microsoft posts

Games For Windows Live is the online service from Microsoft that a lot of PC gamers love to bash for various reasons. The truth is that the service, which launched back in 2007, has improved quite a bit from its original incarnation when Microsoft thought that PC gamers had the same needs as its Xbox 360 fans.

In a new chat with Computer and Video Games Kevin Unangst, the senior producer of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, admitted, "I think because it was designed originally as a partner to the console service more than the PC service, we had a rocky start." However he adds, "I think the underpinnings are great, I think it's going to continue to get better. We launched a new Marketplace which was great, we're selling Live and non-Live enabled games." He also feels that input from game developers such as Lionhead, who are making a PC port of Fable 3, will also improve Games For Windows Live.

The game development world got a bit of a surprise late in February when it was revealed that Gas Powered Games was taking over as the primary developer of Age of Empires Online, the upcoming online free-to-play RTS game from Microsoft Games Studios.

So what does this mean for the game's development? Big Download went right to the source and got in touch with Gas Powered's founder and CEO Chris Taylor to find out more about how this switch came about, if the team will ever go back to its previously announced RTS game Kings and Castles and more.

Alan Wake was first announced and demoed at E3 2005 as a PC game by Finland developer Remedy. In 2006 Microsoft got the publishing rights and announced that the horror-themed action-adventure game would come to the Xbox 360 as well as the PC. Then came the three year cone of silence that surrounded the game. Remedy and Microsoft finally demoed the game at E3 2009 but on an Xbox 360 console and refused to comment on the PC version.

In early 2010 Microsoft finally confirmed that there would not be a PC port of Alan Wake saying that they felt the game was best played "from the couch in front of a larger TV screen." This week at GDC 2011 during a panel on Alan Wake Computer and Video Games asked Remedy's head man Markus Maki about the canceled PC port. However Maki still is keeping most of the reasons close to the chest, saying, "I can't really discuss that. I will say that it wasn't a technological call. And it wasn't made in Finland."

Microsoft's SideWinder gaming PC peripheral line may be discontinued, if a report from VR Zone is to be believed. According to the report Microsoft plans to shut down its SideWinder business of selling its own gaming PC mice and keyboards. The report, which does not name a source, claims that Microsoft feels there is too much competition in this field from other companies like Razer and SteelSeries. Big Download contacted Microsoft's hardware PR rep who would not confirm or deny the report.

If true this would be the second time that the SideWinder business would be shut down. Microsoft had a long history of offering PC game controllers and joysticks until 2003 when it discontinued the line due to poor sales. In 2007 it revived the business concentrating on gaming PC mice and keyboards.

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

In a very suprising development, the official Age of Empires Online web site has announced that Gas Powered Games is now taking over as the developer of the upcoming free-to-play RTS game for publisher Microsoft Games Studios. Gas Powered Games takes over from Robot Entertainment who was announced as the developer for the game back in August 2010.

In a post on the game's official web site, Age of Empires Online's executive producer Danan Davis said that Gas Powered Games has been working on the title for some time to develop add-on packs for the game. He states that the switch over has been in the works for some time and Gas Powered and its leader Chris Taylor "share our long-term commitment to make this a success." The reasons for the switch from Robot Entertainment, which has a number of people who worked on the original Age of Empires RTS games, are pretty vague with Davis saying only, "Our previous development partner, Robot Entertainment, did amazing work on the game, and we wish them the best in their future projects."

You may remember that Taylor recently told us that Gas Powered's previously announced game, Kings and Castles, was now on hold and it's now clear that its takeover of Age of Empires Online's development was the reason. Davis states that even with this switch in developers the game is still scheduled to launch later in 2011.

Update: In a post on Robot Entertainment's message board, the developer's community manager assures fans that this switch was in the works for some time, saying, "This was always in the plan. We've even had some GPG guys down to the studio to get them trained up as far back as last fall. When we opened RE, our goal was to work on our own original games. We announced Orcs Must Die! this morning, and will have more info on future games relatively soon ;) "

PC gamers have been waiting a while for this but today Microsoft, via the Major Nelson web site, finally announced that the long awaited PC port of Fable 3 will finally be released on May 17.

This port of 2010's Xbox 360 RPG from developer Lionhead Studios will come with a couple of extra features. One is support for Nvidia's 3D Vision technology. The other is a PC exclusive hardcore play mode which gives PC gamers a choice to go even higher in difficulty while playing through the game.

This game will be Microsoft's first major PC game it will publish since the PC port of Gears of War way back in December 2007. The May 17 release date also means it will join an already crowded May in terms of new PC game releases with titles like F.E.A.R. 3, Duke Nukem Forever, Red Faction Armageddon, Brink, Dungeon Siege 3 and The Witcher 2, among others.

[Via Joystiq]

Kinect is finally and officially getting some official PC support from its creator Microsoft. The motion sensing camera-controller that was released for the Xbox 360 console last fall will be getting a free Windows 7-based SDK from Microsoft. The software tools will be made available sometime this spring and will be for "academic researchers and enthusiasts".

That means that anyone can create PC Windows 7 apps for the Kinect hardware with the SDK tools from Microsoft and release those apps for free (there is no support for commercial Kinect software under the SDK). As we have reported in the past few months, lots of software developers have already created their own PC applications that support Kinect including playing games like World of Warcraft and Minecraft with the device.

Big Download has been contacted by PC Gaming Alliance president Matt Ployhar who has confirmed that two of the organization's founding members, Microsoft and Nvidia, have indeed left the non-profit organization. Ployhar would not comment on why the two companies have left the PCGA, saying that he would prefer both Microsoft and Nvidia to communication their reasons directly to us. At the time of this post, neither company has provided Big Download with an official reason for leaving the organization that both helped to form in 2008.

Ployhar told Big Download in a brief phone interview that he doesn't feel that the departures will affect the PCGA, He also told us that he is moving the organization away from just being a group that does research and issues reports on the industry to a group that will be more active in trying to assist game developers, publishers and hardware companies make better PC games. In a post on Ployhar's Intel blog, he states, "Another key thing we'll be doing is creating a more technical based advisory board that you'll all be hearing more about very soon. We're doing this to flesh out the PCGA's technical expertise while simultaneously addressing perceived gaps in membership."

The PC Gaming Alliance, the non-profit organization who has been both promoting and trying to improve the PC gaming industry, may have lost two of its founding members. The official PC Gaming Alliance web site no longer shows Microsoft and Nvidia listed as members of the group. In addition another founding member, AMD, is now listed as a contributing member of the organization rather than the higher Promoters membership tier.

The PC Gaming Alliance was first announced in 2008 during GDC and since then a number of members have both left and entered the organization. However if Microsoft and Nvidia have indeed left it would be the biggest defection that the group has had since it was first formed. We have contacted the PC Gaming Alliance's president Matt Ployhar for comment along with Microsoft and Nviidia

[Thanks Mikko]

Bulletstorm is due for release this Tuesday but if you haven't used your hard earned money yet to purchase the over-the-top shooter you may want to wait until next week. Microsoft has announced that starting on Tuesday and running for the next two weeks anyone who purchases Bulletstorm from the Games For Windows web site gets a free copy of the PC port of Gears of War, a $19.99 value.

Ironically the PC port of Gears of War, which came out in 2007, was the first collaboration between Bulletstorm co-creators Epic Games and People Can Fly who worked together to add content and convert the Xbox 360 game to the PC. It's also the last PC game Microsoft has published although we are still awaiting word on when the PC port of Fable 3 will be released.

[Via email press release]