The difference is that MS didn't have IP ownership over XBLA titles like State of Decay and Mark of the Ninja, nor were they developed in-house. Sea of Thieves is developed by an MS owned studio (Rare), and the IP belongs to MS. And although a 3rd party studio worked on Killer Instinct, the IP is owned by MS.XBLA titles made their way on PC from time to time
During the last generation, with the exception of the Fable 1/3 and Halo 2, a MS owned Xbox IP was never ported over to PC.
Your point is valid in this case, although back then, MS did not own the Gears IP. So it's understandable how the first game originally made its way to PC a year after the X360 release. However, now that MS owns the IP, they didn't have to put the remaster on PC. But they're doing it anyway.PC already has Gears 1 with the additional content that the X360 never received. So thats not even a new game.
This is a bit of a vague statement. There was a time when MS studios only developed games for the PC, and there was no Xbox platform in sight. Things changed drastically since the launch of the X360, and now it seems like we're seeing a resurgence of PC support from MS.But then again, MS studios games have been released on PC in the past.
Not sure why you're using their stance from the last generation to make an argument against their efforts today. The whole point here is that MS has changed its stance since then under a different leadership.So was Alan Wake, and Remedy had to self-publish it. MS had no intention to release it. Says alot about their stance.
Limited number doesn't really mean that they can't be successful (e.g. FFXIV on PS4). Either way, if MS is actually getting one of its in-house studios to make a game that primarily has an audience on PC, doesn't this show you the console maker's genuine intent to support the platform?I think its a pretty good enough "excuse" to consider a PC release, keeping in mind the limited number of games and their success on consoles in general.
I gave the example of SCE in order to point out that exclusive MMOs aren't non-existent on consoles, and MS could've done the same with Sea of Thieves if they had no intention of supporting the PC.We're not talking about SCE here.