windows-8 posts

Microsoft says it's fully behind PC gaming now after relaunching the Games For Windows web site last year and planning to release at least two PC games this year (the PC port of Fable 3 and Age of Empires Online). Now an internal Microsoft video has been leaked that shows some possible future plans for PC gaming via Windows.

The video was discovered by ZDNet which states that was first made back in May 2010 which means that some, if not all, of the things in the video may have been changed or dumped since then. The video from the Windows Gaming Experience team shows Xbox 360-like avatars doing things like purchasing more avatar outfits via Microsoft points, playing games on Facebook, finding new games to play and getting invites from friends to join online games. It's all pretty tame stuff, actually, and nothing that isn't available already via third party programs and companies.

Oh, and apparently Microsoft doesn't know how to spell "pwned".

[Via PC Gamer]

Microsoft has made a few inroads back into the PC gaming industry in 2010. It revamped its Games For Windows web site and turned it into a PC game download store. More notably it announced plans to publish new PC games such as Age of Empires Online and others.

Now a new report on the TechRadar.com web site, using unnamed sources, claims that Microsoft will use the next version of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, to make a renewed effort for PC gamaing. The unnamed source is quoted in the article as saying, "Windows 8 will represent a real new push into PC gaming. Gaming will be a key component for the whole OS." Details on exactly how this will happen with Windows 8 were not made available. However, the article claims the just announced hiring of former VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood to Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment division shows how serious the company is on getting back its PC game audience.

Windows 7 may have launched less than a year ago but the gang at Microsoft is already at work on its next PC operating system, called (for want of something better) Windows 8. Our sister site Engadget managed to get some mock-up designs for Windows 8 and it looks like one of them shows what appears to be some kind of downloadable software tool for games.

We have to emphasize that the mock ups are labeled "Windows 8 Discussion -- this is not a plan of record" so while Microsoft may be considering some kind of downloadable software store for Windows 8 it may or may not make the final cut. However with the success of Apple's iTunes and its ability to download movies, music and apps quickly you have to think that Microsoft is at least considering some kind of option that would do the same for Windows apps. At the moment there's no word on when Windows 8 would be available.