CES: Microsoft Claims Games for Windows Momentum

You?ve probably heard of it or seen the colorful logos, but do you know what Microsoft?s Games for Windows initiative is all about? Let me tell you.

Basically, it's supposed to be a push to make PC gaming as accessible and user-friendly as your average Xbox 360. Pop your tray, drop in a Crysis or BioShock DVD, and presto game-o. In theory, anyway. In practice, since that's clearly not what happens when you plop pretty much anything into your PC, it?s little more than a redundant brand awareness campaign for Microsoft's ubiquitous OS.

"Games for Windows." Like you've really got options.

All?s fair in marketing and public relations. Still, I?m a little disappointed in the whole Games for Windows schtick. That?s because it seemed like a really interesting idea a year ago, but today just feels like a missed opportunity. As a certification initiative it?s practically toothless. Games have to include an ?easy install? option, be compatible with Windows Vista Game Explorer and the Xbox 360 controller, run on 64-bit versions of Vista, offer widescreen resolutions, and -- wait for it -- be launch-able from Media Center. So in other words, what everyone was more or less planning to do anyway nets you a trendy box logo and some free publicity when Microsoft announces new recruits, like it did today at the 2008 International CES in Las Vegas.

The newly announced rank and file:

Alone in the Dark (Atari)
Bionic Commando (Capcom)
Conflict: Denied Ops (Eidos Interactive)
Empire: Total War (SEGA)
LEGO Indiana Jones (LucasArts)
Microsoft Train Simulator 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock)
Space Siege (SEGA)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos Interactive)

In November 2007, reads the Microsoft press release, the Games for Windows portfolio (i.e. GFW-branded games) ?accounted for 20 percent of all PC game sales at retail stores.? Stop me if I?m missing something, but how is that figure supposed to impress anyone? 20 percent? Less than a quarter? How does that prove the GFW brand ?drove the PC gaming category in 2007??

PC gaming in 2008 remains a mildly schizophrenic experience (replace ?slightly? with ?delightfully? if you?re a PC enthusiast). Use this video card except not with that mainboard or this BIOS version or plugged into a cruddy underpowered gigawatt power supply or running the latest revision of GPU Manufacturer X?s drivers unless you tweak a file to disable a performance setting to kill the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house...etc.

Until Microsoft can figure out how to get the full wrapper marching to the beat of a streamlined drum (i.e. all the meta-services wired into consoles, from VoIP to matchmaking to digital distribution) without royally cheesing off developers and hardcore PC enthusiasts, the GFW initiative is just a sticker on a box and an excuse to launch more press releases claiming successes where requirements were bound to be fulfilled anyway.