E3 06: Q&A: Microsoft's Rich Wickham

LOS ANGELES--Confronted with three highly competitive next-generation game consoles and constantly shrinking PC software retail shelf space, Microsoft is aiming to shift attention back to its "original" game platform, the Windows operating system. Microsoft Xbox boss Peter Moore announced during the company's pre-E3 press conference that he was "kicking off a full-blown games renaissance for games for Windows."

Moore outlined a three-pronged attack built around a "revitalized" marketing campaign, new DirectX 10 graphics technology, and Windows Vista, which is apparently the most game-friendly operating system Microsoft has ever developed.

Much of the responsibility for carrying out the plan will fall upon Rich Wickham, Microsoft's director of Games for Windows Business. GameSpot sat down with Rich on the first day of E3 to get his thoughts on how Windows Vista will improve gaming and to clarify a few questions we had about Xbox Live Anywhere and Vista-exclusive games.

GameSpot: Isn't Windows already the de facto PC gaming platform? How is Windows Vista going to be different from XP for the Games for Windows group? Rich Wickham: Windows has always been an awesome game platform, but it's not one we always thought about as a game platform in the past. We're now thinking about the Windows games business a lot like how we think about the Xbox 360 business, which is a bit new.

GS: Can you give an example of how this shift in thinking has changed the way Microsoft is treating Windows Vista as a gaming platform?

RW: You heard Bill's announcement yesterday, we're bringing the Xbox Live service to Windows in a way that I think your readers and people that play games on Windows will be excited about. We're going to bring in cross-platform gaming. We're going to go give gamers what they want, which is the ability to access their games, the way they want to access them, where they want to access them, how they want to access them, and only Microsoft can do that.

With Vista, we realized early on that gaming was something people really loved doing on the platform. In the operating system, you're going to find the games explorer, which sounds like the usual "my pictures, my documents, my games," but getting games on the start menu and having a tool that lets you immediately find, organize, and get metadata about your games is a really big deal for Microsoft. I think people will love the games explorer. I think they'll love the service that we use to update the information, and the ability to access saved games--true gamers will also find out how it's much better than things were in the past.

GS: What does DirectX 10 mean to Windows Vista?

RW: What we tried to do with Vista was bring that gamer-centric view to the operating system. DirectX 10 is obviously the next-generation of gaming. The concept graphics we showed yesterday and what you'll see coming in the next six to eight months: amazing.

In the past, we've shipped DirectX, now, you know, we love our developers and want to make life easier for them, but we actually didn't spend as much time with them ahead of time so that there would be great games that supported the new DirectX on the day and date it shipped. That's going to be different with Vista. With Vista, you've got unbelievable games already coming out here at E3. You've seen Crysis, Hellgate: London, Company of Heroes, Conan--all games that will take advantage of the graphical strength of the platform in a way that people haven't imagined yet.

GS: How big will cross-platform gaming be for Microsoft?

RW: I imagine that Shadowrun is getting all kinds of excitement just because of the concept of cross-platform play. You can go to the show floor today and you can play on a Windows machine or 360 machine against your friends and you can start backing that smack up on which platform is better for the game.

That opens up a whole new world for developers. We build these technologies, but we don't know what the developers are going to do. We just know that there's an unbelievable community out there that's going to do great stuff. Shadowrun is built by FASA, a Microsoft game studio, but we had no idea that they could do what they're doing with that game. They just put their heads down and figured it out. The developers and publishers that I've talked to since yesterday's press conference have shared ideas with me that you wouldn't believe. It's just a liberating, cool experience for the platform.

GS: Can you tell us more about the Windows demos Microsoft showed yesterday? What was DX9 and what was DX10?

RW: What you saw yesterday in the demo was DX9 footage first, and then you saw the DX10 concept video. We showed what we believe will be a game on DX10. Clearly, there's no DX10 hardware, so there's some conceptual parts. The thing that's great about DX10 is that we've opened up the graphics pipeline. The total programmability means that developers will be able to do things on the GPU that they've never been able to do before. It also means they don't need to go between the busses to the CPU in a way that slows performance.

GS: Microsoft has stated that DirectX 10 will increase 3D performance by up to six times. What will developers do with the extra performance power?

RW: It's my belief that people will find ways to take advantage of that performance. It's not like you'll be getting 360 frames per second. You'll be getting 60 frames per second with a much better experience. What you've seen in Crysis in particular is the way they've built physics into the trees and the way they've made the environment part of the game. In the game you can shoot a tree, it falls over, hits a guy, and that's how you get rid of the guy. DX10 opens that pipeline in a way that's never been done before.

We worked with the Crytek guys early on with DirectX 10. Clearly, they are awesome developers and they've done great stuff on the platform. We spent a lot of time with them, telling them where we're going with DirectX 10, and they're already showing proof of concept with what they can do with DX10. I think other developers will follow on that front end.

The cutting-edge developers are already on Windows. I think we'll see great games from Valve on DirectX 10. I think we'll see great games from Epic. We'll see an amazing set of technologies that will come out, if not right when Vista ships, then shortly after.

GS: How will Microsoft help game enthusiasts transition into the Windows Vista era?

RW: This month, you've seen the Vista-ready program happen for Windows. People who are buying Windows machines today will know if their machine can run Vista. Clearly, for your readers who are thinking about Crytek and Hellgate: London, they're more interested in DX hardware and dual-core processors. For core gamers who are thinking about upgrading, they should think about upgrading for day one because the games are going to be awesome. I'd buy a machine that's Vista-ready and think about how I'm going to get that DX10 hardware for when the games come.

GS: Can you give us an update on Halo 2 on DirectX 10?

RW: It isn't as much as DirectX 10 as it is about bringing Halo 2 and that Live Anywhere experience to the Windows platform.

GS: Does that mean Halo 2 on the PC will let you play against Xbox 360 players?

RW: That's undetermined. On Shadowrun: yes. On Halo 2, we're just going to wait and see. Halo 2 on the PC is about creating the Halo game experience optimized for Windows and optimized for online play.

GS: Xbox Live Anywhere, is that only going to be on Windows Vista or will Windows XP also be included?

RW: We haven't decided, to be honest. Xbox Live will be supported in two games at launch, in Shadowrun and Halo 2. Going forward, it's about how we build it--there's still a lot of decisions that have to be made about the business model and feature support. I think that gamers should be exited that we're bringing that service over. There's a lot of great online gaming services on Windows--that's where it started, that's where people play, but there aren't any services as good as Xbox Live. Right now you have to cobble together a bunch of different applications, but we're going to bring one integrated concept to the Windows platform.

GS: What will the hardware requirements be for Vista-exclusive titles?

RW: Shadowrun and Halo 2 are Vista exclusives, but they will not require DX10 hardware. Down the road, I think people will make DX10-only Vista games, but that day isn't here yet. For your readers who have recently bought a new machine and have DX9 hardware, they'll get a great experience on XP. If they upgrade to Vista, but don't buy DX10 hardware, they'll still have a great experience. The game will be better, cooler, and more fun on DX10. If you're like me, you want the best, coolest, more awesome experience, and it will be on DX10.

We don't want to force people's hands; we want to give them the choice, but we also want to give them an upgrade experience on DX10 that will make them want to make that Vista choice and be happy about it.

GS: Thanks, Rich.