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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."

3 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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.

  2. 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?