If your a PC gamer you’ve probably heard of Games For WIndows Live by now. It’s Microsoft’s PC answer to Xbox Live. Trouble is, XBL is awesome and GfWL is monkey poo. Charging PC gamers for things that had always been free (and still are through any number of services and titles) was stupid. Hyping cross-platform play, without one single AAA game to show it off, or even prove that anyone besides MS had an interest in it, was also really stupid. Well apparently the smell of monkey feces has finally reached some of the right nostrils because GfWL is now free!

Join with me to applaud their ability to use that mysterious thing we like to call “common sense.”

Check out all the details after the jump!

Microsoft made the big announcement at the 2008 Gamefest event yesterday. GfWL will now be free to use for developers, publishers and the gaming community. Before developers and publishers had to pay to use GfWL, but now they can do so for free AND take advantage of Microsoft’s matchmaking servers for free as well.

What do gamers get? Hold on to your seats…what used to be GfWL’s Gold membership features! That’s right, now multiplayer achievements, matchmaking, cross-platform play and more are now free for everyone!

Before gamers could use GfWL for free using the Silver membership, but the service boxed you in to one gamertag, single-player only achievements, no ranked matches etc… If you wanted that stuff, you know, the stuff that has been available and free for PC gamers for almost two decades now (achievements and cross-platform play notwithstanding), you had to pay $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year.

Microsoft Entertainment’s devices division CTO Chris Satchell has said that the change will “…improve Windows gaming,” which is code for “restoring it to the way PC gaming has always been.”

Nothing GfWL does is really all that new. Except for achievements and cross-platform play, all GfWL does is create an XBL type feel for their GfW branded titles. Everyone knows my opinion of achievements but I’ll acknowledge that they may be cool to some, but as far as cross-platform goes, I’ll wait until they have at least one AAA game that takes advantage of it and does not automatically seed the advantage to PC gamers. Play UaW on PC, then play it on 360, and try to tell me it would be fair.

Things like in-game voice chat and text, ranked matches, robust lobbies and ladders etc… have existed for years either as part of an individual title or through an online service.

MS did not stop at making GfWL free, oh no, they also announced a new Marketplace, which lets you get access to free and paid DLC. Again, since I doubt very much that PC demo’s and such will not be available through the million other places a PC gamer could turn, I’m once more bringing out the “golf clap.” PC gamers ARE NOT CONSOLE GAMERS! We are not locked in like you are with a 360 (not a knock), we can pay to download movies, shows, demo’s and games already from numerous easy to use sources.

Last but not least, MS has finally realized that the GfWL UI is a MASSIVE pile of monkey poo. A redesigned UI will launch later this year. Satchell admitted that “the first UI was good but was too console-centric. We took what we know and converted it to Windows, but it wasn’t what windows gamers wanted.”

First off the first UI was so far from good I can’t believe he did not choke on the word and second of all, “DUH” it was not what PC gamers wanted. The original GfWL UI makes the PS3’s online setup look like freakin wonderland!

Satchell also said “…if there was ever a time to get into Windows gaming with Games for Windows Live, this is the time to do it.”

You mean now that you have offered us stuff that should always have been free, introduced a marketplace which I seriously doubt will be able to compete against the numerous other places PC gamers can turn to any time soon and that you “plan” to fix one of the worst UI’s in recent memory. Yeah dude, now IS the time to get into Windows gaming.

*Standing golf clap*

All GfWL does is put everything in one place, and here is where I have to do a bit of a turn-around. Having one centralized setup for the majority of big name PC games would be cool. Steam is alright, but not perfect (though a hell of a lot better than GfWL has been so far). A centralized and robust PC gaming marketplace for games and demo’s would be sweet. In-game voice chat and text, “truskill” matchmaking, all that stuff would be cool through one easy to use location. Even though I have been christened a PS3 fanboy by many an Xbot, XBL really is pretty great and a PC-ish version would be welcome…if it was done well. To date it has been horrific and until they can prove that it’s not, services like Steam and X-Fire will still be heavily used by PC gamers. There’s a reason why the most technically impressive PC game of last year, Crysis (which IS under the Games For Windows label) didn’t even bother using GfWL but instead offered the Comrade software. For shame!

If and when GfWL comes into it’s stride I will be the very first one to “honestly” applaud and take advantage of it, it’s a good idea. Just don’t expect me to applaud MS’s ability to correct its own mistakes or it’s promises of great things to come. Not when, unlike the 360, you don’t have total control of the platform.

Clap… Clap… Clap.

Source: Kotaku & IGN

Popularity: 1% [?]