Games for Windows LIVE / DirectX 11
Today, Microsoft announced that Games for Windows LIVE is now free, their plans for a LIVE Marketplace on PC, and DirectX 11.
We hopped on the phone with Kevin Unangst, Senior Global Director of Games for Windows, to get a little more information about today's announcements out of Gamefest 2008.
"The changes that we're announcing today are clearly the result of a continued and ongoing focus on 'What do Windows gamers want?' [and] 'What do Windows game developers want?'."
Games for Windows LIVE
Now that the service is free, we wondered if Microsoft would be doing anything for users that had already paid for a year of Games for Windows LIVE. Kevin reassured us that "yes, [Microsoft] wants to take care of the customers that have already paid for [their] service. Customers that bought the service and are not getting the benefit on the Xbox, they only play on Windows, [Microsoft] is going to proactively refund the cost of that subscription to those gamers."
When asked about the new Games for Windows LIVE interface vs. the Xbox 360 interface, Kevin explained the plans for a new PC-centric experience:
"The console team focuses on the 'living room interface' that's really easy to navigate with a controller. On the Windows side, we've actually taken with this [upcoming] Fall Update an opportunity to revamp the way you access the service in terms of the in-game interface. They get much more PC-friendly. You can still navigate it with a controller if you want, but for mouse and keyboard users it's [now] much more PC-like, rather than console-like."
DirectX 11
Kevin stressed that today's announcement was a "technology" announcement. Furthermore, "DirectX 11 will work on Windows Vista, as well as the next version of Windows, which will support DirectX 10, 10.1, and of course new DirectX 11 hardware."
Even though there will be backwards-compatibility with DX10 hardware, the compatibility isn't 100%. According to Kevin, "you can expect that there will be DX11 features that need DX11 hardware," though Microsoft isn't ready to announce what they are at this time.
"Some of the improvements," continued Kevin, "for example, the ability to take much better advantage of multi-core capable PC's [is] something that we're going to extend all the way down to DX10 hardware. There are improvements across the board for gamers that have DX10 and DX10 hardware as well as some new things that we'll do that will require DX11 hardware."
"If you look at DX11, which is a direct superset of what DX10 and 10.1 offer, you're starting to see all of the investment developers have made in DX10 and 10.1 and consumers have made in that hardware, that experience is only going to get better with DX11."
It's too early to hear about any specific games or developers that are getting DirectX 11-ready, but it looks like a good future for Games for Windows LIVE and DirectX 11.
Taken from N4G.com
Razz x
Today, Microsoft announced that Games for Windows LIVE is now free, their plans for a LIVE Marketplace on PC, and DirectX 11.
We hopped on the phone with Kevin Unangst, Senior Global Director of Games for Windows, to get a little more information about today's announcements out of Gamefest 2008.
"The changes that we're announcing today are clearly the result of a continued and ongoing focus on 'What do Windows gamers want?' [and] 'What do Windows game developers want?'."
Games for Windows LIVE
Now that the service is free, we wondered if Microsoft would be doing anything for users that had already paid for a year of Games for Windows LIVE. Kevin reassured us that "yes, [Microsoft] wants to take care of the customers that have already paid for [their] service. Customers that bought the service and are not getting the benefit on the Xbox, they only play on Windows, [Microsoft] is going to proactively refund the cost of that subscription to those gamers."
When asked about the new Games for Windows LIVE interface vs. the Xbox 360 interface, Kevin explained the plans for a new PC-centric experience:
"The console team focuses on the 'living room interface' that's really easy to navigate with a controller. On the Windows side, we've actually taken with this [upcoming] Fall Update an opportunity to revamp the way you access the service in terms of the in-game interface. They get much more PC-friendly. You can still navigate it with a controller if you want, but for mouse and keyboard users it's [now] much more PC-like, rather than console-like."
DirectX 11
Kevin stressed that today's announcement was a "technology" announcement. Furthermore, "DirectX 11 will work on Windows Vista, as well as the next version of Windows, which will support DirectX 10, 10.1, and of course new DirectX 11 hardware."
Even though there will be backwards-compatibility with DX10 hardware, the compatibility isn't 100%. According to Kevin, "you can expect that there will be DX11 features that need DX11 hardware," though Microsoft isn't ready to announce what they are at this time.
"Some of the improvements," continued Kevin, "for example, the ability to take much better advantage of multi-core capable PC's [is] something that we're going to extend all the way down to DX10 hardware. There are improvements across the board for gamers that have DX10 and DX10 hardware as well as some new things that we'll do that will require DX11 hardware."
"If you look at DX11, which is a direct superset of what DX10 and 10.1 offer, you're starting to see all of the investment developers have made in DX10 and 10.1 and consumers have made in that hardware, that experience is only going to get better with DX11."
It's too early to hear about any specific games or developers that are getting DirectX 11-ready, but it looks like a good future for Games for Windows LIVE and DirectX 11.
Taken from N4G.com
Razz x
Windows Live games will most probably be DX11 in the future and those who paid already aren't getting some kind of refund so...cool
