February 23rd, 2009

Windows 7…For Games!??

...let me stop laughing, first of all! OK, I'm done. Almost died laughing. I love jokes. I love good jokes, as well as bad ones, as long as I'm not the one targeted. Need for Speed Undercover was a good joke, although a pretty bad game, and now I am trying to figure out what kind of joke is ShellShock 2: Blood Trails is. In the end, it may not be a joke at all, we'll see that when the review is ready, but now, let's talk about Windows 7 for games, the joke that made me laugh in first place, shall we?

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft's VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the EMEA region, Chris Lewis, said "Windows 7 will be great for games, undoubtedly. It's all good news - it's even more robust, it's quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall. I think it'll be nothing but good news for PC gamers, but we'll have more to say on that later on this year."

I wonder..."quicker" means faster than Vista, probably, but what about "faster than XP"? That's a pretty good question, but I guess we'll only get to see the answer when the thing comes crawling out of the Microsoft lair.

On the other hand, I think that the Games for Windows campaign is a pretty good one, and it's good to see Microsoft saying that "We remain focused on it, you'll see more from us there in the future, and long may that continue."

Just to make it clear that I don't really hate Microsoft, here's what I would wish - a new Windows version that gets back to the basics, allowing companies like Stardock to survive by making interface-candy applications, and focusing on the OS core instead. I think Linux is a good example of a OS where the core is being developed while leaving a lot of room for interface enhancements to be added afterwards, and that's where Microsoft should look and learn.