Inside Microsoft's plan to boost Xbox and Battle .net on PC, with more support for third-party publishers, eased certification rules for games, more polish on the back end, and much more. • Xbox plans to invest more heavily in Battle net as a PC platform, with Asha Sharma saying its user retention is “nearly as good as Steam’s retention.” • Sharma said Microsoft wants to support Battle net “the right way” for its existing community while bringing more first-party and select third-party games to the platform. The Witcher 3 is currently the first major third-party addition. • Microsoft also plans to simplify Xbox’s publishing tools and APIs to make it easier for developers to release and manage games across the Xbox ecosystem. • Sharma stressed that Xbox will continue investing in other PC storefronts, including Steam, as long as they reach distinct audiences. Asha's Quotes: “On PC historically, we've taken a one-shot approach. We've had one app, and that's what we've focused on. As we have dug in, we're leaving a lot on the table," Sharma said. "It turns out that Battlenet supports an audience that we're not reaching outside of it, and it is awesome at it. The retention is nearly as good as Steam's retention, and we've never really put any work behind it as a platform. And so, we are doing that. We are doing it the right way for that community. It'll be great for our first-party games, and great for select third-party games too.” “We will continue to invest in other PC apps as long as they reach distinct audiences,” Sharma emphasized. “The Windows app [Microsoft Store] reaches a lot of people around the world. In fact, in China, it is the number one store,” “We're collaborating across the board,” Sharma said, “we're doing a lot this fall [in terms of offers] through OEMs. We have an offer going out to 14 million OEMs. I saw some great pre-install work that's happening for [World of Warcraft], and some great conversion numbers. We will continue to succeed on Windows. There are a billion Windows PCs. There's no reason we shouldn't be serving our audiences there.” “Right now, it is simply very hard to work with Xbox,” Sharma admitted. “So, we are simplifying the targets, we're moving to a headless partner center, we're taking the cruft out of our APIs, and we're making them machine-readable. There's a lot of work here. We need developers to be able to work with us, understand how they are performing, and have tools that actually grow their business. There's a lot we can do here. I'm encouraged by the work happening.” via: Jez Corden windowscentral.com/gaming/xb…

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