PC gamers can now give Microsoft's Games for Windows – LIVE service another look. One of the biggest gripes among PC gamers was the $50 annual subscription fee to LIVE which enabled all of the online gaming features like unrestricted online multiplayer, achievements, stats, and more. At launch, PC gamers were wondering why they needed to pay $50 to play Halo 2 or Shadowrun online.
Now the LIVE service is free on the PC. This should sit very well with PC gamers who have been used to free online gaming for decades.
Microsoft also seems to be getting a clue from Steam. Microsoft is planning to digitally distribute game content online through the LIVE service.
Is this a step towards Microsoft distributing games via digital download like what is already being done on Steam?
Through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace gamers can download Arcade games and some original XBOX titles. During E3, Microsoft announced that XBOX 360 owners will be able to install games to their hard drives (however the game disc must physically be in the disc drive to launch the game).
Like always, the PC version of LIVE is playing catchup to the XBOX version. However this is a step in the right direction for both versions.
I say give Microsoft some time to build up the license ownership mechanism into the LIVE ID's and we'll see full up Xbox 360 and PC titles distributed through Xbox LIVE and perhaps other outlets (like on the Zune marketplace, LIVE.com, and MSN.com).
Sure, it's a lot of bandwidth to download, say, Halo 3. But A) Steam seems to be doing it just fine without charging for the service, B) Xbox LIVE Gold users are paying $50 a year for the service, and C) Microsoft saves money on packaging and shipping by offering digital downloads.
It's my take that Microsoft still has a lot of work to do to make Games for Windows – LIVE attractive to PC gamers. For one, they need developers to adopt the service. While many companies are adapting to the "Games for Windows" standardization, very few are using LIVE for online networking.
To date, there are only 10 games that support LIVE on the PC. Third party developers are doing just fine without adopting Microsoft's LIVE standards. In fact, Value's Steam is thriving as it hosts many of PC's most popular First Person Shooter titles and those games' online matching, servers, achievements, full game downloads, mods, and etc.
Without a game selection, there's less reach into the PC gamers' library.
Microsoft is also competing with Xfire which runs both on the desktop and in-game. LIVE only runs inside certain PC games and the current user interface was designed by use with an XBOX 360 controller. Xfire allows for voice and text chat, stats tracking, joining of parties, game downloads, patches, and more. Best of all, Xfire is free, used by over 7 million gamers, and supports most popular PC games.
It's been over a year since Games for Windows LIVE was launched. I welcome the new changes. I believe changes like these will encourage third party developers to build their games for the LIVE network.
