Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

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Animalor
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Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Animalor »

http://kotaku.com/5027826/gfw-live-goes ... 1-unveiled
The move to free means that achievements, enhanced "truskill" matchmaking, cross-platform play with the Xbox 360, voice and text chat, friends lists, are all now free to Windows gamers.
I'm not particularly sure how this makes me feel to be honest. Here I am paying for a service that people who buy the same games for Windows will be getting for free, AND using their gamertags, AND earning achievements...

I'm trying to grasp what 360 owners get out of this other than the low cost of ownership to get the same graphical details..
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

Maybe people might actually use Windows Live now....








Probably not
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

But seriously... there are hundreds of xbox games that use Xbox live.
There are exactly 8 Windows games currently available that use Windows Live.





Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative was a colossal fucking flop.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Boogahz »

miir wrote:Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative was a colossal fucking flop.
How has Games for Windows failed? Are you once again referring to Games for Windows - Live which is something else and the subject of this thread?
ABOUT GAMES FOR WINDOWS

You already know that Windows is a phenomenal gaming platform - the most popular gaming platform on the planet, in fact! That's why you're here.

But what you may not know is that Microsoft and some of the gaming industry's biggest names have worked together to make the gaming experience on Windows better than ever. And Games for Windows is the result. What is Games for Windows? It's a promise of games that deliver the great new gaming experiences on Windows.


The Games for Windows brand on games means four key things:

1) Quality. Games for Windows branded titles undergo extensive testing, and not just by the publisher. Microsoft also invests in quality checking each title to ensure they meet performance and reliability standards.

2) Compatibility. Games for Windows branded titles work on Windows XP and Windows Vista based PCs, including both 32 and 64 bit editions. Games for Windows titles that support controllers are also compatible with the Microsoft XBOX 360 controller for Windows, including the XBOX 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. They even support widescreen resolutions and more.

3) Safety features. You can be confident that any title carrying the Games for Windows brand will support the new parental controls and family settings features in Windows Vista.

4) Easy to Play. Games for Windows branded titles are easy to install, find and remove, especially in Windows Vista. Every Games for Windows title appears in the new Windows Vista Games Explorer (no more hunting around the start menu for that game you just installed). And Games for Windows branded titles all offer some form of “easy install”, putting you in the game more quickly.

Why are these important? Because Games for Windows is all about letting you focus on the FUN.

Many great titles already carry the Games for Windows branding with many more on the way in 2008. Be assured of these great new gaming experiences by looking for Games for Windows branded titles.

Thanks for stopping by. And have FUN!
Your normal bitchfest about matchmaking and a "for pay" service are about Games for Windows - Live.

Free multiplayer is just the beginning.

Introducing Games for Windows – LIVE, the free gaming service built for Windows that makes great Windows games even better. With Games for Windows – LIVE, you get an online identity – called a gamertag – and a friends list that works across multiple games, the XBOX 360, and even the Zune music service. You can easily find and communicate with your friends online with text and voice chat. Earn achievements and Gamerscore that lets you track and compare your accomplishments.

Play multiplayer games with your friends, or play against new opponents online using our exclusive TrueSkill™ matchmaking system – with other Windows® players or with or against XBOX 360 players (in supported games.)

All of this is possible today – and at no charge.

And it gets even better.

Every Games for Windows- LIVE game carries the Games for Windows branding, which means they meet standards for quality, consistency, safety, and ease of play. Games for Windows games are tested to support wide-screen monitors, 64-bit operating systems, parental controls, and, in appropriate games, the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows.

Games for Windows – LIVE lets you add achievements and gamerscore earned in Windows games to your XBOX LIVE account. You can also chat and message your friends on LIVE, regardless of the platform.

The stability and functionality of the Xbox LIVE service provides Games for Windows – LIVE players with a constant, feature-rich platform that already supports a community of over 12 million gamers. Come join the fun!

And - Games for Windows – LIVE will soon be the best place to download additional content for your favorite games, from game trailers to playable demos to new maps and levels. Extending your game experience will be easy with Games for Windows – LIVE.

To sum it up:

• Games for Windows – LIVE makes great Windows games even better, now offering completely free online multiplayer including TrueSkill™ matchmaking

• 1 gamertag, 1 friends list, 1 list of achievements and gamerscore for your Windows-based PC & Xbox 360
• Experience cross-platform gameplay with Universe at War, Lost Planet: Colonies, Shadowrun, and more.
• Games for Windows – LIVE is available in every country and region supported today by Xbox LIVE®

Note: Games for Windows – LIVE requires a broadband internet connection.

New games are adding Games for Windows – LIVE every month.
There are also 11 games using Games for Windows - Live, not just 8 :shock:

• Battlestations™: Pacific
• The Club™
• Fallout® 3
• Gears of War® for Windows
• Halo® 2 for Windows Vista
• Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
• Lost Planet™ Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition
• Shadowrun™
• Universe at War™: Earth Assault
• Viva Piñata™ for Windows
• Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

How has Games for Windows failed? Are you once again referring to Games for Windows - Live which is something else and the subject of this thread?
There was ZERO mention of Games for Windows in any Microsoft press conference at E3.
There has been basically zero advertising Games for Windows for the past 12+ months.
The entire marketing push behind Games for Windows just fizzled out after 6 months.

Live was a big part of Microsoft's plan for Games for Windows.
Both developers and gamers shunned Windows Live


There are also 11 games using Games for Windows - Live, not just 8
3 of those games don't even exist.
I was even being charitable when I included Shadowrun.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Animalor »

I'm fairly confident that with Game for Windows now being free, a lot of developpers that are making games for Xbox 360/PC will start embracing it.

How much more simple will this make their lives when they can just open up Visual Studio, Click File -> Export -> PC, then File -> Export -> Xbox 360 without changing their code... (I'm wildly oversimplifying obviously since most PC games will probably include Live as well as other PC MP options but you get what I'm aiming at.)

Games for Windows didn't fizzle out as can be demonstrated by http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Ga ... talog.aspx, Microsoft just went into Media clampdown while they worked on improving and raffining the service. They're doing this across the corporation too.
Just look at the amount of knowledge out there on Zune software, Xbox Updates (pre-E3 that is), Windows 7 or Windows Mobile 7. Until they have something solid to say about an upcoming product or initiative, they don't say a thing anymore.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by noel »

How has 'Games for Windows Failed' ?

When's the last time 'Games for Windows' as a differentiator for you or anyone when buying a game?
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Spang »

I only purchase 'Games for Linux' games.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Boogahz »

miir wrote:
How has Games for Windows failed? Are you once again referring to Games for Windows - Live which is something else and the subject of this thread?
There was ZERO mention of Games for Windows in any Microsoft press conference at E3.
There has been basically zero advertising Games for Windows for the past 12+ months.
The entire marketing push behind Games for Windows just fizzled out after 6 months.

Live was a big part of Microsoft's plan for Games for Windows.
Both developers and gamers shunned Windows Live


There are also 11 games using Games for Windows - Live, not just 8
3 of those games don't even exist.
I was even being charitable when I included Shadowrun.
come on...you can do eet! Games for Windows does not equal Games for Windows - Live. Games for Windows was ALWAYS free. Games for Windows - Live was NOT.

What three games do not exist?

When WAS there advertising of Games for Windows?

Once again, how has something which you obviously can't keep straight in your own head failed? Could it have been your own head failing?
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by noel »

If you have a marketing campaign that's not a differentiator for realizing revenue, THEN IT HAS FUCKING FAILED.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Boogahz »

noel wrote:If you have a marketing campaign that's not a differentiator for realizing revenue, THEN IT HAS FUCKING FAILED.
But what you may not know is that Microsoft and some of the gaming industry's biggest names have worked together to make the gaming experience on Windows better than ever. And Games for Windows is the result. What is Games for Windows? It's a promise of games that deliver the great new gaming experiences on Windows.
Where was it used as a marketing campaign? AFAIK, it has only been used to show which games were developed to meet the criteria listed in the earlier quote.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Animalor »

The whole GFW-Live is really irking me right now.

They'll get to play for free on my dime on my service, adding congestion(if this takes off that is). Plus I'm the one that has to suffer the ads in the dashboard.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Fash »

If that's your idea of suffering, it's no wonder you're a liberal.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Animalor »

Fash wrote:If that's your idea of suffering, it's no wonder you're a liberal.
I don't remember ever really participating in any political debates on VV or offering any views on this board that would classify me as either a liberal or a conservative..

But hey, knock yourself out judging other people if it makes you feel good.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Fairweather Pure »

Animalor wrote:But hey, knock yourself out judging other people if it makes you feel good.
I'm not sure how it makes him feel, but it sure qualifies him as a republican!
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Nick »

and an idiot.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Fash »

I just thought it sounded funny.

But hey, knock yourself out judging other people if it makes you feel good.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

Animalor wrote:The whole GFW-Live is really irking me right now.

They'll get to play for free on my dime on my service, adding congestion(if this takes off that is). Plus I'm the one that has to suffer the ads in the dashboard.
It should have been irking you to pay money for a service that should have been free all along.

Look at the PC games that actually use Live.
The Club: Total crap game that probably sold less than 100k units on the PC.
Gears of War: The only decent game that uses Live. Too bad PC got it year after the Xbox.
Halo 2: PC gamers had to wait nearly 2 and a half years for this shitty port. This game tanked. Nobody played it.
Kane and Lynch: Another crap shooter that nobody bought.
Lost Planet: Colonies Edition: The original PC release sold poorly. This edition (12 months later) has some nice additions but nothing to warrant buying the game again.
Shadowrun: Tanked. I tried it last night and found only a handful of servers.
Universe At War: I don't know much at all about this game other than it's a RTS.
Viva Pinata: This game is a buggy piece of shit on the PC.

So there is one decent game for Windows Live players...
The rest are either awful games and/or xbox ports released 12-18 months after the original.

I doubt that the few hundred people who are actually using Windows Live are causing too much congestion on your servers.

You'd be hard pressed to justify charging players 6-10 dollars a month to play 8 (mostly crappy) games online. That's 8 games in the 18 months since the launch of Windows Live.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Animalor »

miir wrote:
Animalor wrote:The whole GFW-Live is really irking me right now.

They'll get to play for free on my dime on my service, adding congestion(if this takes off that is). Plus I'm the one that has to suffer the ads in the dashboard.
It should have been irking you to pay money for a service that should have been free all along.

Look at the PC games that actually use Live.
The Club: Total crap game that probably sold less than 100k units on the PC.
Gears of War: The only decent game that uses Live. Too bad PC got it year after the Xbox.
Halo 2: PC gamers had to wait nearly 2 and a half years for this shitty port. This game tanked. Nobody played it.
Kane and Lynch: Another crap shooter that nobody bought.
Lost Planet: Colonies Edition: The original PC release sold poorly. This edition (12 months later) has some nice additions but nothing to warrant buying the game again.
Shadowrun: Tanked. I tried it last night and found only a handful of servers.
Universe At War: I don't know much at all about this game other than it's a RTS.
Viva Pinata: This game is a buggy piece of shit on the PC.

So there is one decent game for Windows Live players...
The rest are either awful games and/or xbox ports released 12-18 months after the original.

I doubt that the few hundred people who are actually using Windows Live are causing too much congestion on your servers.

You'd be hard pressed to justify charging players 6-10 dollars a month to play 8 (mostly crappy) games online. That's 8 games in the 18 months since the launch of Windows Live.
I could understand why developpers wouldn't build this functionality in their titles with the way Games for Windows Live was setup previously but now that they can essentially build their games and make even less changes to their code to include multiplayer, I'm expecting quite a few more titles that are released on the 360 and the PC to make use of this. Microsoft will always favor the xbox with 12-18 months lead on the PC version but 3rd parties will most likely ship day and date.

I'm dreading the day when the next Infinity Ward CoD game ships and it is cross-platform with the Xbox over GFW - Live.

You're exclusively a PC gamer right? If you had the option of playing a game on dedicated servers or using GFW-Live with the gamertags and all the other MS gaming garnish, which would you use?
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by Funkmasterr »

I have no problem paying for live.. and if I used a PC more than my xbox I would consider using Games for windows Live. If it was free, that would just make me more likely to use it.

I pay for xbox live every month, but with that I get the best video game/media/everything network you can get on a console with tons of features. It also almost never has issues (I can think of maybe 2 times in the years I've had my 360), and when it does, they resolve them so fast it doesn't really matter. That's what I pay for, and no one else provides an experience that can even hold a match to xbox live.

People bitching about paying for it is hilarious.

I can see being frustrated about the lack of games for the pc version of live, but I'm sure that will change down the road, especially if it's going to be free.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

You're exclusively a PC gamer right? If you had the option of playing a game on dedicated servers or using GFW-Live with the gamertags and all the other MS gaming garnish, which would you use?
No, I own a couple of consoles but I do the majority of online gaming on my PC.

When I play TF2 and ETQW, there are specific servers that I play on. They are lag free and annoying players a kicked and/or banned. I spend very little time muting/ignoring other players and more time playing.

With Windows/Xbox Live, there is too much randomness to what kind of server I'll end up on and the sheer quantity of annoying little shits who sing, swear, whine or just yap nonstop really annoys me. It seems like in every game I have to mute/ignore some moron.

I really don't give a crap about my gamertag, gamerscore or the other bells and whistles that come with Live.
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Re: Games for Windows Live - Yeah that's going to be free now..

Post by miir »

if I used a PC more than my xbox I would consider using Games for windows Live. If it was free, that would just make me more likely to use it.
I used the Windows Live service for several months... They give you a free month when you buy a game and because I bitched to them about the problems with Shadowrun on release, they comp'd me two free months. There is absolutely nothing about the Windows Live service that justifies a monthly fee.

8 games in 18 months that use Windows Live.
That's pathetic.
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