake

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Edited By TehJedicake

YES PLEASE

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metal_mills

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Edited By metal_mills

So they kill 3 PC developers, cancel Alan Wake and because they finally throw us a bone it's a PC push? It's like being kicked in the balls and because the guy pats you on the back it's all ok.

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Bionicicide

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Edited By Bionicicide

Yeah, Steam giving Mac support sure made Microsoft regret its closure of Ensemble Studios, that's for sure.

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Olivaw

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Edited By Olivaw

As long as Games for Windows Live continues to suck giant bags of dicks, I don't see why I should ever bother purchasing a game that uses it.
 
Shit, you guys made them cancel Alan Wake for PC, and I'm supposed to be excited about Fable? Eff that noise.

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DudeFromJersey

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Edited By DudeFromJersey
@Olivaw said:
" As long as Games for Windows Live continues to suck giant bags of dicks, I don't see why I should ever bother purchasing a game that uses it.
 
Shit, you guys made them cancel Alan Wake for PC, and I'm supposed to be excited about Fable? Eff that noise. "
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Zanthox

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Edited By Zanthox

I was excited for Fable2... and am not for Fable3, but I really wish they would port F2 so I could play them all and in order...

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deactivated-5f00787182625

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Gears 3 please. I would love to not have to turn on my 360 to play it.

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HitmanAgent47

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Edited By HitmanAgent47

TBH, I always thought microsoft gave up on pc gaming and gave use the worst ports ever, when it's related to microsoft because they want us to buy a xbox360 instead. Still i'm going to buy this game on pc then.

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Shwan

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Edited By Shwan

When i saw the F3 E3 video i was wondering weather or not this would be on the PC and it might be so thats great!

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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti
@Skooky:@SlasherMan: 
My bad, I knew for sure 2 never came out on PC soince I was kinda bummed at the news at the time since it looked alright. Was assuming for the 1st one as well since I never saw it being sold anywhere.
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crusader8463

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Edited By crusader8463

I'll believe it when I see them release something other then shitty console game ports instead of developing a real PC game for the PC community.

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kenzo287

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Edited By kenzo287

Wait wait wait...just how many first steps do they need to take? I can think of at least two or three first steps they've taken in the past three years and they're still not really pushing the PC as much as they should. Still the Windows Live stuff looks promising enough. I really hope this all works out in the end.

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Jimbo

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Edited By Jimbo

Kotick also just announced that "70 percent of [Activision's] operating profit comes from non-console-based video games".   
 
Considering Activision is about the only one of the big publishers still actually making a profit, maybe it would make sense for the rest of them to take it a bit more seriously.

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Chris2KLee

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Edited By Chris2KLee

Step 1: Put all your games on Steam.
Step 2: Done.

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RaceKickfist

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Edited By RaceKickfist
@oDawg:  that is a beautiful dream...