Games for Windows Live Goes Free

It seems Microsoft finally got it through their thick heads that Games for Windows LIVE was heading straight for the biggest failure next to Microsoft BOB. Unfortunately, the dollar signs in their eyes were blinding them for too long. It took over a year to see that there are no PC gamers out there who want to pay for a shit service when other services offer the same features and more for free. :v:

Cutting to the chase, Microsoft announced today that Games for Windows LIVE will now be free. All features LIVE offered to Gold members for a subscription are now free to all silver members on the GFWL platform. They say that free multiplayer is just the beginning, but it would have been nice to have it free from the beginning. Maybe now this will give them a second shot at the PC gaming market that Steam is eating up, or maybe the lack of support for their titles makes this too little too late.

Again, another news post I'll have to reword at a later date. Until then, celebrate! We have won.

yey

Well I'm glad that they did this now that I see Dawn of War II under the GFW label. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't care.

Too bad it's too late for it to make any difference.

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Originally Posted by Zeph

Too bad it's too late for it to make any difference.

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Too late for Halo 2, but not necessarily for future GFWL games.

That's one step. Now they need to work on actually providing proper support and optimization and kill the Vista-exclusivity shit. Then maybe I'll consider buying the 360-to-PC ports.

Maybe.

Hurray!... now if they'd just fix h2v...

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Originally Posted by Snowy

Too late for Halo 2, but not necessarily for future GFWL games.

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I'm sorry, but what future GFWL titles? Last I checked, no third party developer would touch the platform and MS cut future titles that used the Live service because the current games that used it weren't going anywhere.

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Originally Posted by l SINERGY l

Hurray!... now if they'd just fix h2v...

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Agreed, I suppose it's great, never really used Live on the PC, only Xbox, but cheers to the people that did/are :)

XP SP 2 is also supported, not just Vista. The Vista requirement was for DX10. It also seems they are planning on making some overhauls to the system which should come to light fall/late 2008. It should be interesting to see if this platform makes a recovery or not considering the failure of its launch titles.

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Originally Posted by Pooky

Well I'm glad that they did this now that I see Dawn of War II under the GFW label. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't care.

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WTF D:!!

WOOT! LETS PARTY!

mana i'am fuckign Yah Hooing at the moment

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Originally Posted by Zeph

I'm sorry, but what future GFWL titles? Last I checked, no third party developer would touch the platform and MS cut future titles that used the Live service because the current games that used it weren't going anywhere.

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The only two future ones I know of are "The Crossing" (coming this year), and "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II" (already been mentioned).

He'll fuck you up.

Amazing! I can't wait to actualy test my Halo 2 map online!

It's about time that they realize this, now let's hope that they also make Xbox LIVE free, though the chances of that are small, since it, unlike Windows Live, actually has some success.

Xbox Live's never gonna be free. Unlike PC, there's no possible competition, so there's no reason not to charge for it.

all I can say is LOL

wow did Microsoft just start taking crack or something o_O!

who's complaining though...

So are they going to update Halo 2 Vista so that all of us silver members can use gold features, and remove all the annoying pop-ups?

Wouldn't that have already been fixed then? Also, I agree that it is too late to make a difference. H2V is basically dead, unless they start putting out amazing games that everyone will want to play with multiplayer free online shit then this is just a pointless, should have been done ages ago, FAIL attempt of getting teh love back to em.

They're gonna be cheap about it. Afterall, it's Microsoft. I think they're not gonna fix the features in non supported games.

Shit guys, I think I know what happened.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/1...cgamingdf3.jpg

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/4...halo2pctb5.jpg

Its about time they did this, now they need to stop the cheaters in halo 2 vista.

or this shit:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showt...ta+bugs+report

If you people would know what goes behind the scenes when playing the game...

Let's put it like this...in Multiplayer they took everything out, that a person with common sense wouldn't have, just to reduce lag. On the other hand they increased the number of exploit possibilities exponentially. That's why many people can do these cheap game modifications these days. This would have been impossible in Halo CE/PC.

That is Microsoft.

epic fail

if windows live will be free (becuase its just like xbox 360 but for PC) wouldnt that mean xbox 360 LIVE would be free???

If not, I'd say thats a big rip-off.

Um, do you REALLY think Microsoft will remove Gold subscriptions for the 360, and loose millions? Not really. However, Microsoft was charging for features that are free in practically every single PC game, and no one wanted that.

That's not a ripoff for anyone, they said Games for Windows Live would be free, not Xbox Live.

I'm calling shenanigans on this one. I'll bet t's just a trick to lure more developers into the grasp of GFWL, just so they can turn around and start charging again once all the good titles have fallen for the pretty bells and whistles of corporate backing.

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Originally Posted by halowizard

if windows live will be free (becuase its just like xbox 360 but for PC) wouldnt that mean xbox 360 LIVE would be free???

If not, I'd say thats a big rip-off.

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PC is not the same as a console though. I can't be assed to explain, but I can understand paying for xbox live. It's not too expensive either.

Xbox Live is supported, GFWL really isn't. Correct me if i'm wrong :p

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US...AboutLive.aspx

Well at the bottom of the page it says that new games are added every month so I am guessing GFWL is some-what supported.