Despite a poor start to the year Microsoft are claiming 2015 was a huge success, with increased sales compared to 2014. However what is of interest to us are games and MS have declared their 2016 game line-up to be their greatest ever:

Gears of War 4 (Xbox One) – Multiplayer Beta in Spring 2016/Launch in Fall 2016
Quantum Break (Xbox One) – April 5, 2016
Halo Wars 2 (Xbox One & Windows 10) – Fall 2016
Crackdown 3 (Xbox One) – Multiplayer in Summer 2016
Fable Legends Open Beta (Xbox One & Windows 10) – Spring 2016
ReCore (Xbox One & Windows 10) – 2016 [was originally just an Xbox exclusive]
Sea of Thieves (Xbox One & Windows 10) – 2016
Gigantic (Xbox One & Windows 10) – 2016
Killer Instinct: Season 3 (Xbox One & Windows 10) – March 2016
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (Windows 10) – Spring 2016
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbox One & Windows 10) – Spring 2016
Cobalt (Xbox One, Xbox 360 & Steam) – Feb. 2, 2016

Of course what makes this list especially interesting to PC gamers is the fact that many of these games are not just Xbox exclusive but Windows 10 exclusive too. Ostensibly this is a victory for PC gamers, because many of these releases will be available on the PC too. However I’m of the viewpoint that Win 10 is big brothers bastard child, and all the minor benefits it gives us, come at the cost of less freedom, less security, and less control.

However this is a gaming site not “conspiracy weekly”, so I’ll ask the gaming questions:

Does this use of Win 10 exclusives herald a shift from a focus on consoles? Will we see more Win 10 exclusives even after Win 10 becomes commonplace?

I’d love to hear what MS has to say to these questions, but realistically I think the answer to these questions is no. This is not an evolution in MS’s viewpoint of PC gamers, this is just MS’s latest cynical tactic to persuade people to “upgrade” their OS.