RF Generation Message Board

Games for Windows — LIVE will connect Windows gamers to over six million gamers already in the Xbox LIVE community. Then, launching in June, “Shadowrun™” will for the first time connect Windows gamers with Xbox 360™ players in cross-platform matches using a single service. “UNO®,” releasing later in 2007, will also support cross-platform play between Windows and Xbox 360.

Gold memberships will deliver the premium online network experience for $49.95 (U.S.) per year. Current Xbox LIVE Gold members will automatically have access to Gold features on Games for Windows — LIVE titles........READ MORE (http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/03/14/542900.aspx)

Screw Microsoft. Games For Windows Live is probably the worst idea I've ever heard in my life.

At least MS had the decency to keep PC to PC multiplayer free, but God knows that probably won't last too long, especially with these being exclusive to GFWL Gold...

• Multiplayer matchmaking with friends
• Cross-platform gameplay

So, you can certainly have a friends list with Silver, but no, you can't set up a multiplayer match with them directly.

I just hope XFire will be able to combat Microsoft's money hungry Games For Windows machine.

This is dangerous new ground which could make or break certain games. That or it'll be ignored in which case it'll be shoved down Vista owners throats somehow I'm sure. If they want to make money off PC players, they'll find a way. Wait until they have to start paying for pics, wallpapers, and screensavers. Then Gold members start getting demos weeks before silver ones do lol.

Since I don't  play games on the PC all that much I don't really care.

Tondog your response is what I excepted.

Per usual, M$ suXX and will probably turn the internet into a mess.

Hooah for @pple, even though I'm starting to hate them too!

Tynstar, I was a PC gamer for the longest time, and I still am at heart. It just makes me sad to see it fading away like this and made more console-like.

I agree it is fading but it could be good if it get people into PC gaming again.

It might be, but I don't know that it will please longtime PC gamers.

I agree but MS isn't trying to get them. They want new blood.

I don't know that releasing ports of games over 2 years after they came out is a good way of attracting new people.

You can hardly blame Microsoft for the lack of variety as far as PC games are concerned. Besides that Shadowrun will be the first to use this service anyhow.

If anything some games will have an increased user base to matchmake from. Imagine playing C&C3 with webcams to match 360's with Live cams.

And of course, Leon also chimed in with his $.02.

It's been a known fact that both Sony and Microsoft are fighting over cyberspace. That was one of the reasons that Microsoft created the xbox1 in the first place. They were seeing that PS2 was attacting online gameplay away from PC-gameplay in cyberspace. In order to get some of that back, Microsoft released the Xbox and Xbox live.

The battle rages on in the next-gen. Sony is still keeping their online play free (for now) while Microsoft is trying to integrate consoles with PC gamers (for a fee).

Shadowrun, imo, is a strage proposal. As a console gamer, if I'm going to buy a game, it wouldn't be Shadowrun because I'd also want a single-player game available to play through. Since, there's only online multiplayer, I would never buy it for full price, even if it was the highest rated game of all time. PC gamers may disagree. And the game may be a hit...but I've no interest in it because of it's limited offline capabilities. Again...that's just 1 console gamer's $.02.

Nintendo is smart. They are selling the most consoles. They're not engrossed in the cyberspace war (but they should get to online gaming sooner rather than later, imo). They're not engrossed in the video format war. They're not engrossed in the HD war. And in doing so they've carved out a good-sized market share along the way. They did their homework and are satisfied with their results.

The cyberspace war will continue, for sure. And even though they're charging a fee, Microsoft still has the lead. Sony's free service may serve it's fan-base, but is not serving the casual gamer, and likely won't expand its reach until the console drops in price significantly (guessing 2009 or later). Nintendo is going to be last to the party, but the smartest thing they've done is focus on family gaming and offline content. Major selling points, imo! I still enjoy offline multiplayer more than online, and it's great to play system link games in the same living room while killing your buds.

Looks like the consumer is going to get whatever system and capabilities make them happy (and they feel are worth paying for) with the next gen of consoles and PC gaming. And if the consumer is happy, everyone wins.

I didn't even notice Leon posted.

Leon, when you take that approach, do you realize that it makes you sound like a Sony fanboy? Can you please put your argument into a more objective, well thought out analysis?

If they wanted to keep PC gaming on the internet alive, then why did they go and make their own little console?

That's been done for a long time now. Even as far back as Dreamcast and Quake 3.

How do you say it's not serving the casual gamer?! Have you even tried the PS3 online service? It's close to XBox Live in capability. Plus it will have an added advantage over Live once PS Home Launches this fall.

Either way, I'm just happy MS decided to keep PC to PC gameplay free.

It's got very little to do with gaming actually. Microsoft does allot of good and bad things but one of their betters things they do is see into the future and plan for it.

The whole reason they got into the console business is because they knew the line between PC and entertainment hubs were merging. They started with the Dreamcast and also had TV set top boxes, web surfing via TV and others pojects.

They saw Sony as homing in on that with the PS2 and decided that they had better get into the market before they lost the race. That's also why they didn't really care about the losses taken with the Xbox. They were looking at the long-term advantages of being established into the market versus short term profits. Here we are 10 years after they started this philosophy of thinking with consoles that surf the web, play movies, music, pics, chat with friends, and these are merging with handheld devices, phones and finally PC's. So they definately read the cards right on this one.

I personally don't care much for that philosophy or most of those features but I'm very much in the monority.

My point is that I consider myself a casual gamer (and I know I'm not alone). And from multiple sales associates I've asked, the PS3 console sales have dropped significantly since the new year. Likely to the $600 price per their estimation (They also added that they cannot keep Wii's in stock and that 360 is outselling PS3.).

A casual (I repeat...CASUAL) gamer doesn't want to spend $600 on a console! Therefore, no matter how capable Sony's online service is, like I said before, it serves their fan base, but not a CASUAL gamer becasue a casual gamer wont care about it. They see $600 and they walk away.

@Tan, thanks for the additional history.

I am not a Sony fanboy in the sense that I camped out for three weeks waiting for my PS3. I don't have a PS3, it will probably be a long time before I get a PS3. However, nothing ever indicated to me that I should, all of the sudden, start hating Sony like seemingly 95% of the online gaming community started too. As I have said many times Sony delivered to my gaming wants and needs in the past with a system that was superior to the rest and I see no reason to believe that this is not the case this time around. PS3, unfortunately, was released too soon, they should have waited till the time to release a true next gen console was right. They should have released it with some games people wanted. It was indeed a poorly run release of the PS3 and the swarms of anti-Sony people just made it seem that much worse.

You know my views on M$. I've always hated Microsoft, I was raised to hate Microsoft, from using Microsoft's products I have come to hate Microsoft. I only use a PC because I am a gamer and gaming on other OS's sucks.

But M$, with PCs, continues to make crappy software. I mean how often must one reformat his MAC OS? What's that? Oh, that's right, NEVAR!!!!

Their consoles suck, X-Box only stayed alive, and even then losing the company a few billion $, because of a mediocre first person shooter.

The 360 is simply not a next gen system. The 360 is an upgrade system, more like X-box 1.5 than X-Box 2.

And, as a primarily PC gamer, I don't want consoles messing with my system. Wasn't everyone all pissed because PS3 was being marketed "too much like a computer"? Of course now that M$ is trying to connect the two systems you praise them, and pay them $50 bucks for it. Fucking weird if you ask me. You were all against congress trying to create the l337 interweb weren't you? Well this is one step closer to that.

At the very least I see an even further decline in the quality of PC games if this catches on. Crappy quick ports will become the norm and all so we can play with sweaty palmed console gamers ;) (woo hoo for PC on Console racism!!). I just pray they keep WoW console users on separate servers from PC players, although pwning people playing with console controllers would be entertaining.

You post Swiss cheese like that and say your not a hardcore fanboy, your a man with many contradictions.  :laugh:

That's my opinion, how does my opinion make me a fanboy?

You can't put a system down based on personal opinion alone and not expect to become a fanboy. This is the least fanboyish thread we've ever seen you in, that alone says something.  :o

I bloody well can put a system down and I expect not to become a fanboy.

As I have stated time and time again I am not a Sony fanboy in the sense that you would think of a Sony fanboy. I defend Sony against all of you most likely for the reason that I like to argue about things, but also, as I have stated time and time again, I was treated well by Sony in the past and I don't see any reason not to support them. In the face of all your anti-Sonyness my small support of the company must just appear overwhelming.

I don't dislike the X-box for any other reason than that I have played it and I don't like it. I was not impressed at all with the capabilities of the 360. Windows is the crappiest OS on the market.

Perhaps I'm just an anti-M$ fanboy. I don't have any real problem with Nintendo, although I think the Wii is a gimmick and Gamecube was marketed horribly.

Haha I must be a trend setter, as I started hating Sony many years back ;D

This really depends if you mean superior by success and user base, or on a technical level in which case the PS1 & PS2 were not ;)
PS3, well yep, it really is the more powerful of the "systems" now. No one can possible deny it, it is a real graphics pusher.

As if anyone thought the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system is being marketed like a computer..... oh wait haha.
But to be honest I think it wasn't the fact Sony is marketing it like a computer, but more of how they are marketing it as a computer replacement, and have been quoted numerously saying with a PS3, there is no need to have a computer.

But lets be honest people, Leon isn't a Sony fan boy. I can't agree with this. He was the 1st to post about how crap the PS3 launch ads were, and simply doesn't like what else is up for offer. I don't like all 3 options, and have become an old skool gamer because of it. Sony is simply his gaming platform of choice.

The thing I can truly agree with what Leon just said however "Windows is the crappiest OS on the market."
An OS that is so riddled with security holes (one caused by Sony and their music CDs even (http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6376177-1.html)), viruses, spyware, adware, and things that need to be fixed even a decade after shouldn't even be allowed on the market. As if having to defrag and format a computer should be common place.

By superior I meant, again, in my opinion. It had the games I wanted.

No I am I started hating Sony 4-5 years ago. When PS2 started breaking down like crazy and they did nothing about it. Also when they started to do no package deals around Christmas like MS and Nintendo did. Yeah I know they had a huge lead but still give a little back to the people that buy your system. I also hate how they over price their TV's and home stereo. I also have stated before I hate Sony for their arrogance.

I don't think Leon is a Sony fanboy. He likes to take the other side of the debate. I do think he is a anti-MS fanboy though.  Mush the same way I am a anti-Sony fanboy.

Looks like Epic is pissed off by Game For Windows as well...

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5157&Itemid=2