[casual_games] If Vista is going to be such a problem...

[James Gwertzman]

No, I think I got it. I'm not trying to say that Vista and/or the Game
Explorer are perfect, and starting 9 months ago when we first got a
preview of the new Game Explorer from Microsoft we certainly made sure
they heard our feedback loud and clear. But nor are they the unmitigated
disaster that some of the threads in this exchange seem to be implying
they are. And you may have missed my point - I agree that because you do
have your own client, the problems in Vista and the Game Explorer may
help your business somewhat compared to folks dependent entirely on
website downloads and random "Program Files" directory installations. A
cynic might say you have some advantage in flogging Game Explorer,
though I do give you more credit than that. I know you are genuinely
trying to help the community by raising issues now, but you'd also be
the first to admit you've certainly never shied away from helping
Microsoft see the error of its ways when it slips up.

 

(full disclosure: Alex & I go way back - 12 years now is it? - and my
start in the casual game industry was building a set of casual games
under contract for WildTangent)

 

GameExplorer was clearly designed for retail games, and that's its
biggest weakness. The team that created it simply wasn't thinking about
download content or else it would have been designed very differently.
As more and more companies move to digital distribution, the pressure to
fix those issues will increase. Whether those issues get fixed in a
version 2.0 remains to be seen.

 

As for the graphs below - I might quibble with Alexa's data but I
absolutely agree that Microsoft does have the power to make arbitrary
decisions with real economic consequences. Witness the tens of thousands
of dollars we are having to spend right now on moving our ActiveX or
Java based games over to Flash because of the increasingly unacceptable
end-user experience associated with those technologies, all in the name
of increased security. I'm certainly not giving them a free pass as you
well know from our previous discussions on this topic.

 

---------------------------

James Gwertzman

Director of Business Development

PopCap Games, Inc.

+1-206-256-4210

 

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