CES 08: Gates Rocks Guitar Hero; Microsoft Brings ABC, MGM to Xbox Live

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In his last keynote speech at CES, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his supporting cast had a lot to speak about on Sunday night at the International Consumer Electronics Show--and some of it was related to games.

Playing up high definition displays and connected entertainment, Gates spoke of wide-ranging changes to the industry, before bringing on Microsoft president of entertainment devices Robbie Bach to make a few Xbox 360-related announcements.

"ABC and Disney will be bringing their TV shows to Xbox Live this month. Top rated shows like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and others," said Bach, who also noted that MGM will be added to the growing list of movie studios supporting the service.

"Windows is far and away the largest gaming platform in the world, and continues to grow," remarked Bach, before similarly lauding the Xbox 360's success. "We have passed the ten million member mark for Xbox Live. That's six months faster than we expected to get to that number."

Other than a mention of British Telecom partnering with Microsoft to use Xbox 360s as IPTV set-top boxes, the conference was largely dominated by a look at future technology and portable devices.

Gates introduced the Microsoft Surface, a sort of giant iPhone table that allows users to interact with a digital display by way of simple gestures. The Chairman demonstrated the device by customizing a snowboard design, changing the color scheme and adding a "Bill!" signature to the graphic.

Another futuristic gadget presented was a smart camera phone that can identify landmarks and people, offering suggestions, calling up notes, or playing ads depending on the building or person it sees.

In a speech titled "The Digital Decade," Gates first poked fun at himself in a video reminiscent of an exit spoof by another Bill--former President Bill Clinton. Gates was shown failing at various retirement-related activities, with celebrity appearances by Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, and Microsoft Bob--as well as a scene of Gates playing Guitar Hero II while attempting to impress U2's Bono.

Later on in the show, before a Guitar Hero III duel between Gates and Bach, the latter brought on Guitar Hero champion Kelly Lyon to play Welcome to the Jungle in his place. This was followed by Gates countering with his own ringer, Slash himself, who played his own licks with a real guitar to end the conference.

From The Chatty
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    January 6, 2008 7:42 PM

    Windows the largest gaming platform? largest POTENTIAL gaming platform maybe, they just need to tap in to all of those millions of PC owners who don't play games on their PC's.

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      January 6, 2008 7:53 PM

      Technically, Windows Solitaire is the most played electronic game ever, so in a manner of speaking Windows is the largest gaming platform.

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        January 6, 2008 7:58 PM

        If Windows had some kind of built in Steam, I think people would eat it up. Could be mandatory for developers to get on the service, but I'm not sure if that's legal. And it would be Microsoft developed so...yeah, maybe not a good idea.

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      January 6, 2008 8:06 PM

      [deleted]

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      January 6, 2008 8:07 PM

      If Microsoft spent more than 5 fucking dollars on marketing for GFW then it would be the largest gaming platform.

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        January 6, 2008 8:21 PM

        GFW is stupid anyhow, it's completely unnecessary and doesn't bring anything worthwhile to the table.

        Steam on the other hand, that's the future right there. Digital distribution, clans, messaging, all that fun stuff. You know, actual innovation instead of an attempt to cash in on the PC multiplayer market.

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          January 6, 2008 8:55 PM

          widescreen support, easy installer, signed files/drivers, 64-bit support, etc... read about it here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173456.aspx

          These should just be the common sense basics but the lack of these are what gives PC gaming a bad name and drives less technical users to consoles.

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            January 6, 2008 9:59 PM

            agreed.

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            January 6, 2008 11:24 PM

            Thats the part i like about GFW and what should be more marketing for pc games in stores and on tv to get the mainstream non technical consumers (read: idiots) to play pc games and therefore give publishers more reason to make better pc games because the mainstream users are buying their product.

            Steam does the same thing with easy installs and robust community tools but doesn't have to power or resources to force developers to take the time to adhere to common guidelines.

            bottom line is steam is good for people who already play pc games GFW will get new people to buy pc games and eventually when they realize how superior pc gaming is they will migrate to steam.

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            January 6, 2008 11:39 PM

            I agree too. I think it's great that they are trying to get some sort of standard that PC game developers should follow. These initiatives not only try to make PC gaming more accessible but also tries to follow the trends in technology.

            I think it's really too bad that PC gaming doesn't get the attention that it deserves. Some of my best gaming experiences have been on the PC. There are games like Zelda and MGS that makes me loves console games, but I just love so much of the depth that PC games have offered. Just looking at my collection right now, how many other shackers have gotten the pleasure to play Freespace 2, Heavy Gear, Baldur's Gate and Aliens vs. Predator 2. I can't list them all, but some of you know what I'm talking about. I think it's too bad, considering how many of these are such gaming classics.

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            January 7, 2008 9:20 AM

            proper widescreen support? ya right. look at bioshock and somehow it was branded "GFW".

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          January 7, 2008 3:45 AM

          I disagree. GFW might be a failure but it brought really nice PC boxes that are uniform in size to the mix. That's cool.

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        January 6, 2008 10:44 PM

        GFW is largely a marketing push. Dedicated PC gaming sections at retail, a distinct GFW brand on PC games -- it's actually intended to strengthen the PC gaming market.

        The tech side of things is pretty ass at this point, especially compared to Steam. But marketing wise they are at least trying.

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          January 7, 2008 9:22 AM

          The part that's supposed to compete with steam is called GFW Live

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      January 6, 2008 10:32 PM

      It is the largest, look at games like bejeweled and The Sims.

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        January 6, 2008 10:58 PM

        WoW alone could compete as console hardware with its subscriber/sales numbers.

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      January 7, 2008 5:44 AM

      I don't know if Bill is mocking Us or he's just doing the usual marketing blah blah blah. GFW was a nice platform in paper, but support form Microsoft to the initiative have been almost non-existant. The only serious release was Halo2 and we all know how that turned to be.

      If Microsoft would invest in the PC platform a 10% of what it invest in the xbox business I'm sure GFW would be the most profitable business not only to Microsoft but to the whole HD industry. Ask blizzard about it.

      I just don't know why Microsoft tries to kill the golden eggs goose. Then again after seeing Yahoo killing All Seeing eye, Lycos killing Sonique and AOL killing Netscape to see a big corporation kill one great and profitable business seems not to rare in this days.

      Still, for me, PC gaming is king.

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        January 7, 2008 9:27 AM

        GFW is a conflict of interest for Microsoft with Xbox. Xbox is a cash cow for MS, sadly there's little reason for MS to concentrate on pc gaming. The only way we are going to see any improvements in pc gaming from MS is if they combine console gaming with the pc. MS would be stupid to not make the next-gen xbox (3?) games automatically work on Windows Vista and have one unified network.

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      January 7, 2008 10:22 AM

      I think the "Windows is the largest gaming platform" thing was a comparison amongst the computer-using gaming crowd (in context). In which case it is.

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