GFW Live Multiplayer becomes free (PC)

Since 7343 Days

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168931

At the Gamefest 2008 event on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that all Games for Windows Live multiplayer features are now free. These features -- including multiplayer achievements, matchmaking, cross-platform play with the Xbox 360, GFW voice chat, and more -- previously required a GFW Live Gold account. The change is effective immediately and across all GFW titles, both past and future.

Great to see that this is free now. I don't need to fear Dawn of War 2 multiplayer anymore or at least the costing part. Heh not even Microsoft can make PC players to pay for MP features.

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Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...

Phaethon360

Since 7422 Days

In before Grift's rant.

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Hey, I'm just like you. I put my pants on one leg at a - dammit, I knew I forgot something today.

GriftGFX

Since 7576 Days

No rant needed. It's hilarious that they thought they could charge for it in the first place. It's probably the primary reason that Live Anywhere was dead on arrival in the first place. Well, that and Vista's extremely low adoption rate.

So, where's my XBLA for Windows, with my freely available purchases from the Xbox?

Oh right, that's just another pipe-dream. Well never mind that then, it's time for Epic to hop on board, PLEASE! I would f'n love it if Gears of War 2 for Windows let you play with the Xbox community. How sweet would that be?

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alimokrane

Since 7506 Days

Justice prevails Wooooot!

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Inflatable

Since 8214 Days

I thought PC v PC online gaming was always free, also with Live for Windows (silver).. So what changed really? Do we get crossplatform gaming for free now? That's great, just to bad there're bassicly no games that support it, lol..

Live for Windows in no different from Steam, and that's also free.. You simply cannot charge for stuff like that on the PC.. On consoles they can get away with it because consolegamers are already happy they finally have a good online system in place, but on the PC it's been there for many years already, always been free, always will be..

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GriftGFX

Since 7576 Days

Posted by the1stpostlol

These features -- including multiplayer achievements, matchmaking, cross-platform play with the Xbox 360, GFW voice chat, and more -- previously required a GFW Live Gold account.

But indeed.. no one supports it anyway. Perhaps now that there's no additional fees involved that might change? I don't care if most PC games don't support it anyway. I wouldn't want to play Call of Duty 4 with Xbox 360 users, or on their shitty limited p2p network. Now, something like Gears of War 2 on the other hand, I think that would be pretty neat.. since there won't be much of a PC community to back it anyway.

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Inflatable

Since 8214 Days

Aslong as the difference in controls remains you will not see it happen in a succesfull way.. Simply to difficult to balance it.. Balancing now means downgrading or limiting the PC version, which means bassicly noone will play it on PC, so why bother?

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GriftGFX

Since 7576 Days

Posted by Inflatable

But that's the thing.. if it's a game no one plays on the PC anyway, who cares? I'd play the PC version of Gears 2 online, against Xbox 360 users, if that was the best way to find other players.

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Inflatable

Since 8214 Days

You would maybe, but I doubt a lot of PC gamers would.. Plenty of other good (dare I say better) shooters on PC to play online that are not downgraded in (what's the usual standard on PC in terms of controls with aiming etc) gameplay just to balance it for consolegamers.. So why bother to port a game for the PC if hardly anyone will play (read: buy) it on that platform anyway? It's simply not worth the effort and cost..

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GriftGFX

Since 7576 Days

Er, Gears of War will be ported to Windows regardless of it's GFW compatibility. One of the major complaints about the PC Version of GOW was that there was no one to be found in the multiplayer mode. Perhaps it was another Epic flop, but it's hard to imagine that you can't see the value in populating multiplayer through any means possible. If Gears 2 had a MP community despite itself, it could, in turn, drive up the number of PC sales..

It's all about the big picture. If anyone could understand that, I would expect Epic to. After all, their one of the few major developers left that actually understand how supporting their communities also supports their bottom line. It's win-win.

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Inflatable

Since 8214 Days

I know, but I doubt it will be a succes saleswise.. How many did part 1 sell on PC?

I don't know why they bother, especially for a game designed for a console and released a year after it's initial release on the Xbox 360.. And If they make it crossplatform compatible aswell and thus downgrade the PC version in terms of controls if will be even more of a failure (if that's possible)..

I'll play GoW2 on Xbox 360 anyway despite being a PC FPS gamer.. I don't need the game on PC, since I just play it for the SP and co-op..

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