Microsoft New Year's Problems & Resolutions!

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It's official. 2007 is dead and gone. We are now in the New Year, and there are many questions left yet unanswered for 2008. Release dates are up in the air, new announcements are still under wraps, and all sorts of other surprises are left in store for us. Yet there is some baggage we carry from 2007 into 2008. That baggage needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. In the spirit of the New Year, here are some resolutions for the "big three" console manufacturers that must be remedied before Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft begin work on their list of mistakes for 2008.

 

 

• Kill "Games for Windows" – Porting hit Xbox brand games to PC is not a bad idea, but it all goes to hell when you force users to purchase a separate "Live" account to play PC games online, a feature that has a long history of being free on the versatile platform. It also doesn't help when Microsoft tries to strap most of the big releases with exclusivity arrangements that tie them to an operating system nobody wants (Vista). There are primarily two types of PC gamer: the casual types that play Bejeweled and online poker, and the dedicated core PC gamer who loves complicated, immersive, and in-depth experiences provided by the complexity of the PC platform. "GFW" seeks to streamline the PC gaming experience and make PC gaming as accessible as a game console, but this goes against the very conventions of PC gaming because the gamer market they are after traditionally choose the PC platform because it is so distinctly opposite from that of a console. "Games for Windows" and its deep association with Vista is a horrible idea which is crippling Microsoft's potentially fruitful PC efforts.
• Make Xbox Live free – Microsoft has the best online service, yes, but the value of "free" can speak louder than features, and did just that in the past. Sony and Nintendo's online services aren't the greatest thing in the world, but value speaks to consumers. Last gen, Microsoft took the critical acclaim for their exceptional online gaming experience, but the PS2 had more online users in total, even with Sony's crappy setup. The majority of Live users tend to fall in the core gamer and "casual FPS player" brackets. If Microsoft truly wants to expand their user base into the range that includes people that don't play games more than 72 hours a week, they should think about merging the features of Gold membership into Silver and provide all customers with an equal experience while focusing on an ad-based revenue system to cover network costs. If they were truly desperate to keep subscription services an option, they could always gives some perks to their subscribers. Oh, you know—stuff like dedicated servers, free themes, or something. Microsoft can either take the initiative and build on their online empire now, or wait and retaliate when Sony decides to challenge the throne, and it will happen. It's just a matter of "when". And while they're at it, Microsoft needs to solve the constant Xbox Live downtime problems before more people like those three guys in Texas decide to file lawsuits and bring Microsoft's technical difficulties further into the public eye.
• Stop replacing faulty machines with faulty machines – We know all the first year models are ticking time bombs. They're all going to go sooner or later, yet now the media is catching wind of "refurbished" replacement units breaking down even faster. There are people that have cycled through five dysfunctional replacement units in less than half a year. The sad thing is scenarios like that aren't uncommon. Microsoft needs to call their losses and dispose of the faulty replacement units rather than sending out another faulty machine to the already abused and disgruntled customer. Microsoft must begin replacing "Red-Ringers" with the new Falcon chipset units to lower long-term replacement costs and protect their already heavily tarnished brand from further damage.
• Stop releasing new SKUs – Nintendo is kicking Microsoft's ass with a console that has about 1/24 the power and doesn't even play DVD's, and now there is word that Microsoft might release yet another model of the 360 late this year with a bigger proprietary hard drive, built in HD-DVD drive, and a bunch of other features the average Joe doesn't want or really need. General consumers who don't keep up with gaming are getting confused by all the available versions of each console on the market. People aren't looking for a monster media convergence box. They're looking for a game console. And why strap a console with an HD media format nobody wants? Had Microsoft put their money where their mouth is and actually backed the format back in 2005, the format war might have gone differently, but they didn't. 2008 is three years too late to fix the problem. Developers won't use the format for games in fear of fragmenting the user base "Sega style". We all know the 360 needed that HD-DVD drive from the beginning for storage space. Content is now regularly getting cut from multiplatform (and exclusive) games now just because the DVD format can't hold all the required data. Compression only goes so far, and Microsoft has an ego wall stopping them from breaking down and using multiple discs for games that need it for fear of looking inferior to Blu-Ray. Sorry, Microsoft. You had your shot for HD media. Stop throwing money at a problem that requires a much simpler fix.
• Actually try to broaden the market, or stop pretending to care – Microsoft is the sugar daddy of core console gamers. Millions of gamers praise MS for being the saving grace of hardcore console gaming and Microsoft rightfully does everything they can to tailor the Xbox 360 experience to please that group. Yet every so often, you'll see Microsoft make a half-assed attempt to reach out to an audience just beyond their reach—you know, those elusive "non-gamers" Nintendo has in such over-abundance. Well, sorry Microsoft. The "Scene It? Movie Trivia Game" isn't quite going to cut it. Non-gamers already bought that on DVD. Think Viva Piñata is going to reach out to the young kids? No, it just appeals to what's left of the Rare fanbase. Same goes for Banjo-Threeie. If you so badly want the attention of the grandma and grandpa gamers in the world, then take a look at your original casual gaming platform—Windows. We gamers may think of PC's as the home of RTS and serious FPS games, but people were playing casual games on the PC all the way back to Windows 3.1. If you want to get in on the casual gaming phenomenon, then focus on the platform casual gaming was born on. 40,000,000 people play casual online games at AOL.com. Even more than that plays Microsoft's own Spider Solitaire on Windows XP. Why not use that so-called "Games for Windows" brand that core games so rightfully loathe to reach out to an audience that might actually care? Face it. Grandpa and Grandma gamer aren't going to buy an Xbox. They probably think that's the name of an adult toy (well, maybe that's just Grandpa). Instead, go where the market is. Go to the one market Nintendo can't touch, which just so happens to be where your bread money comes from…Windows.

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