PC

The Future of Games for Windows

Microsoft's initiative has been under a lot of fire

By Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor

10th of March 2008, 09:34 GMT

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And now there's a Microsoft "fireman" ready to talk about it and explain some of Microsoft's moves. But first, a little history lesson. Games for Windows was announced early in 2006, at the DICE Summit, and was billed as the "be all, end all" branding for games on the PC. Only games that were easy to install and that allowed for parental controls would be branded. Only games that used certified drivers and standard libraries would be accepted.

And Microsoft promised it would make Vista games friendly, it will

deliver a spanking brand-new and improved DirectX 10 and that it would invest in advertising to promote the merits of the PC as a games platform. It also promised a system by which the PC versions of games could connect with the Xbox versions on-line to offer cross-platform play.

Some things turned out OK, some didn't. There have been around 50 games released in 2007 that had the Games for Windows brand. Amongst them were successes like BioShock, Gears of War and Crysis. But Vista is not as game friendly as promised and the jury is still out on whether DirectX 10 can improve performance for games. More troubling is that there are only two games for the PC that let you play against opponents using the Xbox and that the Games for Windows Live Gold service that facilitates cross-platform play is not free to use. A lot of users have complained about the little value they are receiving for their money and there are plenty of gamers that have dropped the service altogether.

Kevin Unangst, boss of the Games for Windows branch at Microsoft, has recently addressed some of the issues in an interview for Eurogamer. Unangst says that the service itself is still very young and a lot of developers need time to make it an integral part of their games. More cross-platform capable games are lined up for 2008 and the service is and will be good value for the money paid.

There's also talk of bringing Markeplace, with all its digital download services, to the Games for Windows Live initiative, so that there's virtually no difference between buying and playing a game for the Xbox 360 or doing the same thing on the PC. It is all part of Microsoft's contribution to the PC Gaming Alliance, an effort to promote the PC as a mature, well rounded platform for games that can offer the same features as the consoles.

As the games of 2008 get released, we'll see how Microsoft's designs for the Games for Windows Live service will measure up to reality.

TAGS:

Microsoft | Games for Windows | Live | Unangst | Xbox

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