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Microsoft Gamefest 2006: Microsoft's Games for Windows Plans

by Chris Remo, Aug 13, 2006 10:00pm PDT
Related Topics – Microsoft, Games: PC, Games for Windows

During its Gamefest event currently occurring in Seattle, Microsoft announced its intention to bring console development to the masses. At the same time, however, the company is making a big push for PC gaming, mainly driven by and in support of the new Windows Vista operating system shipping next year. Microsoft, aware that PC gaming has seen continually dwindling development support and retail sales from the core gaming segment even as casual gaming is on the rise, has a number of plans for how to reinstate Windows as a premier gaming platform on par with fixed gaming platforms. Today, Microsoft's Skip McIlvaine gave a presentation outlining the steps Microsoft will be taking as well as what will be expected out of developers to increase the accessibility and marketability of Windows gaming. Retail and Marketing As longtime PC gamers know, retail treatment of PC games, even in specialty video game retailers, is less than appealing. According to McIlvaine, Microsoft is currently working with all major game retailers to revamp their display and marketing practices for PC games and putting them more on the level of games for a dedicated console gaming platform. This includes things like official Games for Windows branding, well maintained displays, and actual in store Windows game demo kiosks. Gamers will frequently be able to try out a game in a store, then take that same demo home on a DVD. Microsoft will be launching a revamped dedicated Windows gaming site, analogous to the comprehensive Xbox.com site it maintains for its console platforms. "It's been a little corporate," admitted McIlvaine. "The Microsoft Windows gaming sites have been more business, like Windows itself, [instead of] like Xbox." The Game Advisor, which allows gamers to check if their systems are capable of playing specific games, will also be updated. Showcases and Essentials Though many of the technical and marketing issues related to the platform as a whole will be tackled by Microsoft, Windows is still an open development platform and so it is a bit trickier to fully standardize actual game features. To encourage developers to take advantage of Vista-specific features and make their games compliant with the overall Games for Windows initiative, there will be a set of recommended and strongly recommended features called Showcases and Essentials. Essentials are checklist features that Microsoft will stringently require for developers who want to take advantage of the marketing support being placed behind Games for Windows. Again, there is no way to actually require a feature in Windows games since the nature of PC development means there is no mandatory licensing program, but only developers that adhere to the Essentials will get the substantial marketing muscle being placed behind the platform. Assuming the support Microsoft gives to Games for Windows is attractive and effective enough to entice developers to want to participate, the overall accessibility and compatibility of Windows games should theoretically increase as those developers implement Essentials. McIlvaine went through several examples of Essentials. One is support for Windows Media Center (a default component of Vista) for gamers who use their PCs in the living room. This includes features such as support for a wide array of aspect ratios and resolution and the integration of games with the Media Center browser so they can be launched with a remote control. An Essential for games that have general controller support will be natively supporting the Xbox 360 wired controller; support for other Xbox 360 peripherals should be straightforward as well, as Microsoft is requiring all of its hardware licensees to make their peripherals compatible with both Windows and Xbox 360. Though OpenGL will work in Vista, another Essential is using Direct3D as the default game renderer. Easy installation is another thing Microsoft will be pushing as an Essential, meaning developers should reduce the amount of time users spend between putting a disc in the drive and experiencing gameplay, making it closer to the "it just works" console experience. As much as possible should be done behind the scenes; ie, the entire game doesn't have to be copied to the hard disk before the user starts playing, rather much of it can be streamed in the background during gameplay. There are also a number of technical security and compatibility specs that must be adhered to. Finally, developers should make their games fully compliant with the Windows Vista Game Explorer. The Game Explorer centralizes and streamlines game organization. Everything related to a particular game that a user might need to access--the launcher, configuration files, save games, the uninstaller, and so on--can be found in the Game Explorer as long as developers support it. The Game Explorer will include information about a given game, such as release date, developer, publisher, links to the developer's and publisher's websites, and content rating from the ESRB or other regional ratings organization. Parents will be able to limit access by their children to games bearing a certain rating or specific content descriptors. Showcases are extra steps developers can take that showcase the features of Vista and XP and thus make Microsoft more likely to engage in heavier co-marketing with a game's publisher and push the game as a prime example of Windows gaming. These include things such as native support for 64-bit editions of Windows, support for multi-core processors, and taking advantage of the more advanced rendering and performance features of Direct3D 10. Microsoft will also encourage developers to make use of the Windows Error Reporting utility, which allows users to send feedback to Microsoft after a program has crashed. Developers will be able to evaluate common crash symptoms sent using the WER and, once diagnosed, can return applicable messages to end users. For example, having determined that a given crash is due to a particular out of date driver, the developer can send that information back to users to ensure that the users are able to correct the problem on their own. Microsoft is also strongly encouraging developers to not advertise game support for legacy operating systems such as Windows 9x or 2000, even if they do testing for compatibility with those systems. Other Showcases include less defined features, such as simply crafting gameplay that is unique to Windows, or best played on Windows. This might include dual monitor support in genres such as strategy or racing. In the near future, Microsoft will also be putting a heavier emphasis on its Live Anywhere service, which will attempt to bring an Xbox Live-like streamlined online gaming experience to other platforms including Windows. It will include features such as the TruSkill matching system used in Xbox Live, built in voice chat for all compatible titles, an all-inclusive cross-platform Gamertag, support for microtransactions and other paid content, Xbox 360-like Achievements, and so on. Live Anywhere will be receiving a first party "launch" when Vista is released, consisting of the Vista showcase titles Shadowrun and Halo 2. At that point, major features such as account management, matchmaking, a player feedback system, achievements, and the cross-platform identity will be in place. However, Microsoft also plans a second launch around the 2007 holiday season consisting of 8-10 major AAA titles to show off the system. That is the release timeframe developers currently working on Live Anywhere PC titles should be targeting. Other features such as Live Arcade for Windows, the Marketplace, integration with MSN Messenger, and so on, will be more fully implemented at that point. The SDK will be made available to developers this fall. Why? According to Microsoft, the actual total Windows gaming market is growing, in large part due to the rise of online casual gaming. Currently, Microsoft estimates that there are 16 million hardcore online PC gamers, 39 million moderate online PC gamers, and a staggering 143 million casual online PC gamers. The overall market is expected to hit 336 million online gamers in 2009. In addition to attracting existing (or former) hardcore gamers both on the console and PC side, Microsoft hopes that the console-like approach to PC gaming will attract more casual gamers that may not be interested in a dedicating gaming console. For gamers, this would have the benefit of increasing support for Windows gaming and making the experience more stable and consistent. From Microsoft's perspective, it strengthens the Windows brand and drives Vista sales and upgrades, as well as likely increasing support for Xbox 360 due to the cross-platform XNA tools. Microsoft has a big task ahead of it with its Games for Windows plans; this kind of unified platform approach to PC gaming has never been attempted to this degree. If the company succeeds, however, it could have an extremely positive effect on the PC gaming development and gamer community, which has seen slowly declining support in recent years as publishers place more of their budget allocations on console development. Microsoft's Peter Moore stated that, in its negligence, Microsoft has allowed PC gaming to suffer. Hopefully now it can have the opposite effect.


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  • #93
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    By: wolandscat x
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    In reply to #40:

    A few things I would like to be implemented

    1) Central place to manage my save games. Not spread accross my hard drives like it currently is. A nice GUI to manage saves in a central location would be nice.

    That is what the Vista Games Explorer is.

    2) Proper resolution support. It's a joke when games like BF2 ship a year ago and don't even support standard 17" and 19" LCD resolutions of 1280x1024. Before you say it, no using a command line or edit a .con file isn't sufficient. All games should support proper 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions out of the box and from the games GUI. No stretched HUD's would be nice also.

    That's exactly what the "Essential" mentioned in the article is requesting games do.

    3) Good Matchmaking. Gamespy has been a pain to use for years and the reliance of 3rd party browsers like ASE, QTracker, GS3D shouldn't be needed. Steam is a prime example of a built in server browser done right. It's fast, efficient and has the proper filters and isn't broken to all shit like the original BF2 and other Gamespy ones. You should be able to load up a game and be able to play without the requirement of a 3rd party program or waiting for it to update it's games and filters settings.

    That's what the "Showcase" mentioned in the article about Live Anywhere requires.

    4) Auto patching ability. Obviously the ability to disable this would be nice but having the Vista's Game Explorer (or whatever it's called) auto download and auto install patches would be a great addition. It be cool if it would be transparant running in the backround of Windows but if it was like WoW where it would update when loading the game (or like CoH beta) that would be great as well). It's silly that in 2006 gamers (remember not everyone is like us reading shacknews.com 15x a day) have to read webpages and download .zip files to install updates. To grow the market it needs to be easier for people who have jobs, family and games aren't their hobby like it is for many of us. That way avg joe bob could just load the game and play it without hunting for updates he didn't know existed.

    Yep, this was cut from the Games Explorer, but hopefully will make it back in shortly after Vista ships.

    5) Better description of required hardware. I think it's a bad sign when experienced gamers who play games as their hobby such as many shackers have to ask everytime a new PC game or demo is released you get a couple dozne posts "How would it play on x CPU with y GPU and z Ram?" If we as hardcore gamers have to ask how does someone who plays maybe a couple hrs a night and doesn't follow anandtech.com know if his desktop or laptop would be able to run the game. This isn't something that's easily fixed and I could write paragraphs on this issue alone but i'll just leave it at that :) This would be a good start though

    Yep, that's exactly what the Game Advisor and Games Explorer (mentioned in the article) do.
    Aug 15, 2006 2:46am PDT
  • #90
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    By: wolandscat x
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    -- None of this is being required by Microsoft. They are simply "rewarding" games that implement these things, in order to help address common frustrations.

    For the "Essentials," think of it as: "Don't do the silly things that make PC gaming frustrating at times, and we'll let the customer know that you've taken the time to 'not screw up'."

    For the "Showcases," think of it as "Do something cool that other games on other platforms aren't doing, and we'll tell lots of gamers how cool your game is."

    -- Many of you are misreading the article regarding installation: the recommendation is to look for ways to streamline and simplify the installation process, and one of those ways is to allow for an optional, yet possibly default, option to install only the bits necessary to launch the first level to the hard drive, while you drizzle the rest of the bits to the harddrive in the background. Again, this is not required, just a potential option that if done in a compelling way, might be worth mentioning. The recommendation is also there to always include an advanced option for users who want to copy the whole game to their hard-drive. The guy who mentioned Triton and Steam as examples has the right idea.

    -- Microsoft is definitely not requiring controllers for Windows games. The recommendation is that if the game already supports controllers / gamepads, to also support the Xbox 360 controller. The reason why is that they are trying to address the inconsistencies with controllers / gamepads / joysticks on Windows, but setting forth some standards that allow game developers to make games on Windows that work as reliably as they do on the Xbox 360.

    -- Regarding the D3D9 vs D3D10 screenshots: the author of the article was a bit irresponsible posting them without any comments: the comments made during the presentation were that these were screenshots from a simple coding sample in the DirectX SDK that showed how a similar scene was drawn using 451 Draw calls on D3D9, and in only 6 Draw calls on D3D10.

    -- Regarding "the biggest problem in PC gaming is all the various hardware and software": yep, and it's also its biggest strength. What Microsoft is trying to do with this program is say to game developers: "Hey, here are some best practices that will help you avoid the negative aspects of crashes, incompatibilities, inconsistencies and inefficiencies of targeting all that stuff. Follow them, and we'll advertise the fact that your game is likely to be less buggy, incompatible, etc." The other purpose behind these things is that some things are changing in Vista that should benefit games, and ensuring game developers are aware of them, and working with the OS instead of fighting with it, is a good thing.

    -- Microsoft is not withholding support or blocking game developers from making games for Windows with this concept, they're simply rewarding the folks that help fix the things that are broken and those that show off the things that are best about the Windows platform.

    MS isn't looking to "consolize" the Windows platform, except in that one way the console beats the PC: "it just works." Windows exists mainly because of its open-ness: it's a platform where anyone can do whatever they like and make money from it. Asking folks to do things smarter / cooler isn't the same thing restricting them from the platform. As a previous poster said, MS is all about inclusivity on the Windows platform, not exclusivity: their livelihood depends on it.
    Aug 14, 2006 11:40pm PDT

    Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.

  • #71
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    By: badspot x
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    For the love of god:
    1. Show file extensions by default
    2. Get rid of auto-run

    Half the people in the world have no fucking idea what's going on on their computer because of these two features. Hidden file extensions alone is single handedly responsible for 90% of the social engineering viruses we've seen.

    If you have auto-run, something nasty is invariable going to run itself when you didn't want it to (see sony's root kit).

    Bottom line: If you try to make things easier, people will just get dumber. It's better to just show them what's really happening and have the system behave consistantly.
    Aug 14, 2006 7:15pm PDT
  • #64
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    By: EvilDolemite x
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    Another thing:

    Part of me almost prays for a PC crash. Why? Independent games and digital distribution.

    This initiative is great, and I support most of it. But the greatest value of the PC is the ability to develop games for next to nothing, thanks to mods and cheap engines, and also to be able to distribute games that may not get retail attention (like Darwinia or Rag Doll Kung Fu).

    So a good weeding out of PC games is fine with me. Honestly, the industry could return to its mid-nineties state of lower budget, smaller team games and I wouldn't care. Graphics be damned.
    Aug 14, 2006 6:05pm PDT
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