@somebody-else: I do as well. If the game is cross-platform, then i always go for PC to get "actual" 1080p resolution on my TV (PC hooked up to my TV). For me, it was worth it to play GOW again on the PC just to see how weak the 360 really is compared to a reasonably priced PC.

If its a 360 exclusive, then i guess i have no choice. But there really is nothing like true 1080P with 4XAA.

diabolusunknown

@somebody-else

I have an Xbox 360 and I do PC gaming. So do many of my PC gaming friends. Xbox 360 for racing games like Forza and also for GTA and exclusives like Dead Rising. Also 360 all the way for sports games. PC is for first person shooters, real time strategy games, flying games (FSX), and even some racing games (GTR).

waterdrop

@waterdrop: Why would someone have an Xbox 360 if they do PC gaming?

somebody-else

Only people that paid for Windows Live Gold where people that had Xbox 360 and also gamed on PC. Cause you could buy one card for $40 and you would have both Windows Live gold and Xbox Live gold.

On another note...WOOT!!! YIPPIE! Now make Xbox Live Gold free too and I'll send Microsoft a my lucky penny.

waterdrop

i shall be firing up halo2 tonight.

Sticky230

Finally! Now to plays Gears of War again on my pc!

Evangelion

Whee, now I can play Halo 2 and wait the who knows how many months until Halo 3 is released for the PC.

DashTheHand

I picked up Universe at War this past weekend, and saw the super lame Game for Windows-Live. I had to look it up, and was shocked. Multiplayer was severely limited without payment. I still might not play online, but its nice to know that all the options are available for free now. What a terrible idea to begin with.

dagwood00

Does this mean I can now play Halo 2 online??!

silomunke

@BaseVilliN: Yea... are we really talking about people paying to play PC games online that aren't MMO like WoW? I've never even heard of this until now, I thought everyone was smart enough to not pay money again (after paying their ISP) to play games online.

ttech10

I'd actually pay for this to play my friends on Xbox Live. However, since the only two games that do this suck, I shall not.

Log1c

So now they're hoping maybe people will use it?

Or know what it is?

Or discover the Games for Windows initiative still exists...

Zazu_Yen

@reiyaku: xbox live is a closed system though. There is no competition or anywhere else for you to go to have a similar service. On the PC the millions of games that already use some players pc's as the server, dedicated player run servers, or services like steam, gamespy, etc...

The Microsoft Zone fell apart for this exact same reason. They tried to charge people for something they may not be using.

pixelfish

they need to do this next to XBox Live

reiyaku

The recent steam advancements have started to make it really difficult to get developers to want to put games into a paid service on top of the money to pay for their game as well.

I still don't understand why they charge for these services seeing as some end client generally is hosting the game on a server for them.

pixelfish

@BaseVilliN: my thoughts exactly.

hxzero

People paid for that?

BaseVilliN

Then what about XBOX Live Gold?

@Evangelion: I thought that GFW Live was free already, but just that cross-platform play was for pay only.

michaelleung

The lesson here is that if nobody paid for XBL Gold, it too would've been free years ago. The problem is the early adopters just had to have it.

Optimistic Prime

"Since we introduced Games for Windows Live we've listened to developers and to PC gamers and they said look, there's a baseline expectation that multiplayer is a service that is just free on Windows; that is just how it works."
- Microsoft's Kevin Unangst

Um Kevin, I can all but guarantee if you actually listened to your customers, what they actually said was, "Look, there's a baseline expectation that multiplayer is a service that is just free."

Bluesk1d