Microsoft Buys NetGamesUSA – Bring on the Game Stats

I know I am supposed to hate Microsoft, but I am really geeked at the recent
announcement that MS is buying NetGamesUSA.
NetGamesUSA makes a couple products called ngStats and ngWorldStats that track
statistics in computer games. One of the few products the system had been fully
implemented in was the first-person shooter, Unreal Tournament. Because I am
a geek, I have my ngStats report from UT online, and you can read it here.
The report tracks everything from total frags to the average amount of time
it takes me before I get killed (I rock in CTF, but Last Man Standing leaves
me empty . . . and dead).

I am not sure why a feature like this is not already in most games.
The 3-D Diablo clone, Darkstone, tracks some lifetime stats such as number of
monsters killed, etc., but an expanded stat capture and reporting function would
be awesome for strategy games such as Civilization or Age of Empires II (which
is an MS product, so maybe that will be added).

The acquisition by Microsoft is a great move since it plans on adding the software
to its development kit for PC games which means this technology should start
showing up in more games over the next few years.