Microsoft Games - Games for Windows Interview @ Eurogamer

Eurogamer  has posted an interview with Microsoft's Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows, on the state of the Games for Windows initiative, Windows Live, the PC Gaming Alliance and how things have fared in GfW's first year of operation:

Eurogamer: Let's talk about Games for Windows Live specifically. What's next for the service?

Kevin Unangst: We'll continue to invest in it. We've heard about a lot of things poeple want, things like digital distribution. At the end of the day our goal is to be the best PC online service for gaming. We've learned a lot this year and we're listening to developers.

Eurogamer: What about Cliff Bleszinkski's recent observation that PC gaming is in "disarray"? How do you respond to that?

Kevin Unangst: That's an easy judgment to make if you're just looking at US retail sales. If you look at where the growth is, there are more gamers on Windows than any other platform. There's more money spent on Windows games than any other platform. PC games outsold Wii games and PS3 games in 2007 worldwide. The growth of casual and digital distribution is huge.

I do think that, as much as I'm proud of what we've done over the last year, the industry needed to get together and be more focused on communicating those messages. PC gaming's not dying because US retailers are selling 7 per cent less games than they did the year before...

Eurogamer: Is that why you've teamed up with Intel, AMD, Nvidia and others to form the PC Gaming Alliance?

Kevin Unangst: The PC Gaming Alliance is a consortium where we can get together to set the facts straight, and have a forum to address things like piracy - which frankly is a really tough issue on the PC compared to the console... We'll have a unified voice worldwide.