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Report: Microsoft to Focus on Gaming with Windows 8
by Brian Leahy, Dec 23, 2010 3:00pm PSTAccording to a report by TechRadar, Microsoft could be eying gaming as a big focus for the forthcoming Windows 8. TechRadar claims that "the software giant [is] ready to put its weight behind the platform once more."
Microsoft has also hired Rahul Sood, who came over from Hewlett-Packard and Voodoo PC and is also the guy that blogged that Microsoft scrapped plans for PC and Xbox 360 cross-platform multiplayer because "the console players got destroyed every time" sparking Internet arguments about controllers versus mouse & keyboard.
Last month, Microsoft launched a redesigned Games for Windows Marketplace, which sells digital games and downloadable content. Microsoft's biggest competition will obviously be Valve's Steam platform, which is currently the undisputed king of PC gaming.
Microsoft has quite a large mountain to climb, especially after Games for Windows LIVE.
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Shack: Down the line, do you have any plans to integrate the Marketplace into Windows 7?
Chris Early: You know, that's a great question. I would love to do that at some level, but we have to kind of be really careful. Because as the operating system platform owners as Microsoft, we have to be careful with what we put in there in terms of an overall distribution.
If we were going to create this as an open game service, that we weren't going to manage, that anybody could get to, kind of like Games Explorer is, then we could include it. But if it's a Microsoft-managed service that we're going to look at from a profitable standpoint, and try to manage this games service, and make money doing it, and enhance the PC ecosystem, we can't use the Windows operating system as a vehicle for distributing it. That's the line we have to be careful with.
As it is right now, mods are getting hurt without Microsoft's help, mostly by developers focusing far more on the console side and DLC offerings there, as well as the "we want you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it" attitude.
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