Pitchford, Rein talk Games for Windows 7
- October 23, 2009 13:04 PM PST
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As Windows 7 launches, developers find themselves wondering if PC Gaming is getting better, getting swept under the rug-or something in-between.
Vista, Take 2 -- that's what Microsoft should be calling this week's launch of Windows 7. There's the ads, the hyped launch events.... but Gearbox Software co-founder, CEO, and President Randy Pitchford isn't 100-percent sold. "Customers don't even perceive Windows 7 as a gaming platform," he says. It's almost as though Microsoft's ashamed of trying to sell it to gamers. Pitchford takes it a step further adding, "Without promotion to customers and incentives for developers, I fear that the trends with PC gaming stagnation will continue into the new operating system." So... you don't want a piece of the launch party cake, then?
The Cake is a Lie
Back in 2006 it was a whole other story: Microsoft Honcho Bill Gates makes a rare appearance at E3, talking a great game about Windows Vista and the Games for Windows initiative." People use their PCs for the Web, email...and the third biggest thing: Games" -- that was the message. We're talking prominent store kiosks celebrating PC gaming, unified branding, bringing the Live service to PCs - even a magazine celebrating the platform. PC World's Matt Peckham recently ticked off where Windows went wrong (Poor game support of the GFW-branded initiative, for instance), and at least one developer wishes for more.
Randy Pitchford, Gearbox Software
Pitchford isn't completely down on the OS, though. "With software, evolution is generally good. But fragmentation with different Windows platforms is generally bad...it's one of the challenges programmers have to accept." Admitting to being an early-adopting super-nerd (his words, not mine), he's still grabbing the software and looking forward to giving Windows 7 a shot. After all, "PC gamers will be moving away from XP and Vista in greater numbers over time and shifting towards Windows 7 and beyond."
Rein, vice-president of Epic Games and outspoken spokesperson for all things Unreal, on the other hand had surprisingly kind words for the platform. "There isn't much noise around Windows 7 and gaming because it's actually working like it should," says Mark Rein. "Vista was good for gaming and Windows 7 is a better Windows." Even GFW Live? "Well, with PC's it's an open platform and people have choices." While he wouldn't discuss the joys of GFW, he literally gave it two thumbs up to Windows 7 saying that "things seem to run a little smoother and boot a little faster in the time that I've been using it. I installed Windows 7 on my laptop a month ago and I haven't looked back."
A better Vista
PC World's recent benchmarking can back up some of those claims. In a couple subjective tests, not a proper Windows Vista - Windows 7 Game-Off(tm), initial results show a slight variance from game-to-game--a couple seem faster in Windows 7, a couple others run a hair better in Vista. Blame the early drivers , but your mileage will vary. Meanwhile, Pitchford says," [We] created a time-demo tool in Borderlands for benchmarking performance. Our internal tests aren't conclusive enough for me to want to go on record [about Windows 7] just yet, though."
Mark Rein, Epic Games
To give some credit, Microsoft is pushing DirectX 11 as part of the future (like how DX10 was a big part of Vista). You know what that means: Lusher, sweeter graphics that get tightened, smarter AI, natural-looking effects -- you'll just need to buy a new DX11-compatible card to take full advantage of it, of course. Cue cheers from Nvidia and AMD for future component sales.
Okay, so we have a new OS that refines Vista... but where is Bill now? What about the host of others that championed Games for Windows, for that matter? You have a hard time even finding a spokesperson that can talk about GFW these days up in Redmond. As a result, several questions sent to Microsoft for this story unfortunately remain unanswered. Are there plans to grow GFW Live with Windows 7? More to the point, is gaming considered the priority it was in Vista? We'll see soon enough.
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- Oct 23 2009 at 01:06:55:PM PST
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As someone who wants to one day get into computer gaming I think it sucks that console games like lets say NBA 2k10 have to use outdated graphics from I guess you can say outdated technology. What I mean is that it sucks that these games are made for consoles, and then ported to the PC. (Lets face it, PS3 and 360 lack the power of modern computers. Not a knock, technology just advances.) I wish it was more like in the Super Nintendo, Genesis games, where games were 1st came out in the arcades, and then the weaker version came out for the consoles.
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I sure hope the PC gaming platform can rise back up to what it once was - I've always been a fan of PC games. In some ways PC games are on the rise if you consider the social gaming environments in Facebook and other social sites are largely played on PCs. But outside of that space, I'd also like to see the ports from the consoles take advantage of the PC platform like jstern wants. PC's have powerful drives, keyboards, natural web connectivity, and a variety of installable peripherals that could make for some incredible gaming.
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so hmmm I wonder if I should upgrade to windows 7 from my xp
I didn't like vista and kept xp but now 7 has me wondering.
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ZanonX wrote:
so hmmm I wonder if I should upgrade to windows 7 from my xp
I didn't like vista and kept xp but now 7 has me wondering.
I think in 7 you can switch between them So go for it if you can.
Windows 7 is much better than vista, because it's the completed vista.
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Windows 7 is what Vista should have been..I'm still runnin the RC of Windows 7
I'll buy the final version eventually
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Running Ultimate and if it's a version other than Home you can run XP in a window.
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numba1gamer wrote:
ZanonX wrote:so hmmm I wonder if I should upgrade to windows 7 from my xp
I didn't like vista and kept xp but now 7 has me wondering.I think in 7 you can switch between them So go for it if you can.
Windows 7 is much better than vista, because it's the completed vista.
Yeah I will end up buying it eventually, I was thinking of upgrading my video card first then HDD
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