microsoft posts

Just a few years ago Microsoft was one of the most prolific first and third party publishers for PC games, releasing titles like the Age of Empires/Mythology series, the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, the Mechwarrior series, Freelancer, Impossible Creatures, Rise of Nations and many more. However Microsoft has been doing some cost cutting in the past 18 months as they have shut down a number of their internal PC developers such as ACES Studio and Ensemble Studios while cutting back their third party PC game publishing lineup.

At the same time, Microsoft has tried to work with third party publishers on their Games For Windows marketing push for PC games, They have also tried to improve their Games For Windows Live online service which got off to a rocky start just over two years ago but has made improvements since then. Big Download got a chance to chat with Michael Wolf, the Senior Marketing Manager for Games for Windows Live, to get an update on their PC game development and publishing plans and their future plans for Games For Windows Live.

As Microsoft gets ready for the launch of Windows 7 on October 22 they have revealed more info on both the pricing of the various versions of the PC OS as well as the packaging of the retail version. As we reported several days ago, today is the first day of the Windows 7 upgrade program for new PCs. If you purchase a new PC from participating retailers and PC makers that has Windows Vista installed, you can get an upgrade to Windows 7 for little to no cost when it ships.

As far as Windows 7 pricing, here are the numbers for the upgrade version:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

If you want the full version of Windows 7 here are the prices:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

In addition beginning today for a limited time you can purchase the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium for just $49.99 and the upgrade version of Windows 7 Professional for just $99.99. Finally Microsoft talked about the retail packaging for Windows 7, saying it is 37 percent lighter than the packaging for Windows Vista.

There's some major executive movement in the game publishing world today. IndustryGamers is reporting that John Pleasants. the chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, is departing the company to become the new CEO of social gaming company Playdom.

His replacement is John Schappert, an EA veteran who helped to found Tiberon (the developer of the Madden NFL games for EA) and who held several positions at the company before leaving just two years ago to become the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division. Schappert will officially head back to EA in the COO slot on July 14. Microsoft has announced that they will not fill Schappert's spot with a spokesperson saying, "Marc Whitten and Phil Spencer will lead their respective businesses, LIVE Services and Microsoft Game Studios, reporting directly to Don Mattrick."

Windows 7 is now set for release on October 22 and with that release come DirectX11, the next version of Microsoft's 3D graphics API. So it's not a shock to learn that AMD (via their ATI brand) and Nvidia are prepping to launch their next major PC graphics cards this fall that will support DirectX11 features.

VentureBeat reports that AMD's director of software developer relations Neal Robison stated that AMD will be ready this fall with DirectX11 supported graphics chips. However, rumors that Nvidia's team are behind in their next-gen graphics tech are dismissed by anaylst Jon Peddie who believes the company will also have DirectX11 chips ready by this fall. Nvidia itself won't comment on their future plans. Intel is also developing their own high end graphics chips under the code name Larabee but it's now expected that it won't be ready for launch until next year.

Windows Vista was pretty much of a train wreck of an OS when it was released 2 1/2 years ago. There were tons of performance problems and driver support was poor. However it looks like Microsoft's next OS release Windows 7 will be a much better product (it's due out on October 22) and Stardock CEO Brad Wardell feels game developers need to get on the Windows 7 bandwagon now.

Chatting with Gamasutra, Wardell feels that one of the big features of Windows 7 is Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) which will allow a PC's CPU to handle some DirectX graphical features even if the PC has a poor gaphics card or no dedicated graphics card installed. Wardell feels that feature will allow lots of games to be played on low end machines: "We want the game to look incredible on high-end systems, but I want people to be able to play this on their three-year-old laptop on the airplane."

Several months ago, Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski seemed to close the door on a PC port of their Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War 2, saying flat out, " We've decided we're not going to do a PC version this time around." Now IGN is reporting that may not be true after all.

Their evidence? A consumer web site that we have never heard of before is taking pre-orders on a PC version of Gears of War 2, complete with box art for the game and a release date of December 4, 2009. Naturally, the game publisher Microsoft still says that there is that there is no such PC version of the game planned but we will of course post up word if that position changes.

The Gametap web site continues to add new games to its library that are from Microsoft's big PC game publishing catalog. Today the site adds the space sim-action game Freelancer to its lineup, allowing folks to purchase and download the 2003 released title from the now defunct developer Digital Anvil.

The game was one of the most anticipated games from Microsoft's PC game library during its development, thanks to its involvement from Chris Roberts, creator of the Wing Commander series. However, delays caused the game to lose a planned massively multiplayer feature. Roberts also left the game midway through the game's development and is now a movie producer in Hollywood

Earlier this week Microsoft officially announced that October 22 is the target date for the release of Windows 7, the next version of their PC operating system that is pretty much required to run nearly every PC game. Now our sister site Engadget has posted up the contents of a leaked memo from Best Buy with some pre-release details on Windows 7.

After pretty much slamming the previous OS, Windows Vista, in their opening paragraph, the Best Buy memo states that on June 26 nearly every PCs sold at the retailer that has Windows Vista installed will get a guaranteed free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released. This also apples to any sales of Windows Vista software. Also on June 26, Best Buy (and it admits other retailers) will have a special pre-order price of $49.99 for a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade and a $99.99 pre-order price for a Windows 7 Professional Premium Upgrade. This deal will only be offered until July 11.

It's been a long wait to see what Alan Wake has been doing with himself. The writer first appeared to us in the press at E3 2005 in the game of the same name. That demo, at the ATI booth, has been the only live demonstration shown to the public . . . until this week, that is. Now four years later we got to see yet another live demo of the game (this time at publisher Microsoft's booth) and we think that the four year wait might actually be worth it.

Developer Remedy wanted to mess with the heads of gamers as Alan Wake has to deal with the fact that his supernatual-themed book is coming to life all around him in a Pacific Northwest town. He also has to deal with the kidnapping of his wife Alice by folks who want the manuscript for this new novel. The only problem? Alan doesn't even remember writing anything about it.

Microsoft's new PC operating system now has a final launch date. This week the company revealed that it will make Windows 7 available to the public on October 22. That should be a huge boost for the OS as new PCs will have it installed and ready for the busy holiday shopping season.

Microsoft decided to go ahead with the launch date following a good response to the already released release canidate version of Windows 7. Microsoft also plans to have a program where people who buy a Windows Vista PC close to the release of Windows 7 to upgrade to the new OS