Microsoft buys Bioware?
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http://www.ferrago.com/story/3393[^] (via penny arcade) Wow. With XNA (I know what that stands for now - it was in EDGE - XBox Next-generation Architecture), and doing what appears to be a deal with EA over XBL, Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
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http://www.ferrago.com/story/3393[^] (via penny arcade) Wow. With XNA (I know what that stands for now - it was in EDGE - XBox Next-generation Architecture), and doing what appears to be a deal with EA over XBL, Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
Ian Darling wrote: Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market Well, of course. One of the big advantages that Windows has over the other OSes is the fact that virtually all games exist on Windows, but much fewer exist on other operating systems. If they can grab a bunch of good game companies they can guarantee that the disparity always exists, which pretty much forces gamers to stick with Windows. (You might want to look at Microsoft's purchase of Bungie in this light - since they were big supporters of Macintosh. For example, the first demo that I saw of Halo was shown on a Mac.)
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http://www.ferrago.com/story/3393[^] (via penny arcade) Wow. With XNA (I know what that stands for now - it was in EDGE - XBox Next-generation Architecture), and doing what appears to be a deal with EA over XBL, Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
Wow. I love Bioware. I hope they don't screw up their company identity.
Glano perictu com sahni delorin!
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http://www.ferrago.com/story/3393[^] (via penny arcade) Wow. With XNA (I know what that stands for now - it was in EDGE - XBox Next-generation Architecture), and doing what appears to be a deal with EA over XBL, Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
Wasn't this an April Fool's joke this year? Odd that it's happened for real. I think it's a good move for MS to get such a well respected developer in their back pocket. It can only mean good things for the X-Box. Hopefully the creative core of Bioware won't jump ship due to the acquisition. That happened to someone else when they were bought... but the companies involved escapes my memory at the moment.
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Ian Darling wrote: Microsoft appear to be very serious about improving their share of the games market Well, of course. One of the big advantages that Windows has over the other OSes is the fact that virtually all games exist on Windows, but much fewer exist on other operating systems. If they can grab a bunch of good game companies they can guarantee that the disparity always exists, which pretty much forces gamers to stick with Windows. (You might want to look at Microsoft's purchase of Bungie in this light - since they were big supporters of Macintosh. For example, the first demo that I saw of Halo was shown on a Mac.)
I think MS's focus is the XBox, as gaming platform, not the PC (windows). The number of games published for PC has always been great (and will be for long time), but MS was never a big player in this field. They had few titles, but never bought major gaming studios. Also I do not think they like to see their OS as a "gaming" OS. But since MS released XBox they beefed up their Gaming department with large deals and even larger hopes. Getting a company like Bioware MS has ensured that there will be a good RPG for XBox in near future. As we all know there isn't a good RPG for XBox at this time. Pz
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I think MS's focus is the XBox, as gaming platform, not the PC (windows). The number of games published for PC has always been great (and will be for long time), but MS was never a big player in this field. They had few titles, but never bought major gaming studios. Also I do not think they like to see their OS as a "gaming" OS. But since MS released XBox they beefed up their Gaming department with large deals and even larger hopes. Getting a company like Bioware MS has ensured that there will be a good RPG for XBox in near future. As we all know there isn't a good RPG for XBox at this time. Pz
Peter Zajac wrote: As we all know there isn't a good RPG for XBox at this time. Star Wars:KOTOR? Baldurs Gate?
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
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Peter Zajac wrote: As we all know there isn't a good RPG for XBox at this time. Star Wars:KOTOR? Baldurs Gate?
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert
Do not forget Morrowind :)
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I think MS's focus is the XBox, as gaming platform, not the PC (windows). The number of games published for PC has always been great (and will be for long time), but MS was never a big player in this field. They had few titles, but never bought major gaming studios. Also I do not think they like to see their OS as a "gaming" OS. But since MS released XBox they beefed up their Gaming department with large deals and even larger hopes. Getting a company like Bioware MS has ensured that there will be a good RPG for XBox in near future. As we all know there isn't a good RPG for XBox at this time. Pz
Peter Zajac wrote: Also I do not think they like to see their OS as a "gaming" OS. :confused: Did you see any of the early DirectX stuff? Microsoft was telling everyone that OpenGL was for engineering, but DirectX was for games (of course, it was all disinformation - aside from the sound support, DirectX 4 and 5 were not somehow superior to OpenGL for games). Microsoft's big push now is to roll DirectX into XNA[^] and they're calling that the big game development platform: The XNA development platform will serve as the foundation for future game platforms from Microsoft, including Windows, Xbox and Windows Mobile-based devices. Games on future iterations of Microsoft game platforms will be powered by tools and technologies from the XNA ecosystem. XNA dramatically improves the way games are produced, helping contain skyrocketing development costs by reducing the amount of time developers spend writing mundane, repetitive boilerplate code for complex new hardware. The XNA ecosystem integrates new and existing tools and technologies from Microsoft and its partners so that developers can make better games, faster. http://www.microsoft.com/xna/[^] Microsoft's plans include: providing Xbox Live-style functionality for billing and security; allowing matchmaking to be made available to Windows developers; introducing controllers that are compatible with all Windows and Xbox game players; and presenting a number of graphics and audio tools, such as PIX and XACT, which have been previously been available only to Xbox developers, to those developers on Windows-based platforms. http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/24/news_6092082.html[^]
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Do not forget Morrowind :)
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Xarx wrote: bioware made neverwinter nights not morrowind Yeah, but the poster further up was complaining about hte lack of good RPGS ;P
Ian Darling "If we've learned anything from history, it's that those who feed trolls are condemned to repetitive conversations. Or something like that." - Eric Lippert