Phil Spencer: Time To Talk About Windows Gaming In January 2015

Phil Spencer has been teasing things about gaming on Windows for some time now, but we haven’t seen evidence of it all this time. Based on this recent tweet, that may be about to change.

@RpLayy I'll be focusing more on what we are doing on Win10 in January, it's time for us to talk about gaming on Windows.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 12, 2014

Fielding a question about Windows 10 footage on Xbox One, Phil replied that they actually have plans to reveal big things about the upcoming OS. Apparently, this January Microsoft will finally talk about gaming on Windows 10. Microsoft will be holding a Windows 10 reveal event this January 21, 2015.

The way Phil worded his response also implied that he wanted to deemphasize any connection to Xbox. Microsoft did not make it a secret that they are working on tech to stream Xbox games to Windows, but they also have not talked about it too much.

Right until now, Microsoft seemed to have given up a lot of ground on PC gaming. Steam has completely replaced GFWL as a DRM system and distribution platform for major game releases, and is now a major independent platform competitive with PlayStation and Xbox. Subsequently, other game companies have also created their own platforms, including Humble, GOGcom, Origin, and UPlay. Microsoft themselves publish games on Steam as well, such as Ms. Splosion Man, Age of Empires, and Rise of Nations.

To Microsoft’s credit, in spite of the existence of the Windows App Store, they have not put any limitations to these other platforms. I’m looking forward to learning about Microsoft’s plans with Windows gaming, and I’m sure you are too.