Games for Windows Live adding Games on Demand beginning Dec. 15

by Randy Nelson on Dec 3rd 2009 3:30PM

Games on Demand, a.k.a. full game downloads, is one of the more recent additions to Xbox Live -- and today Microsoft has announced that it's bringing the service to its Games For Windows Live platform beginning December 15. GFWL creative director Chuck Osieja calls the initiative "Microsoft's return to delivering Windows games built on unique LIVE experiences." The service has a rocky history of sporadic supported releases and last summer ditched its subscription fees in the face of competition from the likes of Steam.

The move puts Microsoft up against Valve's digi-distribution service, which similarly offers community features and its own Achievements system, but boasts a much larger catalog at present. The GFWL Games on Demand initial lineup will include Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Battlestations Pacific along with new GFWL-enabled versions of 2D Boy's excellent World of Goo and Hemisphere Games' Osmos -- all titles currently offered by Steam, with some available via Stardock's Impulse service. Microsoft hasn't divulged pricing for titles offered via GFWL Games on Demand.

A reworked version of the former Windows Vista Ultimate Extra Tinker will be made available free to GFWL users when the Games on Demand service launches a week from next Tuesday.

Source

Tags: battlestations-pacific, digital-distribution, games-for-windows-live, games-on-demand, Microsoft, osmos, Red-Faction-Guerrilla, resident-evil-5, tinker, World-of-Goo

Reader Comments (59)

I'm sorry, it's almost 2010 and Microsoft is JUST NOW full games selling games online?

*golf clap*

I'm sorry, it's almost 4:00 pm, and Peter Moore is JUST NOW not double checking his comments before hitting submit?

I'm sorry its nearly 9pm and I'am JUST NOW noticing that pirate-esque scowl on the face of Peter Moore in that pic.

Well, if you didn't leave Microsoft, this could've happened quicker...

I'm sorry, but it's only 3:20 pm, and I can't figure out how I'm reading comments from the future.

Time zones, genius.

OMFG!!! TIME ZONES?!

Ahh, the Internet. There's always a few people who take everything at face value unless (/sarcasm) is included.

or are they being doubly sarcastic? OR AM I BEING TRIPLY SARCASTIC? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING SARCASTIC OR NOT BEING SARCASTIC

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS

It's not really 'on demand' more 'hey can i have this please? yeah ill wait'.

I'll welcome DD fully when the god damn internet inferstructure in the UK gets a whole lot better.

Depends on how fast your internet connection is, I suppose.

It also depends on what you're downloading. World of Goo or Osmos? Yeah, for most people they'd consider that on demand. Red Faction: Guerrilla? Not so much.

It's good to see that competition exists for online distribution. Which will hopefully force them to drop prices to reasonable levels.

Also I'd like to add that Microsoft has a lot of work ahead of them if they are serious about this. Steam is going to be what Gamestop is to games at retail.

How about, Microsoft, you just bring over games like Fable 2, Gears of War 2, the GTA4 DLC? PC owners of GTA4 can see the TLAD achievements in the November 10th update, where is the official announcement?

Steam and other competition has you licked on the On Demand here on the PC front, you'll be way more successful on the 360 side where you are the monopoly.

Now Gearsoft can shut up about Valve having a "monopoly."

There are hundreds of companies that could easily try to set up a service to rival Steam. Many have, and given Microsoft's recent string of failures with regard to PC gaming - I doubt this will be the one to give them any serious competition.

Valve's monopoly would bother me if they weren't just so damn good at making a great service in Steam. And because nobody can match that, it looks like the monopoly is going to continue until someone can figure out a way to offer more.

"The move puts Microsoft up against Valve's digi-distribution service"
I love being able to tie my GoW account with my XBL account and adding achievements for both, but it is really no competition unless Microsoft learns from Valve's constant deals.

Oh, and hopefully if they do learn from Valve, they pass that knowledge to the 360 games on demand.

Hahaha..."deal" and "Microsoft" togher is like mashing "quality" and "whore" into the same point in time and space.

How about they learn from Valve and make XBL free for all.

Fuck me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't free XBL translate to more users = more sales from On Demand Games, Online-oriented games and the likes?

I could be talking out of my ass here though, I tend to do that quite a bit at times.

Not yet, but Microsoft has more reach than any company other than steam in the Digital Dist. business, since they have a quite a few games that require a Live account to access certain features. They've relaxed too long for the past two years since they were worried about selling 360's, and now Valve's share of the market has grown significantly. It's an uphill battle for a while, but i think in time they'll be a viable comptetitor. It's amazing that it took them so long to get the ball rolling.

Personally, i only want one Digital Dist. system Steam usually has everything i need. Good deals or not, i'd rather not spend money on multiple services when Steam has just about the same titles. But what separates Microsoft from the other DD platforms is that Live is readily available to so many people, in that migrating shouldn't be an issue. I already have an Live account for Gears Of War PC, so it should be hassle free.

If there's anything exciting to come out of this news, maybe MS will start a huge push by announcing 360 exclusive ports to the PC like Halo 3 & GoW2.

I would want MS to bring over 360 games, but I won't be surprise if they don't.

I look forward to the inevitable ass raping Microsoft shall receive from Steam, before it buys them out....

will never happen, go fuck yourself mario.

Valve buy Microsoft?

You do realize what Microsoft is right?

Why would valve buy microsoft? I meant the other way round, Steam for 360?

Valve is a private company, they cannot be bought out unless they really want to be, and I can't see gaben letting that happen.

Actually Microsoft has been selling full games (XBLA) for a long time on the XBox360 platform. Its just uniting the backend across the platforms. GFWL & the XBox has the same backend and Microsoft has been further consolidating it.

until they have CRAZY sales like Steam, I'm going to have to pass

Could be kind of good if all the games on the service incorporate achievements on GFWL that tie in with your overall gamerscore.

That's really the only thing I wish Steam would do. Aside from the in-game rewards, Steam achievements are pretty pointless.

So you're telling me Xbox Achievements serve a greater purpose?

No, he's saying what is the point of GFWL if the main features of XBL (chat, achievements, friend lists, etc) don't carry over to the Windows equivalent?

I don't see how in steam achievements are any more pointless than live achievements.

I definately thing it would be great incentive to buy a game through GFWL if I would still have things like party chat with my friends on the 360. It would also be nice if more games supported cross-platform online play.

Steam achievements are just not as good, in my opinion, because they don't contribute to any larger body of work (for lack of a better term). They aren't regulated for "value" and there isn't an easy way to see how many achievements a person has gotten.

I think that is what makes Steam achievement better. Because there isn't an overall gamerscore, what a person does for achievements is for himself only. Unlike on Xbox Live, where you have achievement whores trying to get the highest gamerscore for their e-peen (or on the flip side, people grinding achievements for feeling lthe lack of their e-peen).

I agree with unknown. On XBLA people grind achievements instead of just enjoying the game, just so that they can say their completely pointless gamerscore is bigger. On steam, in order to want to complete an achievement it has to be rewarding and fun on it's own, which is the whole point of achievements in my eyes. I remember achievement grinders absolutely ruining gears of war for a while, every game I joined was full of people telling me to stop playing the game and start taking turns with sniper headshots so we could get achievements. What a horrible way to play a game.

Microsoft fail.

Steam is avaliable and accepts my international credit card on Brazil, using my brazilian address.

Games for Windows Live just don't accept brazilian logins (only using fake country/address) and does not sell Microsoft Points on that way (MS do ZIP check and my credit cards does not authorize these transations.)

Give it a name change first

Microsoft Windows Games For Windows Live Live Live Live

Visual Games on Demand Business 2010 Market Place with MSDN Professional, now part of MSN Games for Windows Live .NET Ultimate 7 featuring Bing search

The only way this could be successful is if they radically overhaul GFWL software. At the moment, it's extremely slow with likewise slow functionality.

Only advantage I see is if you have a Gamertag you can get your achievements associated with that etc. etc. otherwise... no.

This is an extremely crowded market with Steam at the top and the others just jumping on whatever scraps they can manage. What the hell does Microsoft hope to accomplish with this move?

Actually, only way I see this working is if Microsoft flexes its considerable muscles and forces publishers/devs to release via GFWL instead of via Steam. At least for games which are cross-platform release with the 360.

They can also make every GFWL titles be releases on GFW only, as well as spend some buying "exclusivity" for GFW (but I doubt it).

I wonder if this means we'll start seeing more than ten games use GFWL. Because right now the selection is kind of. . .lacking.

Games for Windows Live: Games on Demand? Isn't that a bit excessive?

You know, I'd be much more likely to use GFWL if I could play any XBLA game I've bought on my PC.

Now, we will see how fucked up digital distribution can be in the wrong hands.

Cross platform Uno get!!!

Oh, yay. Now I can pay the same obscene prices on the PC that I do on the console! (not).

When they want 20 for PDZ, and a used copy is 4.99...fail.

Someone confirm this for me: World of Goo will have achievements?

Expect Microsoft to price their stuff higher than everyone else, and never drop their prices. Maybe temporarily, but then they'll go back to high priced.

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Games for Windows Live adding Games on Demand beginning Dec. 15

Reader Comments (59)

Posted: Dec 3rd 2009 3:35PM Peter Moore said

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