Microsoft talks up PC games at Meltdown

SEATTLE--If there's one message Microsoft wants attendees of its Meltdown conference to take away, it's this: Microsoft is serious about gaming. A number of presentations yesterday detailed Microsoft's strategies for reaching its goals of making the PC a more viable gaming platform.

One interesting workshop included a preview of Longhorn. It's tempting to be skeptical, given that Microsoft hasn't even announced a tentative ship date for this product, but the demonstration showed some well-planned features that could turn out to be useful for gamers. The most obvious change is the new folder for games, which the presenter compared to the "My Music" and "My Pictures" folders in Windows XP. Microsoft says it will provide an easy way to find and launch all installed games. Though this is a small thing for longtime gamers, it could be useful for the neophytes that the company hopes to attract.

Additional Longhorn features include buddy matchmaking, parental controls to limit access to games based on title or ESRB rating, and patch support that works like the Windows Update service. This feature will be useful to game developers, because informing users when a new patch is released is often a headache, and, with the possible exception of Valve's Steam, developers haven't found a good way to either notify gamers of patches or efficiently deliver updates. The patch support in Longhorn allows developers to specify a download location for executable patches in their games, so the game will automatically check for patches at regular intervals. Users will have a choice between automatic download and installation or manual approval of each patch.

The end result, Microsoft hopes, will be a PC that comes closer to the plug-and-play convenience of console games.

Microsoft is intent on PC users not being the only ones to benefit from borrowing chops from their console brethren. On the developer-support side of things, the company is introducing Live Tools for Windows, making it easier for developers to bring the Xbox Live experience to PC gamers by providing a common gamertag, in-game voice chat, billing, matchmaking, and a secure environment. Presenters made it clear that Xbox and Windows are still two different businesses but that the company is open to exploring ways for the units to work together. One scenario discussed today was a PC RTS in which the player issues missions to Xbox gamers who are playing a mission-based FPS or flight sim. It's an intriguing idea. The PC user determines overall strategy, but the success of each mission would come down to the Xbox user's shooting skills.

According to Microsoft, gaming is one of the top-three activities on Windows now, which is pretty good for a platform that was originally developed for productivity software. But the company has sold 120 million copies of Windows XP, with about 60 million users playing games, so even the most successful games capture only a share of the potential market. Now the company is making a focused effort to change the paradigm by promoting Windows gaming to developers and mainstream users who don't currently play PC games.

Today, upgrade cycles for productivity tools are the key to Microsoft's earnings. So in a few years, a new engine may be helping to drive Microsoft's growth. Who knows? The next killer app for Windows might be a game...not the latest version of Office.

Stay tuned for continued coverage from Meltdown.