With computer game sales in a tailspin and a new generation of sleek, graphics-spewing consoles hitting store shelves, the software giant is promising to not only pull the computer out of its slump, but to deliver a PC gaming renaissance.
"I want to apologize for the dereliction of duty to our company's No. 1 platform, the PC, in terms of gaming," Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore said during a speech on the changing world of PC games last week. "We've been a little distracted for the past few years. Mea culpa, we've been busy."
Translation: Holy cow, you mean people are making money selling games for the PC? Why didn't we think of this?
Some of the PC gaming's hurdles include:
Piracy. Gamers are downloading the product rather than buying it.
Replace rather than with and.
Stagnancy. Developers keep cranking out sequels when they should be innovating.
In casual games on the PC, sequels are not so much the problem as simply lots of very similar games.
He points to piracy as a chief culprit in the sales drop. He says developers need to first find ways to make people pay.
Piracy is not the problem. People with pay if the game is fun and any good.
"When Vista launches at the end of this year we will be treating it like a gaming platform," he said. "We are really going to blow this out."
Microsoft's push for its new operating system and PC gaming in general will include an attempt to standardize some of the aspects of the industry. From game packaging to online play and installation, the hope is that PC gaming will adapt some of the better traits of its console competition.
The Vista system will also streamline the way games are presented on your computer.
A built-in "games explorer" will organize the games on your computer and provide details for each game.
"When you install World of Warcraft you will automatically get a lovely high-res box art image," Donahue said. "When you click on the icon it gives you the name of the publisher, developer, even links to support for the game and other stuff the developer can populate in the window."
This is the first I've heard of this.
As my wife mentioned to me yesterday, if Microsoft wanted to sell some games, they could start by updating the old Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack from the early 90s. A lot of the games in there are now casual game classics.
Seems like Microsoft has been focusing on the casual games for the new xbox360. These are the $5-$10 games you can download on xbox live. I've seen the mainstream review sites review these games. (I'm sure they're focusing on these games becuase of a lack of killer original content on the xbox360 but that is another story!) I'm also sure microsoft gets a cut of each sale. I wonder if that is something they're trying to do with Vista. Instead of me coming to your website to download a game - they want to own the default directory of games that sits on every Vista PC. Probably a lot of $$$ to be had there.
Posted by: Andy Webster | February 25, 2006 at 02:46 PM