An interesting blog post by Rahul Sood (founder of Voodoo PC) ponders the implications of a rumored project that Microsoft is rumored to have canceled, rumor has it. Apparently, Microsoft was working on cross platform gaming that would allow PC players to take on their lesser Xbox counterparts. This isn’t particularly unknown news – Halo 2 and Shadowrun are both cross-platform games, and there was a big PR hoopla about the concept a year or three back.
Sood claims he has it on good authority that the project was canceled largely because the console players couldn’t compete with PC gamers.
Shocker? Hardly. There aren’t many game genres out there that don’t benefit significantly from the versatility and accuracy of a mouse and keyboard. Playing a shooter on a console is like trying to ride a motorcycle while wearing boxing gloves and with both arms in casts. Possible, but so unwieldy it’s a far cry from fun. With the possible exception of sports games, the same principle holds true for nearly every other genre out there.
So pitting those poor console types against gamers armed with mouse and keyboard is a little like throwing stormtroopers at Darth Maul. Microsoft apparently felt sorry enough for the Xboxers (or, more likely, feared a mass boycott of the games that were “unfairly balanced”) that they canceled the project.
It’s impossible to say how true this story is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Just another sign of these sad times.
Sood’s post is worth a read. Check it out.
What do you think? Do PCs really hold that much of an edge over console gamers?
Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.
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