I don't understand. What is the alternative arrangement that they want? Do they want to pay for it twice?

For a moment I thought maybe the issue was PS4 players not getting the same option, but I just checked and it's not even releasing on PS4 at all. The publisher's listed as MS Studios so I would guess that arrangement is not just a timed exclusive, haha. So I mean TECHNICALLY PS4 players are cut out of this deal, but they were never getting the game at all, so at worst this is still on equal terms with any other console exclusive.

Isn't Quantum Break single-player?!

Like many things people get mad about this is not about what they are talking about it is about the sub-text and fear that underlies it all. A lot of people made the mistake of conflating console choice with personal identity or tribal affiliation. They have been Defending Xbox for so long that anything that weakens it "competitively" (or really, even just removes a point of differentiation) is a big problem.

They were out there fighting the fight for Microsoft and now they are having the ground under them eroded by business decisions that don't align with their campaign against the 2-front war of PlayStation and PC. They had these things that were "Only on XBOX" — it said so right there on the trailer. But now, here they are giving this thing that was only theirs (loyal soldier that they were) to the people who had been judging them.

And even that is not really what's happening. They picked XBONE, even though the zeitgeist said PS4 was the Gamer's Choice™. They Picked XBONE, even thought the PC Master Race told them it was where the casual and skill-less played. They are afraid that maybe they picked wrong and now they are all alone with their mistake - a soldier left behind when the army pulled out.

The girl they liked just kissed their bully; Their friend picked the jock instead of them in the kickball draft; some third childhood Scène à faire trauma where someone is emotionally hurt by someone else acting rationally instead of guarding their feelings.

So let me say up front that I 99% agree with you. I think the level of rage around this is just insane. But there is a tiny little bit of justification behind some of the rage that is happening.

There are some people who only bought a new console in the past few months. Let's say someone was trying to decide "Do I buy a PS4, Xbox One, or invest some money into upgrading my PC?". For people in this position, console exclusives can be a major deciding factor. Microsoft and Sony know this. So when Microsoft keeps quiet about the existence of a PC version of Quantum Break until this close to launch, it doesn't surprise me that there are some players feeling a little cheesed off by it. It's not that they don't want anyone else to play the game... it's that they said to themselves "I really want to play Tomb Raider and Halo and Quantum Break and there is only one way to do that". The PC Version of Tomb Raider launched only a couple months after the Xbox "exclusive". Quantum Break PC will be available day 1. The fear for some is that the "reasons" they bought their Xbox are gradually eroding, and they are left wishing they had put the money into upgrading their PC instead.

Lately I've been really trying to monitor how I conduct myself on the internet. I'm very laid back and very sarcastic. In person, that probably grates on people sometimes (it gives the impression that I don't take anything seriously, which is actually pretty true anyway; lots of people don't like that, I guess). On the internet, I've realized I can come off like a straight up asshole. Add that to the fact that it's difficult to detect tone through text, and people are almost guaranteed to just interpret everything in the worst way possible (I'm very guilty of this, too) and are likely to be combative or defensive . . . It's just something I've been trying to be more conscious of (to varying degrees of non-success, I'm sure).

So anyway, I'm trying not to be too judgmental of anyone, but then something like this happens.

If you preorder Quantum Break on Xbox One (or buy the launch edition of the physical copy), you get the PC version (and Alan Wake) for free. Save games will transfer freely between the two, meaning you can play on your Xbox, then jump over to your PC and pick up exactly where you left off.

Idiots on the internet have somehow decided this is a bad thing, and it blows my mind (this where the trying to not be judgmental thing comes in and fails miserably). This is probably the most pro-consumer thing Microsoft has done in years, and somehow people find a way to be pissed off about it! I'll never understand people . . .

It is a bad thing. Pre-orders are a bad thing. I cannot say this enough. If you buy a product without seeing that product, you are encouraging the companies that produce that product to put their money into pre-launch advertising instead of actual production of that product.

Do.
Not.
Preorder.