MICROSOFT’S PLAN FOR PC 32 MCV 08/10/10
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Dave Leuhmann, GM for Windows at Microsoft Game Studios, says the firm is stepping up its strategy for PC entertainment
New Age thinking
It’s a new era for PC gaming. And with revivals of Age of Empires and Flight Simulator, Microsoft wants to ride this wave of transformation. But is the platform holder serious enough about PC? And is there even a place for the console-oriented company in today’s blossoming PC sector? Christopher Dring investigates…
LAST MONTH Microsoft admitted it needed to “step up” on PC. The company said it was guilty of neglecting the platform that made it famous – but it’s okay, it is going to fix it. There’s going to be some new games, an improved service and added investment. But hang on, haven’t we heard this all before?
Back in 2007 Microsoft also responded to criticism that it had been neglecting the PC. The firm insisted it was making a “long term investment” on the platform and was fully committed to it.
But less than two years later the platform holder closed two of its most successful PC developers – Age of Empires studio Ensemble and Flight Simulator team ACES.
If Microsoft is serious about PC gaming, it has a funny way of showing it. Microsoft agrees – but it’s fighting back. “There’s been a fair bit of criticism of Microsoft that we were spending a lot of our focus on console, and we need to be putting resources behind PC as well,” says Microsoft Game Studios general manager Dave Luehmann. “We understand the
Windows platform is an
important platform for gaming as well as everything else. We are putting some real investment and big IPs behind it. “We are not going to stop there. There are a number of other projects that are in development that we will talk about when the time comes.”
Indeed, Microsoft actually has some games to back up its claims this time. And these aren’t any old titles, but sequels to some of the most successful PC releases of all time.
“
PC games never died. Retail just became a smaller proportion – it all moved to a different business model. Dave Leuhmann, Microsoft
But perhaps what’s most promising
about Age of Empires Online and Microsoft Flight is that these aren’t the same games Microsoft was producing ten years ago. These titles are more mass market, more forward thinking – even free.
Luehmann adds: “What I really like about what we are doing now, is that we are turning from a software business to a service business. In the old days you build a game that would take two to three years, you release it, you touch the customer once, and then two or three years later you do it again. We’ve been doing that with Age of Empires for 13 years. That’s not a high
customer touch rate.
“PC games never died. Retail became a smaller proportion of the PC market than it had been historically and it all just moved to a different business model. Online there is a lot less piracy, there’s a better security model there,
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