CES 2008 – New Games for Windows Announced

Microsoft  has announced
at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas the addition of new titles to its Games for Windows portfolio, revealing the first-year results for the initiative that brought PC gaming some of the most popular Windows-based games available. New “Games for Windows”-branded titles include Alone in the Dark, Space Siege, Tomb Raider: Underworld and more.

“Games for Windows truly thrived in 2007. We went from two titles in 2006 to a continually growing portfolio of over 60 titles here at CES 2008,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “We delivered on our promise one year ago to reinvigorate the PC gaming space and bring the best portfolio of games to Windows. And this is just the beginning. With our partners, we will continue to drive the resurgence of Windows-based gaming.”

As a CES attendee, you will get the chance to experience some of the great games due out this year, among which Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Conflict: Denied Ops Frontlines: Fuel of War, Space Siege, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Jigsaw Too Photo Edition are mentioned. A game for Windows Live Messenger has also been confirmed for release this year and CES 08 is hosting it for a first glance.

So, the full list of new Games for Windows-branded titles announced at this year’s CES looks a little something like this:

- Alone in the Dark (Atari)
- Bionic Commando (Capcom)
- Conflict: Denied Ops (Eidos Interactive)
- Empire: Total War (SEGA)
- LEGO Indiana Jones (LucasArts)
- Microsoft Train Simulator 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock)
- Space Siege (SEGA)
- Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos Interactive)

Other titles within the Games for Windows “order” expected to be released this year include Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Borderlands, The Club, Fallout 3 and Frontlines: Fuel of War. Developers are up to par on each and every one of them so rest assured, you’re in for a full year.

British Telecom to launch 360’s IPTV

During their CES keynote, Microsoft took stage and also announced that British Telecom will be the first company to launch the Xbox 360 IPTV service in the UK. British Telecom is the largest telecommunication company in the UK and will eventually allow customers to purchase Xbox 360 consoles for IPTV service. No release date was announced for the program to be up and running, but if history is any indicator of future events then we should see 360 IPTV up and running by around … 2010. We kid, we kid!

Windows Vista only on 39% of new PCs

Bill Gates’ keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 revealed a rather startling statistic with regards to the sales and acceptance performance of Windows Vista. Gates told the audience that Windows Vista has sold more than 100 million copies since the operating system’s launch in January 2007. When comparing pure numbers against Windows XP, which sold only 89 million copies in its first year, Windows Vista appears to be a hit – but looking at the big picture sheds a different sort of light on the matter.

With the PC market at nearly twice the size today as it was in 2001, InformationWeek surmises that Windows Vista captured around 39 percent of the new PC market in its first year, while Windows XP managed to grab 67 percent of the new PC market during its initial period. The rather lukewarm response to Windows Vista must be troubling for Microsoft. In response to customers with cold feet on the new OS, Dell in April 2007 brought back the option for its customers to choose Windows XP. Microsoft then took things another step further by allowing OEMs to downgrade Windows Vista Business and Ultimate installations to Windows XP.

Napster going DRM-free

They had already been considering it and now it’s official — Napster will be converting its entire downloads catalogue to 100% DRM-free MP3s (innit funny how things come full circle?) in Q2 of this year. With all track and album sales offered exclusively in MP3 format, the company obviously hopes to attract a certain crowd heretofore locked out of its business model. While the subscription service will remain a core focus, Napster execs are surely hoping to see an uptick in their direct download sales when those teeming iPod and iPhone hordes come knocking second quarter.

Paramount following Warner out the HD DVD door?

The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray, about 4 months after ending its dual-format release schedule. The move would be a result of Warner’s switch to Blu-ray, using a “get out” clause in Paramount’s promotional agreement with the HD DVD camp. No details on what it might take to rip up the contract and make Michael Bay very, very happy, but if the rumor proves true this could make the slow death he predicted for HD DVD a very, very fast one.

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Mitsubishi’s 65-inch laser TV prototype spotted

There’s pretty much exactly zero info on how this thing works yet — or even how well it works, the unveiling is in a few minutes — but the photos below do indeed depict Mitsubishi’s newfangled laser TV, and we thought you might like to have a look. As you can see, there’s a bit of depth to the profile of this display, so we’re thinking there’s a DLP-ish tech going on inside, but your guess is truly as good as ours at this point.

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Microsoft unleashes the Origami Experience 2.0

We’re not really sure you can call a new home screen and app launcher an “experience,” but considering the point of a UMPC is to run bog-standard Windows, we suppose Microsoft has to take what it can get. The Origami Experience 2.0 consists of three elements as of right now: Origami Central, a revamped browser / media interface / RSS reader, another centralized home app called Origami Now (pictured) which drops in weather, email, and to-do widgets as well as an RSS reader, and, uh, Picture Password, which replaces the traditional password with a cartoon puzzle. Yep. Apparently there’s more, but the Origami team hasn’t posted more on its blog — but you know we’ll try and pry some more deets out of them on the CES show floor tomorrow.

By:Engadget