Microsoft makes Games For Windows Live free for all

Live for free on the way?

Here's hoping.

Sounds great. Might actually start buying pc games now instead of, well you know.

Maybe I can actually find a multiplayer match for GoW PC now.

Really? Were they suprised when people didn't want to pay for what they can get for free?

now if we can get people to stop saying things like they'd gladly pay $50 for live, maybe microsoft will bring down the price

They couldn't compete with such services like Steam!

good, they're catching on. PC users already sink a shitload of money into hardware costs, and those of us who aren't pirating games don't like the idea of paying some bullshit middleman for a steam-like service.

So, the three people who are using this service are gonna be happy. No big surprise that a service which is virtually unused is now free while Xbox live stays at a premium.

I played shadowrun on my 360 for a good 5 months and there were about 3 pc players i ran into over that time.

And before someone says thats cos shadowrun was a bad game, there were loads of 360 people on it and i enjoyed it, not as good as i hoped but damn better than any reviewer said. Teleporting through a wall, stabbing somone in the back, ressurecting your dead friend and then teleporting out again is so much fun for the record.

So GFWL went from being a shitty online service that you had to pay for to being a shitty online service is free?

I think it's great and all that Microsoft finally got it through their skulls that they can't nickle and dime PC gamers like they can console gamers, but it's too little too late.

Steam is still the better service with many more games. The best thing that Microsoft could do is throw their support behind Steam.

I would like to get into PC gaming, but it seems like it's a lot to keep up with. I'm not too tech-savvy when it comes to things like upgrades and hardware and such.

What's a good estimate on a PC that can run the latest games? I mean, pricewise.

Keep in mind, I'm running a PC with pretty low specs (Dell Dimension E510, bought just for the sake of doing my school work).

Sweet so how about we console gamers get Xbox LIVE for free now or maybe slash it in half? $25.00 a year would be TEH HAWTNESS!!!

Took them long enough. They still have a few hundred fixes to go before them catch up with Valve's Steam and Stardock's Impulse, but it's a start.

....


Oookay?

o.0

Live works on the 360 because it works across ALL games, ALL consoles. One friends list, one menu to send game invites from, one menu to send messages from, it's all integrated no matter what you're doing.

GFWL doesn't work because it only works across a few games.

One of the reasons I got out of PC gaming was because I got tired of having this same IM conversation with 12 friends in a row:

"Ok, so we're gonna play some Counterstrike, you down? Ok, now join the teamspeak server we're in, the IP is 24.132.038.289. What's that, you need the new client? Ok, go to the teamspeak website and click downloads -> updates -> 2.4.0.1.3b. Make sure you don't get 3a, that's not compatible. Ok, got it? Ok, now we're in a server called ~-Uncle Joe's 24/7 Dust-~. You in here now? No? Ok, that's a dash in front of the tilda, not two tildas. Got it? Ah, crap, the admin just turned on God mode. Forget it, we're going to go find a different server. I'll IM you the details."

Then repeat 12 times to get everyone together.

If there were a Live-like service, that worked across ALL games, I'd probably play a LOT more PC games, whether it was free or not.

But PC gamers are too set in their ways and their "we're too cool for console gamers and that xbox live crap" attitude to accept changes for the better.

The only reason anyone would use this-- even free-- over Steam is for cross-platform play. I might actually buy Lost Planet: Colonies Edition now. I loved that game, but on PC there were never any servers.

I also have a $4 copy of shadowrun sitting around for when I have to buy a laptop for college that inevitably comes with Vista.

The only reason XBOX Live is still paid is because there is no way to play multiplayer on the 360 without it. The defenders of Live keep talking about voice chat, matchmaking and unified friends list as if it justifies the fee - but the day MS made multiplayer free on the 360 and charged 50$ simply for these supposedly awesome "features" you will find 90% of Gold subscribers vanish. And the funny thing is that the multiplayer itself is inferior P2P based unlike the server based PSN