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Forums - PC Discussion - Games for Windows Live now completely free

salaminizer on 22 July 2008

Game For Windows Live Multiplayer Goes Free, DirextX 11 Unveiled

Games for Windows - Live multiplayer features are free, effective today, Microsoft announced at today's GamesFest 2008 conference in Seattle.

The move to free means that achievements, enhanced "truskill" matchmaking, cross-platform play with the Xbox 360, voice and text chat, friends lists, are all now free to Windows gamers. This change to free is for all Games for Windows LIVE titles, past and future.

Microsoft also announced plans to introduce Games for Windows - Live marketplace this fall, which will include free and paid downloadable game content, demos, trailers and "more." Finally, the company said they are working to streamline the interface for the PC and reduce technical requirements for developers. Too little, too late? Too early to tell, I say.

In other news from GamesFest, DirectX 11 was unveiled.

The company calls DirectX 11 a "big step forward for gaming, adding features onto existing DirectX 10".

Key components of DirectX 11, will include:

o Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows
o Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
o New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
o Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
o Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

http://kotaku.com/5027826/gfw-live-goes-free-directx-11-unveiled

the Crossplay part being free is nice, but I wonder who'll be the first publisher to put out paid content in their marketplace. there are a lot of possibilities, and I'd like to see the reception.



the words above were backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!

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Strategyking92 on 22 July 2008

too late



And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this PS4... And this gaming PC. - The PS4 and the Gaming PC and that's all I need... And this Xbox 360. - The PS4, the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360, and that's all I need... And these PS3's. - The PS4, and these PS3's, and the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360... And this Nintendo DS. - The PS4, this Xbox 360, and the Gaming PC, and the PS3's, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The Gaming PC and PS4, and Xbox 360, and thePS3's . Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need.

Obligatory dick measuring Gaming Laptop Specs: Sager NP8270-GTX: 17.3" FULL HD (1920X1080) LED Matte LC, nVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3, 750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive

SHMUPGurus on 22 July 2008

Announcement about Xbox Live becoming free confirmed? ;)



Random game thought :
Why is Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 getting so much hate? We finally get a real game and they're not even satisfied... I'm starting to hate the gaming community so f****** much...

Watch my insane gameplay videos on my YouTube page!

bobobologna on 22 July 2008

Microsoft has done a great job of alienating PC gamers. Meanwhile, companies like Valve and Stardock have done a great job embracing them. I don't know of any PC gamer who thinks Microsoft actually gives a damn about them. It's pretty clear that their focus is on the XBox360.



thekitchensink on 22 July 2008

@SHMUPGurus: No, it's an announcement that they realized there are better online services for the PC that are free and are pwning them (Steam, Gamespy).



Could I trouble you for some maple syrup to go with the plate of roffles you just served up?

Tag, courtesy of fkusumot: "Why do most of the PS3 fanboys have avatars that looks totally pissed?"
"Ok, girl's trapped in the elevator, and the power's off.  I swear, if a zombie comes around the next corner..."
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konnichiwa on 22 July 2008
SHMUPGurus said:
Announcement about Xbox Live becoming free confirmed? ;)

 

I hope so..






SHMUPGurus on 22 July 2008
thekitchensink said:
@SHMUPGurus: No, it's an announcement that they realized there are better online services for the PC that are free and are pwning them (Steam, Gamespy).

Let's just hope the PS3 gets an even better service then. o_o

 



Random game thought :
Why is Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 getting so much hate? We finally get a real game and they're not even satisfied... I'm starting to hate the gaming community so f****** much...

Watch my insane gameplay videos on my YouTube page!

BenKenobi88 on 22 July 2008

Seriously, DX11 already? We have yet to see much of a benefit of DX10...DX11 better be f'n amazing.

And screw Windows Live, I'm a Steam gamer.



LEFT4DEAD411.COM
Bet with disolitude: Left4Dead will have a higher Metacritic rating than Project Origin, 3 months after the second game's release.  (hasn't been 3 months but it looks like I won :-p )

WiiStation360 on 22 July 2008

Microsoft has been ignoring PC gaming for years, then tries to charge to multiplayer gaming, which has always been free. And they are then surprised that it did not work out?

MS is focused on the XBox, and does not care about PC gaming.



Kyros on 22 July 2008

LOL selling services to PC gamers who got (and expected) equal and better service for free was a huge hit I guess. Nice try M$.