Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Plots Future of Xbox and PC Gaming

Posted by Zonk on from the nice-to-have-that-kind-of-power dept.

Next Generation continues to report on the DICE event, where another session with MS VP Peter Moore talked about the future of PC and Xbox gaming. He reiterated an earlier statement the company had made saying they were culpable in the decline of PC gaming. In response to that, Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System. He also talked about the success of the Xbox Live system. From that article: "He said there have been 4 million pieces of content downloaded from Xbox Live since launch. He talked about Xbox Live Arcade and the success of the try-before-you-buy model. He used the example of Geometry Wars (pictured), for which 36 percent of consumers who downloaded the demo bought the game. The average Xbox Live Arcade conversion is 20 percent, with the lowest conversion rate for a game being 10 percent."

44 comments

  1. Gee... by Dracoirs · · Score: 1

    A system to sit comfortably in your home to receive your digital entertainment seemlessly, who'da thunk it would be so nice and profitable...

    1. Re:Gee... by NetRAVEN5000 · · Score: 1

      Profitable? Heh. Tell that to Infinium Labs.

      --
      www.linuxpenguin.net
    2. Re:Gee... by British · · Score: 1

      Now it's time for Slashdot's "You make the call".

      A company named Infinium Labs proclaimed an online purchasable "arcade" service for their Phantom console that has yet to be released. Microsoft, with their XBox Live service does the exact same thing. Do you...

      1. Bash Microsoft for stealing & implementing the idea.
      2. Laugh at Infinium that MS beat them to the punch
      3. Say something about Steam

      We'll have the answer after this commercial break..

    3. Re:Gee... by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      4). None of the above
      You talk about your conspiracy theory which has MS buying Infinium Labs' tech under the table to create Xbox Live Arcade.

      --
      Why not fork?
  2. Welcome... to zombocom by garrett714 · · Score: 1

    Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System.

    Welcome to the new renaissance, where we download all of our games directly from Microsoft and pay them a monthly fee.

    1. Re:Welcome... to zombocom by neonprimetime · · Score: 1

      Moore says the company is planning a PC gaming renaissance through the Vista Operating System.

      As discussed yesterday on Slashdot ... this will not fly ... and there will no no renaissance.

  3. One picture is worth 1000 words by serutan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, take a look at Peter Moore's photo in the article. Obviously a free-wheeling, devil-may-care kind of guy who knows how to put the FUN back in Accounts Receivable! With him behind the joystick I bet we can expect an average 23.6% net gain in player satisfaction over the next fiscal biennium (inflation adjusted).

  4. Wait... by Golias · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vista is just the next version of Windows, right?

    How is a new version of windows going to make the all the non-Madden EA games not suck?

    How is a new version of windoes going to result in a new FPS that is anything other than an even-more-prettied-up revision of Quake?

    How is a new version of windows going to do away with level grind and moster farming in MMORPGs?

    Shenanigans! Shenanigans!

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    1. Re:Wait... by faloi · · Score: 1

      You can't call shenanigans. My broom is in the shop.

      Obviously the new HALO that's going to be Vista only is going to ramp up the FPS market! And...ummm...Does MS even do MMORPGs anymore? AC will be even...shardier?

      This isn't very different than when Windows 95 came out. Of course, 95 and Windows 3.1/DOS really were incredibly different. I don't see Vista doing much, except possibly requiring an OS upgrade a year or two after it ships when DirectXbox360PCI-E-Enhanced becomes unusable on XP.

      --
      "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
    2. Re:Wait... by hal2814 · · Score: 1

      This is kind of like Intel promising how the Internet would be so much better with their Pentium III. Unless it was going to rip my modem out of the wall and replace it with a T1, I sure wasn't going to notice a difference.

    3. Re:Wait... by wedgewu · · Score: 1
      How is a new version of windows going to make the all the non-Madden EA games not suck?

      It's not... Criterion making "Black" is though.

      How is a new version of windoes going to result in a new FPS that is anything other than an even-more-prettied-up revision of Quake?

      It's not. Monolith did though, with FEAR.

      How is a new version of windows going to do away with level grind and moster farming in MMORPGs?

      It's not. Companies cracking down on it are though.

      But it's ok, MS will just take the credit for all of it anyway. Would you expect any less?

    4. Re:Wait... by ILikeRed · · Score: 1

      But hey, you need the HDTV graphics, fast processor, and expensive components for... what was that successful launch title again? Oh yeah, Geometry Wars - let's see Nintendo match that with their underpowered Revolution.

      Yes, I am being sarcastic. The game being inexpensive and fun are the important points for Microsoft's best selling game - but yet they can somehow blithely ignore those little points.

      --
      I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams
    5. Re:Wait... by SenorChach · · Score: 1

      "I Swear To God I'll Pistolwhip the next person who says SHENANIGANS" ahhh SuperTroopers

    6. Re:Wait... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Funny

      You keep your modem in the wall? How do you see das blinkenlichten?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Wait... by Osty · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But hey, you need the HDTV graphics, fast processor, and expensive components for... what was that successful launch title again? Oh yeah, Geometry Wars

      For what it's worth, Geometry Wars is deceptively complex. The background consists of 60,000 nodes in a weak gravitational balance, the calculations for which consume an entire core. The total number of enemies on screen can be enormous, and though they're relatively simple both in geometry and AI the sheer number of them is quite impressive. And that's not even counting all of the particles the game spawns and tracks.

      You might say to yourself, "I can write that," and you probably can. But you'll quickly find out that it can take a really beefy PC to do what looks so simple on the 360. HGEWars only models some 10,000 nodes for the background grid, doesn't have all of the various enemy types, AI, and particles modelled yet (gravity wells will be a huge performance hit, given their interaction with the grid nodes), and is still very performance-intensive. Surely that's due in part to being very early in development, but then GW:RE apparently only took some 3 months to write in the first place.

    8. Re:Wait... by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      How is FEAR less of a prettied up revision of Quake than Battlefield is?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  5. Re:mod parent funny by garrett714 · · Score: 1

    c'mon, this is just hilarious

  6. Microsoft's Game/Media Plans Destructing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ouch!:

    http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/funds/investing/102 67646.html

    PC gaming for Microsoft is like that fat chick you know is always available but you really wish you didn't need her. They tried to get away from her with the Xbox and 360, but now that those plans are in shambles, the skanky fat chick that is pc gaming isn't looking too bad with no other options these days.

    Back when the Xbox stuff started Microsoft people were desperate to try to convince people that their machine wasn't just another pc with pc games. But with console publishers for the most part giving the Xbox PS2 hand-me-downs, pc titles have become more attractive over the past few years - less less-attractive would be more accurate.

    Something dramatic has to happen in the Home Entertainment division up theree in Redmond. Firings is the obvious first choice. Second, reality needs to be admitted. The Microsoft of 2006 is not the Microsoft of the late 1990s. They simply no longer have the power to walk right into a market and sweep everyone else aside. The across the board failures in the Game/Media markets can't be ignored no matter how much the people working up in Redmond want to hold on to past glories.

    The only area where Microsoft probably still has any hope of being a major player in the Digital Media markets is through the deals they are making with cable companies and their settop boxes. Outside of that, Microsoft really needs to have a long hard and honest look at their realistic outcomes. Someone up there in Redmond most likely needs to stand up and admit these are areas Microsoft can't win.

    1. Re:Microsoft's Game/Media Plans Destructing by Generic+Guy · · Score: 1
      reality needs to be admitted. The Microsoft of 2006 is not the Microsoft of the late 1990s. They simply no longer have the power to walk right into a market and sweep everyone else aside.

      Outside of computer software, I don't think Microsoft has ever had the power to sweep aside other markets. Granted, if you were a software developer which MS suddenly entered into, you were pretty much up against the wall. But for anything else, Microsoft has displayed poor results.

      Let's rundown some of Microsoft's poorly fared ventured: WebTV email service, Ultimate TV satellite DVR, MSN Search (Even MSN Internet Dial-Up is not a big revenue genreator for them), those wierd electronic teddy-bear toys. Even PocketPC has taken so long to become barely moderately useful and mostly due to Palm's complete incompetence and implosion. PC SideWinder Joysticks - no longer around. The grand game console pissing match they've gotten into with Sony so far has generated $4-billion in losses, and your quoted article makes it looks like those may continue.

      I hope their keyboards and mice hang around, because I actually tend to like those. But in nearly every non-software market, Microsoft has pretty much had their asses handed to them.

      --
      { - Generic Guy - }
  7. Upgrades, schmupgrades by garrett714 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From TFA: "He said that Vista would drive PC upgrades..."

    This is just what we need, an OS that forces you to upgrade your hardware for it to run efficiently. Great job Microsoft!

    ...which would help game sales (Windows game sales), and gave an impressive demonstration of how Vista improves the gaming experience through better file organization.

    They plan on improving the gaming experience through better file organization? What?

    1. Re:Upgrades, schmupgrades by oldwolf13 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you will recall, when windows 95 came out, it's requirements drove people to upgrade their hardware, which in turn sent the prices down a lot (especially RAM). Although this sucked when you HAD to upgrade to get it to run decently, in the long run, it benefited all of us. I don't know if you remember RAM prices before that, but it was huge. I remember paying $400 for 16 megs.

      Nowadays though, I don't think it can knock prices down as much of course (if at all). I will fight this upgrade as long as I can, just like I did XP, until games finally won me over (they seem to run better under XP).

      Then again, maybe it'll knock down the ridiculously high price required to purchase video cards capable of running 3D games at a decent resolution/framerate. The last nvidia card (I got burned on) I bought for around $200 (CND) was such a piece of shit and couldn't run anything (Geforce 5600 XT). Part of that was my fault though, as I assumed XT was a higher version then just plain 5600. Although I am still mad at nvidia for their fucked up naming conventions. The card I had before this was a ti4200 8x, which was a hell of a card for the time, at basically the same price. Incidently, the ti4200 outperforms the 5600xt by quite a margin.

      I do have a radeon 9800 Pro as well, which cost me a small fortune ($400 CND), which is now showing it's age, and I have no idea which way I'd go to get better performance without costing an arm and a leg. I think both Nvidia and ATI are releasing too many products these days, with too many different naming conventions intentionally so they can confuse the buyers.

      anyways, hopefully vista will make better video cards come out cheaper.

      --
      If I can't smoke and swear I'm fucked.
    2. Re:Upgrades, schmupgrades by werewolf1031 · · Score: 1

      I don't know if you remember RAM prices before that, but it was huge. I remember paying $400 for 16 megs.

      Hell, I remember when RAM was $100 per megabyte, and a flight-sim game (can't recall name at the moment) required 16MB RAM to display the [software-rendered] water texture, and that RAM would've cost about $1600. This was before 3dfx was ever heard of, and the term "hardware 3D accelerator" made no sense. But maybe I'm just showing my age there.

      Part of that was my fault though, as I assumed XT was a higher version then just plain 5600. Although I am still mad at nvidia for their fucked up naming conventions.

      This one is simple: Make sure you get the 'Ultra' version of any nVidia card. Yeah, it's pricier, but by damn it's worth it. I used to have the FX 5200 Ultra, and it kept up with the framerates that my current (non-Ultra) 6600 gets now (minus the additional shader functions and DirectX 9.0c compliance, of course). GeForce Ultras will hit the wallet harder, but they'll carry you much farther in the upgrade cycle.

    3. Re:Upgrades, schmupgrades by Detritus · · Score: 1

      I once paid $200 for 16 kilobytes. You could run a flight-sim on that computer if you could live with wire-frame graphics.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    4. Re:Upgrades, schmupgrades by Quickfry · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that what drove RAM prices down was switching from stuff that was expensive to manufacture (72pin sticks, yeah!!), to stuff that was much cheaper (SD-RAM, anyone?)

    5. Re:Upgrades, schmupgrades by Hamfist · · Score: 1

      One of the all time classic Microsoft jabs since the PC DOS days was "What Andy Giveth, Bill taketh away". Every time there is an increase in Hardware performance by Intel, run at the time by Andy Grove, a new st of products would arrive from Microsoft that would utilize this newly available power, making the newest version of a spreadsheet or word processor perform as well as or worse than the performance of the previous generation. This is the latest round of a cycle that has been going on since Windows 1.0.

  8. Another first from MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, Try Before you Buy... another MS Invention... Sounds a lot like Shareware. /rolls eyes

  9. Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the games by MaineCoon · · Score: 1

    There is no monthly fee. The fee is only for the Xbox Live 'Gold', which features online multiplayer.

    Marketplace is available to all, even the free Silver accounts.

    The games are purchase-once-keep-forver. You do not need to renew or pay a maintenance fee.

    --
    Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
  10. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by garrett714 · · Score: 0

    There is no monthly fee. The fee is only for the Xbox Live 'Gold', which features online multiplayer.

    Slow down, MS fanboi... Microsoft has shown they want to move from traditional purchase-once to subscription based services... this may not be the way it is right now, but I bet it's part of their whole "renaissance" plan.

  11. How many by pvt_medic · · Score: 1

    of those 4 million pieces of content were updates for the x-box?

    --
    30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
    Score:5, Troll
  12. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by bigman2003 · · Score: 1

    You're right....instead of basing our opinions on what a company is doing right now, we should listen to what garrett714 has to say about them on Slashdot.

    That other guy, who is basing his statements on reality, is just a dumb fanboi.

    --
    No reason to lie.
  13. Re:MSN, Xbox, PC Gaming Timeline by sexyrexy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Console market for the most part rejects the Xbox It's not nearly as popular as the Playstation, but I fail to see how a rougly 25-30% market share equals "market rejection". Second place worldwide in overall units sold is not "market rejection" either. I'm not saying the Xbox is the greatest thing ever, but one ought to give credit where it's due. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05/26/news_6099 369.html?new_theme=standard_alt&sid=6099369%5D

    --

    Rex is 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  14. Re:MSN, Xbox, PC Gaming Timeline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    > but I fail to see how a rougly 25-30% market share equals

    WTF???

    PS2: 100 million
    GameCube 22 million
    Xbox: 21 million

    Microsoft has about %14 of the market and shrinking now that the crappy Xbox hardware has had to be discontinued. Microsoft will end this gen with marketshare down near %10. Just because your entry a race flunks out doesn't mean the race is over.

    And the 360 is doing massively worse than the first Xbox...

  15. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by RJNFC · · Score: 1

    I think there's a point being missed here - I'm taken to understand that you have to pay a monthly fee to play games online? I've never run into that problem on the PC, with the exception of MMO games. Should I be looking forward to that with the new wave of MS-owned FPS games?

  16. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by bigman2003 · · Score: 1

    You've posted 6 times in the last year. Two of them were today, both were putting down Microsoft's gaming plans....maybe you have an axe to grind.

    Do you understand what Xbox Live is all about? Do you know how it works, and what part costs money?

    Even more importantly, have you gone on-line with any other console? (It's generally crap by the way.)

    --
    No reason to lie.
  17. It's really sad... by DoktorSeven · · Score: 1

    but I have a Windows install a reboot away for any gaming fix I can't get on Linux. I'm always ||-- this close to just saying "to hell with it" and removing the damn Windows partition for more space.

    This new attitude of Microsoft where people need some bloated, overpriced OS or some overpriced me-too console to be worthy of playing Microsoft's games makes me sick, and I'm coming very close to getting rid of my Windows "fix" once and for all.

    --
    This is a sig. Deal with it.
  18. There is no 'fun' in 'accounts receivable' by FhnuZoag · · Score: 1

    Hell, there isn't even a letter 'F'.

  19. Renaissance? by shoptroll · · Score: 1

    I don't consider Halo 2 a renaissance of PC gaming.

    Sorry but by the time Vista hits we'll already have things like UT2007 and Quake Wars out. Maybe DNF if the planets align properly this year. There's plent of non-MS games coming out this year that'll give a good boost to PC gaming. I don't see MS leading this "renaissance" particularly.

    --
    Insert Sig Here
  20. Great marketing idea to sell Vista by edenapple · · Score: 1

    One of Microsoft's issues in getting folks to upgrade from 2000->XP was a lack of killer apps. Couldn't offend the business crowd, so backward compatibility was required, but that left 'em without a driver to get folks to migrate quick-like. I'd be interested to see if Vista is a "requirement" for some of the new games to help kickstart the push for the OS...

    1. Re:Great marketing idea to sell Vista by plughead · · Score: 1

      Well, seeing as how Halo 2 is supposed to be 'Vista Only', I think that pretty much answers the question.

      Personally, I think/hope it'll bite 'em right in the ass and Halo 2 is the worst selling MS title ever... Sure, there may be some die-hard Halo fans that'll rush right out and shell out for the upgrade--but I suspect that by the time the average gamer gets around to it, H2 will be firmly in the bargain bin...

      (Of course I also hope that this somehow drives the creation of more Linux native games--but I'm not holding my breath.)

      --
      If a giant oil company wanted an abortion, would W's head explode?
  21. MOD PARENT FUNNY by theStorminMormon · · Score: 1

    Please mod parent funny. Please. It even made my wife laugh.

    -stormin

    --
    The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
  22. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

    Hey now, don't talk smack about WFC! Sure there's practically no interaction at all except competively during the game (unless of course you're playing AC) but at least it only takes 10minutes to find 3 opponents for a race of Mario Kart!

    --
    Why not fork?
  23. A correction... by Iscariot_ · · Score: 1

    And the 360 is doing massively worse than the first Xbox...

    Atually, the 360 has managed to sell out everywhere since it's release - I'd hardly qualify that as a failure of any kind.

    --

    Go here for teh [sic] funny.
  24. Re:Parent is mistaken - no monthly fee for the gam by garrett714 · · Score: 1

    You've posted 6 times in the last year. Two of them were today, both were putting down Microsoft's gaming plans....maybe you have an axe to grind.

    Dude, do you have like any life at all other than to read through people's comment histories and then make stupid rebuttals to everything they say? And BTW you sound more like a dumb MS fanboi than anyone. Have fun playing all your super-fun Xbox and Xbox 360 games online. I'm sure you can continue playing Halo 2 for at least another 5 or 6 years without getting bored.