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Microsoft Entertainment Games

Microsoft Plots Future of Xbox and PC Gaming 44

Posted by Zonk from the nice-to-have-that-kind-of-power dept.
Next Generation continues to report on the DICE event, where another session with MS VP Peter Moore talked about the future of PC and Xbox gaming. He reiterated an earlier statement the company had made saying they were culpable in the decline of PC gaming. In response to that, Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System. He also talked about the success of the Xbox Live system. From that article: "He said there have been 4 million pieces of content downloaded from Xbox Live since launch. He talked about Xbox Live Arcade and the success of the try-before-you-buy model. He used the example of Geometry Wars (pictured), for which 36 percent of consumers who downloaded the demo bought the game. The average Xbox Live Arcade conversion is 20 percent, with the lowest conversion rate for a game being 10 percent."
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Microsoft Plots Future of Xbox and PC Gaming More

Microsoft Plots Future of Xbox and PC Gaming

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  • A system to sit comfortably in your home to receive your digital entertainment seemlessly, who'da thunk it would be so nice and profitable...
    • Profitable? Heh. Tell that to Infinium Labs.
      • Now it's time for Slashdot's "You make the call".

        A company named Infinium Labs proclaimed an online purchasable "arcade" service for their Phantom console that has yet to be released. Microsoft, with their XBox Live service does the exact same thing. Do you...

        1. Bash Microsoft for stealing & implementing the idea.
        2. Laugh at Infinium that MS beat them to the punch
        3. Say something about Steam

        We'll have the answer after this commercial break..
  • Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System.

    Welcome to the new renaissance, where we download all of our games directly from Microsoft and pay them a monthly fee.
    • Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System.

      As discussed yesterday [slashdot.org] on Slashdot ... this will not fly ... and there will no no renaissance.
    • There is no monthly fee. The fee is only for the Xbox Live 'Gold', which features online multiplayer.

      Marketplace is available to all, even the free Silver accounts.

      The games are purchase-once-keep-forver. You do not need to renew or pay a maintenance fee.

  • One picture is worth 1000 words (Score:5, Funny)

    by serutan ( 259622 ) <snoopdoug@@@geekazon...com> on Friday February 10, 2006 @04:50PM (#14690536) Homepage
    Wow, take a look at Peter Moore's photo in the article. Obviously a free-wheeling, devil-may-care kind of guy who knows how to put the FUN back in Accounts Receivable! With him behind the joystick I bet we can expect an average 23.6% net gain in player satisfaction over the next fiscal biennium (inflation adjusted).

  • Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Golias ( 176380 ) on Friday February 10, 2006 @04:53PM (#14690575)
    Vista is just the next version of Windows, right?

    How is a new version of windows going to make the all the non-Madden EA games not suck?

    How is a new version of windoes going to result in a new FPS that is anything other than an even-more-prettied-up revision of Quake?

    How is a new version of windows going to do away with level grind and moster farming in MMORPGs?

    Shenanigans! Shenanigans!
    • You can't call shenanigans. My broom is in the shop.

      Obviously the new HALO that's going to be Vista only is going to ramp up the FPS market! And...ummm...Does MS even do MMORPGs anymore? AC will be even...shardier?

      This isn't very different than when Windows 95 came out. Of course, 95 and Windows 3.1/DOS really were incredibly different. I don't see Vista doing much, except possibly requiring an OS upgrade a year or two after it ships when DirectXbox360PCI-E-Enhanced becomes unusable on XP.
    • This is kind of like Intel promising how the Internet would be so much better with their Pentium III. Unless it was going to rip my modem out of the wall and replace it with a T1, I sure wasn't going to notice a difference.
    • How is a new version of windows going to make the all the non-Madden EA games not suck?

      It's not... Criterion making "Black" is though.

      How is a new version of windoes going to result in a new FPS that is anything other than an even-more-prettied-up revision of Quake?

      It's not. Monolith did though, with FEAR.

      How is a new version of windows going to do away with level grind and moster farming in MMORPGs?

      It's not. Companies cracking down on it are though.

      But it's ok, MS will just take the credit fo

    • But hey, you need the HDTV graphics, fast processor, and expensive components for... what was that successful launch title again? Oh yeah, Geometry Wars [gamespot.com] - let's see Nintendo match that with their underpowered Revolution.

      Yes, I am being sarcastic. The game being inexpensive and fun are the important points for Microsoft's best selling game - but yet they can somehow blithely ignore those little points.

      • Re:Wait... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Osty ( 16825 )

        But hey, you need the HDTV graphics, fast processor, and expensive components for... what was that successful launch title again? Oh yeah, Geometry Wars

        For what it's worth, Geometry Wars is deceptively complex. The background consists of 60,000 nodes in a weak gravitational balance, the calculations for which consume an entire core. The total number of enemies on screen can be enormous, and though they're relatively simple both in geometry and AI the sheer number of them is quite impressive. And that

    • "I Swear To God I'll Pistolwhip the next person who says SHENANIGANS" ahhh SuperTroopers
  • From TFA: "He said that Vista would drive PC upgrades..."

    This is just what we need, an OS that forces you to upgrade your hardware for it to run efficiently. Great job Microsoft!

    ...which would help game sales (Windows game sales), and gave an impressive demonstration of how Vista improves the gaming experience through better file organization.

    They plan on improving the gaming experience through better file organization? What?
    • If you will recall, when windows 95 came out, it's requirements drove people to upgrade their hardware, which in turn sent the prices down a lot (especially RAM). Although this sucked when you HAD to upgrade to get it to run decently, in the long run, it benefited all of us. I don't know if you remember RAM prices before that, but it was huge. I remember paying $400 for 16 megs.

      Nowadays though, I don't think it can knock prices down as much of course (if at all). I will fight this upgrade as long as I c
      • I don't know if you remember RAM prices before that, but it was huge. I remember paying $400 for 16 megs.

        Hell, I remember when RAM was $100 per megabyte, and a flight-sim game (can't recall name at the moment) required 16MB RAM to display the [software-rendered] water texture, and that RAM would've cost about $1600. This was before 3dfx was ever heard of, and the term "hardware 3D accelerator" made no sense. But maybe I'm just showing my age there.

        Part of that was my fault though, as I assumed XT was a
      • I'm pretty sure that what drove RAM prices down was switching from stuff that was expensive to manufacture (72pin sticks, yeah!!), to stuff that was much cheaper (SD-RAM, anyone?)
    • One of the all time classic Microsoft jabs since the PC DOS days was "What Andy Giveth, Bill taketh away". Every time there is an increase in Hardware performance by Intel, run at the time by Andy Grove, a new st of products would arrive from Microsoft that would utilize this newly available power, making the newest version of a spreadsheet or word processor perform as well as or worse than the performance of the previous generation. This is the latest round of a cycle that has been going on since Windows
  • of those 4 million pieces of content were updates for the x-box?
  • but I have a Windows install a reboot away for any gaming fix I can't get on Linux. I'm always ||-- this close to just saying "to hell with it" and removing the damn Windows partition for more space.

    This new attitude of Microsoft where people need some bloated, overpriced OS or some overpriced me-too console to be worthy of playing Microsoft's games makes me sick, and I'm coming very close to getting rid of my Windows "fix" once and for all.

  • I don't consider Halo 2 a renaissance of PC gaming.

    Sorry but by the time Vista hits we'll already have things like UT2007 and Quake Wars out. Maybe DNF if the planets align properly this year. There's plent of non-MS games coming out this year that'll give a good boost to PC gaming. I don't see MS leading this "renaissance" particularly.
  • One of Microsoft's issues in getting folks to upgrade from 2000->XP was a lack of killer apps. Couldn't offend the business crowd, so backward compatibility was required, but that left 'em without a driver to get folks to migrate quick-like. I'd be interested to see if Vista is a "requirement" for some of the new games to help kickstart the push for the OS...

    • Well, seeing as how Halo 2 is supposed to be 'Vista Only', I think that pretty much answers the question.

      Personally, I think/hope it'll bite 'em right in the ass and Halo 2 is the worst selling MS title ever... Sure, there may be some die-hard Halo fans that'll rush right out and shell out for the upgrade--but I suspect that by the time the average gamer gets around to it, H2 will be firmly in the bargain bin...

      (Of course I also hope that this somehow drives the creation of more Linux native games--but I

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