Microsoft's Phil Spencer says "Xbox is our gaming brand," E3 isn't for Windows

You may have noticed that Microsoft's E3 press event was heavy on the Xbox and rather light on Windows—which is to say, it didn't come up at all. According to Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft's Xbox division and Microsoft Game Studios, there's a good reason for that: E3 is a "console show," and Microsoft didn't want to bring a gun to a knife fight.

Speaking to Polygon , Spencer said it's arguable that Windows gaming is in better shape than ever thanks to big franchises like League of Legends and World of tanks, which "dwarf a lot of what we're doing in this console space in terms of users and monetization." But bigger isn't always necessary better, and because E3 is so heavily retail-focused, "it didn't really like the right place for us to talk about Windows."

"For us, E3 is a console show and an Xbox show, and for us as Microsoft, Xbox is our gaming brand, and it's the thing we can fill an arena like this, we get millions of people to watch us on TV and we show our games and it's a brand that people care about," he said.

I'd just assumed that Microsoft was continuing its usual enthusiastic support of the PC gaming space (and for the record, Spencer described Windows gaming as "critical to Microsoft's success") by ignoring it completely, but I guess this makes sense too. And it's not as though Microsoft doesn't have a PC plan: Spencer noted that "they do these huge world championship events and they fill up arenas," and that it could probably do something with that.

For a look at some of the cool things that did happen on the PC at E3, check out our Best of E3 wrap-up right here .

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.