Geometry Wars for PC: How and When?
At CES yesterday, Microsoft announced that Geometry Wars will be released for the PC. The game is arguably the biggest hit on the Xbox Live Arcade with UNO perhaps coming in second, but there are a couple of questions about this, though, one big and one small.
The small question is when we’ll see it. That’s the easy one to ask.
The big question is how we’ll get it. This is the big one. Will it be in a box on a store shelf? Will it be sold by digital download? Will it only be available as part of the subscription-only Xbox Live Anywhere set to invade the PC gaming space perhaps sometime in 2007?
Bringing a known quantity into the PC world to introduce Xbox Live Anywhere seems like a good idea, and the buzz might be enough to get the die hard PC gamers to at least try out XBLA, but I’m thinking Microsoft is going to have an uphill battle when it comes to convincing PC gamers that they should subscribe to Xbox Live Anywhere to get online gaming services if they don’t already have an Xbox machine. Many, many PC gaming online services have come and gone trying to get people to subscribe, even trying to get them to subscribe for premium content.
Of course having a business die due to lack of funding isn’t something Microsoft has to worry about as long as you keep buying Windows and Office, but culturally, the PC gamer has prided himself on not having to buy an online gaming service to get online gaming. Yes they rely on a patchwork of services that might work better in a unified way on XBLA, but free is a powerful thing.
Time will tell.
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James
