Microsoft Vista wants gamers
Some care must be taken to see this is not taken too far but, by and large, gamers do not like Microsoft and do not, as a general rule, think Microsoft Windows is a good gaming platform.
On the other side of the coin Microsoft has a split within its ranks.
The major push thinks that Vista is the be all and end all and is, in itself, a great gaming platform.
Another group is selling Microsoft’s very own gaming machine, the XBox 360 and they sort of think that Vista should stick to what it does well and leave the game market well alone. For the record, the entertainment and devices division, responsible for selling 10.4 million XBoxes by year’s end, added $1.27 billion in revenue for a 76 percent growth rate. While in the overall Microsoft scheme of things $1.27 billion may not seem serious money it does if you work in the department.
There is, indeed, a third aspect. Microsoft has got very security conscious — if you want to be picky-picky it is about twenty years late but at least it is happening — and the security measures built into Windows Vista can make life quite difficult for them.
These three, all somewhat opposing views, come together in the next couple of days when Microsoft launches Vista to a totally unexcited public.
To get some excitement into Vista and to make sure more boxes are sold Microsoft would like gamers to look on a Vista-equipped PC as an excellent gaming platform. This revolution on the part of gamers is unlikely to the power of ‘n’ where ‘n’ approaches infinity.
A quick check of gamers by email found that the machine of their dreams at the moment is Wii with Sony and XBox 360 tagging gamely along. Of PCs not a murmur. Yet a brave face is being put on it by some Microsoft executives.
Rich Wickham, director of Windows gaming at Microsoft, said, ‘Gamers tend to be key influencers and tastemakers in the overall ecosystem. I tell anyone who will listen to me at Microsoft that these are our most important customers.’ It would not be difficult to agree with him about the importance of gamers.
The excellent video cards most of us have in our computers are not there, for certain sure, to make spreadsheets look prettier. They are there because of gamers who seriously know computers and even more seriously know what they want.
Thus one of Vista’s most important features is DirectX 10, the latest version of Microsoft’s graphics technology and this will enable more realistic images, such as rippling water, billowing smoke and lighting effects. You do not get those for Microsoft Word. Nor yet for Excel. It does nothing for Outlook nor yet Outlook Express. Possibly you could make an argument for PowerPoint and also FrontPage if anyone still uses the woefully over-bloated program. But mainly it is for games and gamers.
Microsoft says Vista will provide the best way to play some of the new games: Crysis, is a shoot ‘em up, Supreme Commander, a strategy game where you can be Eisenhower, Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan to choice or Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures where you get to play a civilized replica of Steve Ballmer as shown in our illustration.
Microsoft says Vista will also make it easier to install, update and control access to games. A key feature is a Games Explorer folder for games, that organizes titles in one place and issues alerts when updates and patches become available.
Not everyone is convinced. Alex St. John, a former Microsoft engineer who helped create DirectX and now runs WildTangent, a publisher of independent games, said the new security features make life difficult.
In an interview he said, ‘There are some problems with Vista that are actually very frustrating. I am pretty darn sure it will significantly reduce the number of people who are downloading games or the number of games people download and buy. Vista does cast a wet blanket that does have some weight over that innovation. It doesn’t crush it, it just hurts.’
That is not a ringing endorsement.
Rich Wickham, director of Windows gaming at Microsoft, explained that rather lamely by saying, ‘From a games perspective, there might be some small hurdles to take advantage of all those security features, but the benefit is enormous.’ And, by the way, you need Windows Vista Home Premium. The standard version will not hack it.
On the other hand it will play Patience. I have checked and this is so. For which relief, much thanks.
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