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.