It’s not even a question what the first title needs to be: Halo for Windows.
Microsoft needs to look at its software library, its entire software library stretching back into forever, and find things it can’t make money on, and release them once in a while completely free to Ultimate owners. What can save Ultimate Extras right now? Freebies. That’s fine! Ultimate Extras are supposed to be cool, cutting edge, and beta, and that means they don’t need to be finished products, just make us feel better and get extra bang for our Ultimate buck. While not a terrible gap, the lack of communication from Microsoft almost seems to suggest that no Ultimate Extras are ever coming, a notion Microsoft should feel responsible to dispell.Īccording to Long (who calls Ultimate Extras a sham), part of the problem stems from the fact that DreamScene is proving particularly nasty to be finalized in any stable form, and that ultimately architectural problems will prevent it from ever being perfect. Windows Vista Ultimate Extras has been seeing some outrage from the community the last week, as the sad realization that we haven’t seen a new Ultimate Extra since the DreamScene preview was released on February 14, over four months ago.
Hopefully they’re working on getting their stuff together, because Ultimate users are your best advocates, and you piss them off, they might find Mac OS and all its extras a little more tempting.Īre There Any More Expectations For Ultimate Extras? Granted, it may have taken that long just to get it through Microsoft’s much maligned QA, but still, it’s annoying to think of them sitting on this stuff until someone complains loudly enough. The DLL’s were finalized then, as indicated in the files, so Microsoft completed this a while ago, but just shipped it now. Of course, as late (and underwhelming and poorly performing) as this saga has been, what’s even more annoying is that Long Zheng uncovered that DreamScene was actually completed July 19, two and a half months ago. DreamScene, to most Ultimate users, is only the second “real” Ultimate Extra Microsoft has delivered, besides Texas Hold ‘Em. A beta of DreamScene was delivered in the beginning of the year, but many had begun to worry that no one was working on Ultimate Extras at all. Microsoft shipped last week the final release version of Windows DreamScene, the Windows Vista Ultimate Extra that lets you use animated desktop wallpapers. DreamScene Finally Goes Gold, Kind of Intentionally Late