If you’ve been wondering why you’ve never seen a Surface gaming laptop, don’t blame Microsoft.
For years, Microsoft’s Surface has led the way in certain product categories, including tablets and the pull-forward design of the Surface Laptop Studio. But Microsoft, which manufactures a game console and a gaming app for the PC, has never made a gaming PC — even as many people wonder why not.
Why? Because those manufacturers of gaming laptops do too good a job.
In an interview with Brett Ostrow, the vice-president in charge of Surface of Microsoft, one of my final questions was simply why Microsoft has never made a gaming PC. The answer goes back to the original purpose of the Surface line: not to directly compete with other PC vendors, but to open doors for the industry.
Microsoft originally intended the Surface as a reason to “break trail” for other vendors. In gaming, apparently there’s little point.
“You know, we tend to be in that place where we’re trying to drive and lead the ecosystem forward,” Ostrow said. “Gaming PCs have been a pretty healthy area for the OEM ecosystem. So from innovating in a specific area, the OEMs have done a phenomenal job in that space.”
So the gaming PC vendors are leading the way? “Yeah,” Ostrow replied.
Yes, Ostrow is technically in charge of Surface, not Xbox. The Xbox team doesn’t report to him. But any gaming laptop that did pass through Microsoft’s doors would probably involve Surface knowhow to some extent. And it looks unlikely that that will happen any time soon.
Further reading: The best gaming laptops under $1000 we’ve tested
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.