How 'Games for Windows' Will Change PC Gaming

Joystiq has a short piece up talking with Windows (GFW) Marketing Director Kevin Unangst and PR Manager Michael Wolf about the future of the 'Games for Windows' initiative. With the launch of Vista, Microsoft is making a big push to turn PC games into a 'console-like' cohesive brand. Instead of relying on the good name of individual publishers to sell titles, Redmond is requiring that all titles use similar packaging and a distinctive logo. Along with the new gamer-centric features in Vista, and the tie-in to Xbox 360 with 'Live Anywhere', this is meant to reinvigorate the PC games market for the sometimes not-so-savvy consumer. From the article: "By making gaming a priority in the Vista experience, Microsoft is molding a powerful pairing of the Games for Windows and Xbox 360 brands. To some extent, this is based on a hope that Live Anywhere will be embraced by GFW developers and publishers, pulling Xbox Live (and your Gamertag) outside of the 'Box, in turn encouraging an unrivaled virtual community. But there are simpler touches that also spark our interest. For example, start up Vista's Minesweeper, connect your 360 controller, and enjoy a subtle rumble each time you slip up. It's the melding with the familiar that will drive new and lost consumers to the Games for Windows brand."

Embrace and extend

[GodHead]

Brilliant stragety. Worked wonders for the borg.

Until that one lady captain made them emo.

oh boy

[SydBarrett]

Forget Minesweeper, I want multiplayer solitaire with voice chat.

I can see the marketing slogan now...

[sehlat]

"Trust us."

Wow

[ipooptoomuch]

I have waited almost ten years for them to put rumble support into minesweeper! oh boy!!! I can barely contain myself.

Re:New and lost?

[bhodikhan]

Maybe a Wimote shaped like a small chair? A least Balmer would have something to throw around while he's playing.

Re:oh boy

[David Nabbit]

Is it just me, or is minesweeper with a controller horribly unappealing? Its a timed game, with small little boxes to click. A gamepad doesn't seem up to the challenge. Especially since there will be a mouse already attached connected to the computer.

It doesn't say that you use the controller to play minesweeper. You just use the mouse, put the controller somewhere else, and "enjoy a subtle rumble each time you slip up."

Re:Hey Sony, Nintendo, and Apple, Listen Up!

[Anonymous Coward]

... Looking back, most industry executives agreed that the singular moment that brought the "Consortium of the Willing" together was a lone post on what was then just another Internet forum, and not the brain center for the world government it is today: "The post from '99 [99BottlesOfBeerInMyF] really just got things started," says Steve Jobs, "Up until then we were kind of sitting around wondering what to do with all these piles of money we had. We knew about Microsoft and games, but we didn't have a direction to go in." John Carmack of id Software and Rocketry Superstores agrees: "It wasn't so much what he said - we figured it out pretty easily as things got started - but it was the way he said it. 'Get to it!' Man...still sends a shiver down my spine. 'Get to it!'. We weren't getting to it before, and then, after that post it was like 'ok, we need to get to it and get this done.' And that's what we did." Coming up next on Behind the Games: the fall of Microsoft, and '99's battle with fame and amphetamines.

Re:Hey Sony, Nintendo, and Apple, Listen Up!

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Coming up next on Behind the Games: the fall of Microsoft, and '99's battle with fame and amphetamines.

I'm really more of a whiskey and hallucinogens kind of guy... and I'm way too ugly to be famous. They'll attribute all my hard work motivating major corporations to someone with less facial hair.

Re:PS3 and linux?

[Zorque]

I agree. Sony is trying to lose money these days, why not take it a step further?

Re:Windows games

[Anonymous Coward]

Those two items are the only things maintaining Windows' dominance. The OS would become about as relevant as MS-DOS were it to lose those two exclusivities; that is, it would be a legacy OS.

Oh, totallllly. Cause, you know, all those corporations that use Windows as their standardized desktop, e-mail serving, PIM, and databasing solutions, not to mention the OEM contracts that Dell, gateway, IBM, etc have with Microsoft account for like, what, 2% of total sales for Windows? Most Windows users are DEFINITELY home users and not corporate users looking for a unified office computing environment. And, pft, government DEFINITELY doesn't use windows in the majority of it's offices and computing environments. So, like, if microsoft DIDN'T focus on the gaming/home user market, they TOTALLY would fail as a company. Definitely the volume of gaming titles and factory compatibility with new hardware is the ONLY thing keeping Windows relevant in the modern business world. The ONLY thing. For sure. Definitely. you're TOTALLY right. COMPLETELY right. One Hundred and Ten Percent right. Yup.

Re:Considering how few consumers want Vista

[Itninja]

Are you kidding?!! Games on the Mac are awesome! And you *know* that are because you played them on your PC 5 years ago! Great games like Breakout, Super Breakout,....um... Photoshop....

Re:oh boy

[Dabido]

'I want multiplayer solitaire with voice chat.'

I already have that, the voices in my head tell me so. :-)

Re:oh boy

[C0R1D4N]

yay minesweeper porn!

Oh was that joke meant to have been subtle? Oops

Re:If they can pull it off...

[Randolpho]

2.0753%, why?