On Games for Windows [Dec 19, 2006, 11:24 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Games for Windows Vista how the new brand & OS will change PC gaming on Joystiq
offers an updated preview of the new Games for Windows initiative, attempting,
with limited success, to sort out what GFW represents besides a marketing
slogan. Based on a tour of the program by Marketing Director Kevin Unangst and
PR Manager Michael Wolf, they describe interoperability with Xbox 360 games via
"Live Anywhere," how PCs will get numerical ratings to gauge how well they can
play games, and what qualifies a game for the GFW logo. The conclusion they
draw, however, is that it is difficult to draw conclusions about all
this:
It's a risk. The Games for Windows strategy is on the verge of being schizophrenic. Can the cumbersome PC gaming experience really be simplified down to a console scheme? There are just too many freedoms and variations that exist in the PC universe to accurately interpret the PC as "the console that everybody already owns." It's not that simple. So is GFW a trick? Is Microsoft trying to lure back some of the consumers that were lost when Xbox was launched (an initiative that cannibalized PC gaming sales by design)?
The answer, like the Games For Windows vision, is not so clear. But there is most certainly the opportunity for Microsoft to create something very special. A cross-platform community where you and I can jump from Xbox to PC to our cell phones seamlessly. Anywhere.
Windows needs to sell Vista and like all companies they want to sell LOTS of Vista.
Whats one way to sell Vista, by selling systems.
Whats a major reason that people buy new systems, to play the latest cutting edge games.
Not meaning to be rude, but that's probably not even ONE PERCENT of the Windows market. Really, it amazes me that Microsoft is going through such seeming "efforts" (and I use the term loosely because really, the only thing they've done so far is talk about it, I see very little actual EFFORT being put into the whole thing) to promote gaming on Windows when their core audience is the business user. Always has been, always will be.
The few million OEM copies of Windows that sell to gamers are fucking peanuts to them. The money is in the licenses to corporations. And the corporation isn't going to give a shit if the PC is only a "4 for games", or if it can talk to M4st4Kill4 on the Xbox 360.
The one way the entire initiative would be a glowing success if by branding it a GFW game, it has to adhere to a certain quality standard. That way we'd be rid of all the EA and other publishers foisting their pre-beta copies onto a paying public.
Ofcourse, Microsoft themselves are the biggest proponent / guilty party in shoving beta code out the door, so I have some doubts that will happen.
Any of that other shit, being able to play against an xbox 360 gamer, I fail to see how that's going to "Revitalize" gaming.
And really, didn't Microsoft WANT everyone to stop playing games on the PC and switch to an Xbox? And now that people are doing it, they're trying to get people back on the PC. Make up your fucking minds already. You're worse than the Boston Red Sox.
Creston
Whats one way to sell Vista, by selling systems.
Whats a major reason that people buy new systems, to play the latest cutting edge games.
Not meaning to be rude, but that's probably not even ONE PERCENT of the Windows market. Really, it amazes me that Microsoft is going through such seeming "efforts" (and I use the term loosely because really, the only thing they've done so far is talk about it, I see very little actual EFFORT being put into the whole thing) to promote gaming on Windows when their core audience is the business user. Always has been, always will be.
The few million OEM copies of Windows that sell to gamers are fucking peanuts to them. The money is in the licenses to corporations. And the corporation isn't going to give a shit if the PC is only a "4 for games", or if it can talk to M4st4Kill4 on the Xbox 360.
The one way the entire initiative would be a glowing success if by branding it a GFW game, it has to adhere to a certain quality standard. That way we'd be rid of all the EA and other publishers foisting their pre-beta copies onto a paying public.
Ofcourse, Microsoft themselves are the biggest proponent / guilty party in shoving beta code out the door, so I have some doubts that will happen.
Any of that other shit, being able to play against an xbox 360 gamer, I fail to see how that's going to "Revitalize" gaming.
And really, didn't Microsoft WANT everyone to stop playing games on the PC and switch to an Xbox? And now that people are doing it, they're trying to get people back on the PC. Make up your fucking minds already. You're worse than the Boston Red Sox.
Creston
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