Microsoft's Xbox boss says it's time to "talk about gaming on Windows"

Dark Souls vs Games for Windows Live

Microsoft's history of supporting gaming on Windows is what you might call "spotty." At this point it's not even clear what it plans to do with Games for Windows Live, which earlier this year the company said it would continue to support, mere days before it was expected to be shut down. But it's not giving up! In fact, Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, said we're going to be hearing more about the company's plans for Windows gaming early next year.

In response to an inquiry on Twitter about seeing footage of the Windows 10 UI on the Xbox One, Spencer wrote, "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."

It's expected that Spencer will talk about gaming at a recently-announced event being held on January 21, where he and other Microsoft executives will discuss the "Windows 10 consumer experience." That experience will rely largely on the capabilities of DirectX 12, which promises a significant performance increase over DirectX 11, but he'll hopefully address more gaming-specific topics as well—like, maybe, what's actually going on with Games for Windows Live.

Andy Chalk

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.