Anilrgowda

Game developer critical of Vista
In a long opinion piece on Gamasutra, WildTangent Chief Executive Alex St. John writes that the security controls in Windows Vista could create troubles for distributors of online games. St. John's take is especially interesting given that he previously worked at Microsoft, helping the software giant formulate its gaming business.

"We have found many of the security changes planned for Vista alarming and likely to present sweeping challenges for PC gaming, especially for online distributed games. The central change that impacts all downloadable applications in Vista is the introduction of Limited User Accounts. LUA's can already be found in Windows XP, but nobody uses them because of the onerous restrictions they place on usability. In Vista, LUA's are mandatory and inescapable. Although Microsoft made some effort to soften the obstructions LUA's place in the path of installing software in Vista, they still present a tremendous obstacle to downloadable game distribution and game compatibility with Vista in general."

WildTangent pulled in $13 million in venture financing in August, bringing total financing to about $80 million.