Games for Windows: In the Driver's Seat


Posted by Ben Reed on Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:20 PM 14 Comments
Today's demo video is all about Games for Windows.  In this video (shot using Canon's new high-def HV20, which is Certified for Windows Vista), I talk about what "Games for Windows" means and how it helps ensure that games with this logo are easy to install and play, compatible, and safe.  Within the demo,  I use Lego Star Wars II  and Company of Heroes to show the install process on a Toshiba Satellite P100, which has an NVidia GeForce® Go 7900GTX graphics engine.  I also cover the different features within Windows Vista that support gaming, such as Games Explorer and parental features. Other hardware highlighted in the video are the Wireless Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, the Microsoft Reclusa gaming keyboard and Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0


Video: Games for Windows Demo

Also, we're still running the Look for the Logo sweepstakes, so go and enter to win thousands of dollars of Certified for Windows Vista products every week. Check back for future posts and more videos!

Click here for general information on the Windows Vista Logo Program.

Past Certified for Windows Vista demo videos include Digital Memories and Wireless Networking.

 

Posted by Games for Windows: In the Driver’s Seat  »Technology News | Venture Capital, Startups, Silicon Valley, Web 2.0 Tech


 

Posted by jorgie


I would love to watch the video, but I do not have a soapbox account and it seems I cannot get one!  Can you put it somewhere for download?

 

Posted by jorgie


Nevermind... logging into the blog allowed me to watch the embeded version!

Liked it, keep them comming! :)

 

Posted by schmosef


hmm... no such luck for me. after logging into the blog the player still says "sorry, no videos were found."

 

Posted by schmosef


stop the press! immediately after i submitted my post that the video wouldn't play, it played!

 

Posted by Brandon LeBlanc


Soapbox might be having some issues. I've also noticed some issues on some computers with the Adobe Flash plugin for both Firefox and IE. Make sure you have the latest Flash plugin for your browser.

 

Posted by Views on Windows Vista


Dan's posted a great video of Games for Windows featuring some of the Games available and the benefits

 

Posted by Josh's Windows Weblog


Wow, Can you believe it is June already? Man it seems just yesterday I was at CES in Las Vegas kicking

 

Posted by jchandler


These Games for windows are just working brilliantly for me. Keep up the good work

All the best

Josh Chandler

http://www.windows-media-player-updates.com

 

Posted by BillD


Why the new NVidia drivers are not on Windows Update?

I still have an old version 7.15.10.9746

 

Posted by Trevogre


I purchased Halo 2 and Shadowrun for the PC. Both of these games require activation which is confusing to me. These would be the first games that I have seen that require locking to a piece of hardware. The same is not true (I would assume) for Shadowrun for the Xbox 360. Does Microsoft intend to suggest that these products will have no resale value for the same price as an Xbox 360 game that does. Is it also implied that I cannot move from machine to machine with my games without making activation phone calls to Microsoft requesting that I play the game on more than one machine? I installed this at work and didn't run the activation for fear that I would spend my evening on the phone with MS trying to make the game work at home. What is the recommended solution for making this portable? The industry standard has been by default that games require a cd to be playable, is there a reason to change that and require hardware lock? It's early yet, but is there any backlash from this yet? I'm not adverse to paying for services and games but I do not want to pay more than once for myself to play a game in multiple locations. When other services such as steam have already pioneered internet based user verfication and software download services. Why is Microsoft trying to roll backwards instead of forwards? Is it really believed that this activation model is a better model? If so why?

Also, it has been commented on by others but I would like to see live on the pc outside of a running game. I would also like to see the interface as a scalable wpf application, at least the shell if not vector based achievement icons and other ui elements. It looks like a postage stamp on my 30in monitor.

 

Posted by L's talking


This is all great! And a wonderful thing but at this point and time it is not helping me in my online RPG WoW... Because of Vista the screen wants to do something in  like  every two frames. This is not good. I would love to enjoy my new comp and try Vista, but am about to abort the system all together and go back to XP. A shame that there is no patch out for this. Only 80 million people play the game-it might be something to look into. Everyone I know is getting rid of Vista to keep playing. Just a thought.. :)

 

Posted by mike115


hi i am trying to get some of my game to work but they wont because of starforce can u help me plzz

 

Posted by jlw72853


I am trying to play my 3 dice casino and it wont let me do my tournements it comes up with a black box and when u close the box it comes up with a rundll box and i want to know how to fix this can someone help me please.

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About Ben Reed

I’m a Manager at Microsoft in the Windows Media Center team. I work on all components of the Windows Media Center Experience - focused on retailers, partners, and end-customers. I love technology, not just for the sake of it (or how ‘geeky’ cool it is), but for what it can do to improve people’s everyday lives.
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