Games for Windows is still very much a vision. The first priority, a retail initiative, is currently underway. By employing marketing strategies used by console makers, namely platform-branding, Microsoft hopes that PC gaming (under the ‘Games for Windows’ banner) will become less intimidating to mainstream consumers — no longer will the PC games isle be a cluttered mess of disparate titles. Computer Gaming World was also renamed as Games For Windows to help drive Microsoft’s new brand. Aside from retail consolidation, this branding will ensure certain requirements are met by games’ publishers. To earn the GFW brand, a title must comply with certain Microsoft-tested specifications, including widescreen support, compatibility with the Xbox 360 controller, parental control features, and simple installation. GFW games will also begin to carry a system rating, based on a 5-point scale. Vista will assess the value of your PC’s gaming abilities and assign a rating (or “WinSAT”), say 4.5. You can then weigh that rating against a game’s recommended rating (example: 5.0) and its required rating (example: 3.5) before purchasing. Update: The scale will begin at five points, but is designed to grow as newer technologies enter the market.
But how will the Games for Windows invasion affect the comfort level of core PC gamers who appreciate the intricacies of the machines Microsoft is trying to simplify (at least, from a consumer perspective)? Some will certainly shun its arrival, but as the GFW brand grows to encompass Live Anywhere, others will happily embrace the competition; that is, the opportunity to take on their controller wielding counterparts. Are the keyboard n’ mouse mightier than the gamepad?
I see this as more of a marketing move than any sort of grand plan involving engineering.
They want to sell copies of Vista to gamers, and the best way to do this is to put a feature in Vista that games use which can’t be accessed with a hacked copy of the OS (an online community).
While interesting, they’re missing a key factor: MMOs are the major player in PC gaming these days, and they come with their own built-in communities.
#1 – They want to sell copies of Vista to gamers…
Enough said.
The rating system is a very good idea. A lot of people have no idea what processor they have, can’t distinguish between RAM and ROM, and think they’re video card is 17 inch. Having said that, how can it possibly work in practice, given the infinite number of possible hardware combinations?
I thought the game interface for Windows was DirectX. “Games for Windows” must be marketing spin. Why would a PC game need to be compatible with XBox anyway, since XBox is a completely separate game box that’s probably not compatible with a PC.
An aside: anybody actually used the last release candidate for Vista? Can we turn off the Areo UI transparency, fades and other crap like we could turn off the slow user interface “visual effects” in Windows XP?
If we could do the same on the Mac it might actually become a decent user interface again…sorry Mac people. I like my simple, fast iPod interface, but I really don’t like the overly “flashy” OSX window manager, with its transparency and slow fades of windows and menus that could be instantaneous.
When you buy a game for XBox guess what. It runs on XBox. But buy a game for Windows and well, it might run. Yeah, a lot of people have no idea what the minimum and recommended specs mean. So they buy a console and don’t get games for PC.
Let’s see… If you want to play the newest Halo, you either buy a $450 XBox 360 from Microsoft or buy a new $2000 Microsoft Vista powered PC. M$ is obviously aiming to make it so that if you want to play any decent $50 game, you have to offer up unto Caesar some big cash.
I think I will stick with XP.
MS wants control of ALL game distrbution…
If it CAN play on the system they want to TAG it for a price.
this is as bad as those that THINK, a MS keyboard is the ONLY/BEST thing on the market. Which I wouldnt touch with YOUR Money…
Totally off topic,
But I got a $75,000 dollar bonus this year!!!
Yeeee Haawwwww!
Neener neeener neener!!
And I won Timer person of the year! Good year.
So much Microsoft hate… it´s an old trend I guess, a bit 90´s though.
Easy to explain the GfW brand, really. The Xbox/Windows brands must be in separate realms. Consoles/OS. MS demonstrated how this would be done in the latest E3 show.
I play games mostly on a PC and I am glad to see them push for this, as I was beggining to think the PC Gaming industry was slowing down. But no, the industry is waiting for DirectX10 and Vista to takeoff.
As for the people who are posting troll comments I can only say that they are one of the following:
– geeky sony/nintendo fans
– envious mac fans
I´m sorry that your elitism keeps you nice and square. DirectX 10 + Vista is gonna rock our worlds, and I´m gonna be there to enjoy it.
Oh and on #10. Do you have any idea how much crap every DirectX has been? The best games, visually speaking, have been openGL engines. DirectX does nothing but hamper performance and interrupt the use of older games when you feel nostalgic and want to play them again. Some great oldies like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale actually require you to *turn off* DirectDraw just to keep them from crashing thanks to MS’s ‘improvements’ in DirectX over the years.
I aint gonna purchase no vista
I wonder if Bill Gates is finally agreeing with me that games and game machines might be one of two big hopes for a flat computer market. (the other is video entertainment)
I mean, everybody who is going to buy a computer already has. Those who haven’t aren’t going to as things are now.
One problem is the OS — and Windows is a mess. Not that Linux or Apple or much better or worse. They’re all too darn hard.
But game consoles aren’t! (at least not the few I’ve used.) They are a delight in user-friendliness. Just pop in the disk and get-going.
The other problem is software — home users only need a small handful of productivity titles. To make things worse, MS’s cash cow “Office” has been all-but-duplicated with the free OpenOffice. Soon people are going to figure that out. (I, personally, have unloaded MSOffice and gone totally with OpenOffice.)
But games? You can’t have enough games!
Krust,
I feel the same way. I think I have a healthy distrust of microsoft. But the last few month, the hate bile has really been racheting up. I don’t get it. Well maybee I do…
Product activation works…
Other than that, I can’t explain the irrational levels of FUD about microsoft products that is bouncing around the bloggosphere. Even on slashdot…
Ryan,
You mean games like Oblivion, World of Warcraft, or Battlefield 2142? Last I checked those were all DirectX games.
Baldurs Gate, and Icewind dale??? Those are like 10 years old!
Basically, it is true that MS is trying to control the PC industry. But the reasons for them trying to do this is to increase productivity in xbox live. PC gamers have alot of poeple to play against while online, but MS is trying to increase the overall volume of gamers playing online. Whereas, you would have a situation where you could set up a game and make all the rules, and whoever wants to play can join, which you can already do, but you may have an idea that the typical PC gamer might not want to be a part of.
Another thing is MS is trying to get a controller that can be accepted by a larger audience. Me personally, that is why I don’t play alot of games on the PC, because I don’t like the control scheme of point and click, it’s true that is gives you precise controls, but it is way too complicated to attract newbies, and too much of a bother for a veteran console gamer to crossover to, which is why these two industries are split, even though they come out with some of the same games.
I think it is a good and bad thing on both halfs. I think it will be good to gather gamers into one area and make a even larger online community where everything you need is in one spot. I think it will be bad because somehow , someway MS will find a way to tax gamers.
games for windows ratings…whatever.
my comp is mpc3, so i can pretty much run about anything.
‘Games for Windows’ sounds like “Plays For Sure” – and we know how ZUNE owners like that.
J/P?
Two words “Intel Inside”.
Getting their name on the box of popular games, some of the goodwill rubs off onto their Brand. They will give the developers hard or soft payola, which effectively makes it an advertising ploy.
If they do it well, they will put some effort into giving better support for games that follow a particular process in integrating with Windows, which also gets assists them in pushing particular api’s/dev tools down the game developers throat, and hopefully for them makes it harder to port the games.
Of course, it could blow up in their face if they don’t have enough control and the game studios use it to prop up the sucky games they are having difficulty funding. Brand equity is a two way street 🙂
John Paradox…
I started interviewing mp3 player owners last few weeks, because I didn’t understand the mp3 player market…
Basically, my analysis of the market is this… The only company with intact DRM is Apple iTunes. Go figure…. Anyhow, iPod users all swap and trade mp3’s… rather than iTunes files
As far as I can tell, “plays for sure” means that as long as you can get your file in windows media player, you can strip the drm off of the file in about 10 seconds(per file). There are many freely available tools to automatically do this… “plays for sure” is a quality check to verify that the player actually works. This is true on the latest patched version of windows media player 11.
Zune, like every other player plays mp3 files. However, as you mentioned “plays for sure” DRM is a joke, and the industry is quitely giving up on DRM schemes. A number of internet music retailers now simply sell mp3 files at fair prices… emusic sells them at about 30 cents a track, you just have to commit to buying 30 a month. Woah revolutionary…
For example, the wifi sharing capability for Zune has already been cracked. you rename your mp3 file to a jpg file, then send it on over. The receiver renames it back to mp3. DRM gone…
I don’t know about internet sales, but Iv been looking at the Zune shelves in the big box retailers. All gone. Either the retailers are not getting them, or they are selling out. Even the brown ones. I don’t know what that means for gross sales, but…
As for iPod brand mp3 players… I am still confused… The people who have them, buy them 2-3 at a time. I DONT GET IT. They are invariably iPod snobs. I wish I had Apple brand loyalty. Looks to be a better racket then religion.
I sent a post to MS along time ago.
About making a OS for games only, and maybe abit of networking.
I also talked to a game maker about using a auto boot Linix to Boot to there OWN OS, and leaving windows OUT of the loop.
#16
Every single id software engine game (Since the old Half-Life to Wolfenstein to Doom 3 to Quake IV to Alice to Soldier of Fortune to more games than I could ever possibly name), the games that are actual top ‘most played’ games. WoW is one of those, and that is it. BF2142 is still a last place finisher compared to even ancient engines like the original Half-Life in terms of who plays this.
As for BG and IWD. Of course they’re old. Did you read what I said about playing older games?
As a dad, I sure love that XBox360. Just pop in the disc and hit “Play”. I have put about 2-3 hours of setup on that box total, including a secure WLAN connection, media streaming from the main machine and HD config of the projector. The darn thing just works, and I love the fact that there is no “Dad – my game isn’t working” questions AT ALL.
Also, I get to keep the PC for my own games and stuff 🙂
I can see the need for a simplified scheme for people wanting to let their kids play games on the PC. The state of tech savvy among average Joe Consumer isn’t much to write home about. (How many of your friends’ computers are fully patched and secured?)
Computer Gaming World used to be a good magazine some time ago.
I guess Microsoft needed another soapbox to preach from. I wish Microsoft would keep the Windows games separate from everything else. They do (or did) manage to have some good titles.
and also
#17. Point and click too complicated for newbies? Maybe 15 years ago.
One of the reasons I stick with PC gaming over consoles is that the controllers stink.
Well, if M$ creates a Vista Gamer Edition and sells it for $50, I might change my mind about upgrading to Vista. Games are the only reason I use Windows XP as it is.
Don’t hold your breath waiting to a gamer edition, though.