Nov 19, 2010

Microsoft shooting itself in its foot ?

For sometime I have the feeling that Microsoft is shooting itself in its own foot.

My observation is not from the angle of an industry pundit but from a gamer's viewpoint.

Today, we have a lot of operating systems - Windows, Linux, AppleOS. They are quite polished and basically on par with each other. However, Microsoft Windows has the unique distinction as being the only desktop OS for which games are developed actively - and I do not mean games like Farmville, but AAA games like World of Warcraft, Need for Speed etc.

However, off late, the games on PC seem to be going down as Microsoft focuses more and more on the XBoX. For me and a lot of other gamers, this will mean that the PC as a gaming rig is loosing its significance. If I need to have a gaming console to play games, I do not need to get Windows for my PC - I would rather get a Mac or install Linux - most probably Linux for my desktop ( which is already dual boot for many years) or a macbook if I buy a laptop.

I predict that if Microsoft continues to neglect desktop gaming in favor of pushing its Xbox systems, they will be surprised to find that their desktop OS share dropping...

And if you think that I am wrong here, just compare with the OS growth for mobiles. iPhone has become such a big phenomena because its also a gaming platform. No other OS has realized this apart from Android which is trying to get more games up on its app store - as the recent Angry Birds release shows.