MS statement about games and Vista

A recent statement from Rick Wickham, director of Games for Windows, said that many developers and publishers are excited about Vista and are making games for Vista. But that’s the future. What about our current games? Remember the problem with Dark Age of Camelot and Vista? What about the bugs that ruin the games we paid good money for and are still currently playing? Remember how Final Fantasy XI players couldn’t access the game?

And what about the fact that hundreds of family-friendly online casual games are blocked by Vista’s parental controls?

Wickham addressed some of the concerns about Vista’s incompatibility with games. It’s just “growing pains” he said, and that’s something you can expect from any “platform of this magnitude”.

He also went on to say really good things about parental controls and security features:

Parental controls are just one part of the improved security in Windows Vista. You will be notified when a program attempts an installation on your system, so you will have the choice to block it, or accept it. By being given a choice, you will have a larger say in the overall health and performance of your system.

We’re happy for Microsoft that their new OS launched with much good publicity and positive reception. We’re also glad that developers are supporting Vista despite the lack of Vista games during the launch.

The statement from Rick Wickham is a good start towards addressing the remaining concerns of many gamers.

But what happens next? Is it a matter of Microsoft making Vista more compatible with our games? Or is it a matter of our game developers rushing to make our game Vista compliant? Well, considering that our game developers have little choice except to comply with Microsoft (because, hey, it’s Microsoft), it’s probably a bit of both. Teamwork is good.

We’ll see what the next statement from Microsoft will be. We look forward to the day when Microsoft has addressed the remaining bugs, game incompatibilities, and driver incompatibilities. Microsoft, throw everything you got at those bugs!

A recent statement from Rick Wickham, director of Games for Windows, said that many developers and publishers are excited about Vista and are making games for Vista. But that’s the future. What about our current games? Remember the problem with Dark Age of Camelot and Vista? What about the bugs that ruin the games we paid good money for and are still currently playing? Remember how Final Fantasy XI players couldn’t access the game?

And what about the fact that hundreds of family-friendly online casual games are blocked by Vista’s parental controls?

Wickham addressed some of the concerns about Vista’s incompatibility with games. It’s just “growing pains” he said, and that’s something you can expect from any “platform of this magnitude”.

He also went on to say really good things about parental controls and security features:

Parental controls are just one part of the improved security in Windows Vista. You will be notified when a program attempts an installation on your system, so you will have the choice to block it, or accept it. By being given a choice, you will have a larger say in the overall health and performance of your system.

We’re happy for Microsoft that their new OS launched with much good publicity and positive reception. We’re also glad that developers are supporting Vista despite the lack of Vista games during the launch.

The statement from Rick Wickham is a good start towards addressing the remaining concerns of many gamers.

But what happens next? Is it a matter of Microsoft making Vista more compatible with our games? Or is it a matter of our game developers rushing to make our game Vista compliant? Well, considering that our game developers have little choice except to comply with Microsoft (because, hey, it’s Microsoft), it’s probably a bit of both. Teamwork is good.

We’ll see what the next statement from Microsoft will be. We look forward to the day when Microsoft has addressed the remaining bugs, game incompatibilities, and driver incompatibilities. Microsoft, throw everything you got at those bugs!