14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft corporate vice president John Schappert signed an open letter targeted at gamers all over the world, describing how Microsoft supports game development on different platforms and the PC is still one of the most important markets for the company. Considering the mind set the "PC gaming is dead" which seems to be prevailing these days, the letter is surely an interesting initiative, even though, as a PC gamer myself, I would like to see less talk and more action from Microsoft. A nice start would be to convince their buddies over at Take Two, the ones doing that exclusive DLC for the Xbox 360, to focus on the PC version of GTA IV.
There are some interesting parts in the letter. Schapper says that "Every major region will see PC gaming continue to grow in audience, game revenue, and hardware purchases for the foreseeable future. While the challenges we face as an industry are many, PC gaming has never been stronger, and we're confident this trend will continue in the years to come".
Oddly, he chooses to focus on the Games for Windows initiative from his own company instead of offering more information on the actions of the wider PC Gaming Alliance. He cites a list of games that were released last year within the Games for Windows concept, talking about World in Conflict, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Sins of a Solar Empire, Crysis, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Hellgate: London.
There is also talk of "16 titles" which will bearly join in the next months the Games for Windows logo. Some of them will be Call of Duty: World at War from Activision, Ghostbusters: The Videogame from Sierra Entertainment, Crysis: Warhead and Microsoft's own Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection.
The letter ends with the phrase, "These are exciting times. We're proud of how far we've come and excited for what the future holds". I surely hope they are ready to translate all that excitement into some work to bring Xbox 360 exclusives like Halo 3 to the good old PC.