Civilization and Games for Windows Live?

[Locutus]

Microsoft announced yesterday that the XBox Live service will be coming to (Vista) PCs this May, under the name Games for Windows Live. Game industry website Next Generation has an interesting article on this here. For those not familiar with Live, an excerpt:

GFW Live is set to debut May 8 with a new PC version of Halo 2 that will include brand new Achievements and a map editor. Like Xbox Live, the service will have two membership levels: Gold and Silver. The Silver membership will be free, offering a Gamertag, single player achievements, text and voice chat and free PC to PC online multiplayer (the Silver Xbox Live membership doesn’t allow for multiplayer online gaming), among other features. The Gold membership will cost $49.95 per year for all of the Silver features plus cross-platform gaming and TrueSkill matchmaking, plus additional offerings.

For PC gamers that already have an Xbox Live Gold membership, adopting GFW Live is likely a no-brainer, since a Gold "Live" membership extends across both platforms, so gamers won't be paying $50 per platform. But for those PC gamers without an Xbox 360 Gold membership, will they pay $50 for some matchmaking features and the ability to play console gamers?

For now Live will only be featured in a very small number of games, but it's entirely feasible it will one day come with Civ as well, whether that's the next XP or Civ5. Would you use these services in addition to/instead of Apolyton/CFC/Civ4 Ladder/etc? Would you pay for them? What kind of a future will fan sites have now we will be competing with MS?

[Krill]

I would not be willing to pay to play MP for anything, unless I got something out of the deal. A proper ladder á la BF2 would swing it at those prices.

[LordShiva]

Re: Civilization and Games for Windows Live?

Originally posted by Locutus
What kind of a future will fan sites have now we will be competing with MS?

A very bright one, since XBOX/GFW Live don't have Off-Topic sections

[Keygen]

Re: Civilization and Games for Windows Live?

Originally posted by Locutus

What kind of a future will fan sites have now we will be competing with MS?

The same future they are having right now competing networks like IGN and sites like GameSpy

[Locutus]

Re: Re: Civilization and Games for Windows Live?

Originally posted by Krill
I would not be willing to pay to play MP for anything, unless I got something out of the deal. A proper ladder á la BF2 would swing it at those prices.

Yeah, it sounds very much like they really wanted to charge for all MP play, which is what they do on the XBox IIUC. They knew they wouldn't get away with that with PC gamers, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we're going in the long run...

Originally posted by LordShiva
A very bright one, since XBOX/GFW Live don't have Off-Topic sections

(Almost) nobody signs up to a site like Apolyton for the OT, even if many end up hanging out there... As far as independent sites (like Apolyton and CFC) go, I'm much more worried about the effect this would have on the influx of new members than about existing ones leaving.

Originally posted by Keygen
The same future they are having right now competing networks like IGN and sites like GameSpy

Sites like Gamespot you still actively have to go out and find though, Live will come straight out of the box and will be integrated into the games themselves...

[Keygen]

Re: Re: Re: Civilization and Games for Windows Live?

Originally posted by Locutus

Sites like Gamespot you still actively have to go out and find though, Live will come straight out of the box and will be integrated into the games themselves...

That is why I mentioned GameSpy and not GameSpot, since the first one is integrated into Civ4 and yet people are still coming in Apolyton

GameSpy is not the only one. Steam is another that also incorporates other stuff like automated updating and more networks are around. I guess Microsoft saw their popularity and trend and decided to go on and extend Live from Xbox to PC world.