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Microsoft Store Puts More Focus on Gaming to Drive Crowds

Visiting the Microsoft Store in Westfield Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, California, there was a noticeably larger volume of customers than normal.

Upon closer inspection, most of the customer traffic was due to the large number of Microsoft Xbox One S strategically placed between Windows PC's as well as a large assortment of gaming machines along the wall.

Some of these gaming PC's include those supporting Thunderbolt 3 like the MSI Vortex which has two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

 MSI also had the MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro which is also Thunderbolt 3 enabled.

The HP EliteBook Folio G1 was also there showing off its two Thunderbolt ports as well.

The Microsoft Store didn't have the latest Dell XPS 13 9365 but did have the Dell XPS 13 9360, both of which also support Thunderbolt 3.

Not all USB Type-C ports on PC's support Thunderbolt 3 though. The Lenovo Yoga 910 has a USB Type-C port which supports USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) and DisplayPort 1.2.

The All-In-One Microsoft Surface Studio was also front and center at the store. The Microsoft Surface Studio is the desktop extension of Microsoft's Surface family of tablets and notebooks.

The connectivity of the Microsoft Surface Studio is found at the base of the machine, including four USB 3.1 Gen 1, Gigabit Ethernet, SD card, and mini-DisplayPort 1.2 ports.

The Microsoft store still had VR demo's to draw people in, showing what immersive VR is possible on high end Windows gaming systems using HTC Vive VR Headset and Oculus Rift VR Headset.  

Recognizing that a lot of business friendly PC's aren't likely to bring in the crowds in a shopping mall, Microsoft made the right move on focusing on high end gaming, something that can truly differentiate the Microsoft store from the Apple Store across the way.