MS plot big for Vista and Live
Retro hits go to the Arcade, Lumines, convergence, et al
Bill Gates was in attendance for Microsoft's pre-E3 conference, and took to the limelight to discuss the forthcoming benefits to gaming of the new Windows Vista platform and Redmond's latest concept: 'Live Anywhere'. Live Anywhere will seek to offer convergence between the Xbox 360, PCs and Windows-based mobile platforms, Gates told attendees at the industry event.
Talking specifics, Gates said Live Anywhere, coupled with Vista, would allow cross-platform gaming, with full social functionality to make games easy to setup and invitations easy to offer. Citing the forthcoming Forza 2 as an example, Microsoft explained that it would be possible to edit various aspects of a car, on a PC or mobile system, before transferring it to the Xbox 360 to take online.
MS promised that the emergence of Vista would be a revolution for PC gaming, describing the OS as the first fundamentally designed with gaming in mind. An on-stage demo saw two MS staffers gaming between a 360 and a Vista PC using Shadowrun, the invitation process worked seamlessly, and the demonstration even used full voice support in-game. Peter Moore was on hand to show-off Crysis, before Live itself took centre stage.
The conference spoke of the Xbox Live Arcade doing for independent, small developers what the 'Sundance' film festival does for movies, encouraging innovation and experimentation and giving the little man a shot at the big-time. A Lumines puzzle game for the Arcade is also en route, we were told, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi's opus will be accompanied by real licensed music provided by Warner.
All in all, MS spoke of some 100 independent developers creating games for the Arcade, and also confirmed back-catalogue deals with Namco, Konami and Midway. This will see classic iterations of games like Paperboy, Defender, Pac-Man, Sonic, Street Fighter and more becoming available to download online.
Finally, a number of the new Arcade games, including the retrograde classics, will be enhanced with multiplayer modes and hi-def visuals, Peter Moore promising that Live would have six-million users by E3 2007. A daunting pledge indeed...
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