Gamernode: News - Digital distribution and more coming to GFW Live

Digital distribution and more coming to GFW Live

Category: PC, Posted: 03/07/2008 at 11:29AM CST by Billy Wang, Previews Editor

gamesforwindows Microsoft's Games for Windows (GFW) initiative got off to a rocky start two years ago, mainly due to being busy with the Xbox 360. By the end of 2007 though, more than 50 games were released under the GFW moniker but controversy still arose, namely with the GFW Live service.

But here to relieve some angst is Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows, as he spoke with Eurogamer.

One of the big bombshells Unangst dropped is that digital distribution may be in the future for GFW Live. Other digital distribution services like Steam has garnered plenty of acclaim and popularity, especially with helping PC gaming sales recently so to see Microsoft embracing the service certainly makes me feel comfortable.

Unangst said, "We'll continue to invest in it. We've heard about a lot of things poeple[sic] want, things like digital distribution. At the end of the day our goal is to be the best PC online service for gaming. We've learned a lot this year and we're listening to developers.

We have gotten the feedback that says, 'There's no Marketplace'... You can be confident we want to enable things like digital distribution, the ability to do downloadable content for games - that's a direction we're definitely headed in. We don't have anything specific to announce in terms of timeframes right now."

In regards to the GFW Live subscription price, Unangst admitted that Microsoft was initially unclear about the value of the service. In the end, you don't have to pay for Gold to enjoy multiplayer gaming and Unangst points out that if you want to play cross-platform, then you have to pay for Gold.

"Anybody can get a free Silver account on the PC, and if I want to play all my friends on Gears of War on the PC it won't cost me anything. Our challenge is to be clear on the message we're not charging for Games for Windows Live."

Lastly, Unangst responded to the bandwagon 'PC gaming is dying' uproar and mentioned that it's simply not the case.

"That's an easy judgment to make if you're just looking at US retail sales. If you look at where the growth is, there are more gamers on Windows than any other platform. There's more money spent on Windows games than any other platform. PC games outsold Wii games and PS3 games in 2007 worldwide. The growth of casual and digital distribution is huge."

Posted by Alex6969 on 03/07/2008 at 01:14PM

I was really hoping that games like The Witcher, Crysis, and Bioshock had achievements and offered a similar XBL interface like the 360, where I could message friends, see what they are playing, and track my achievements. If they made XBL on computer as good as it is on 360, I would have no problem dropping $50 a year for a membership.

Posted by KindGalaxy on 03/07/2008 at 02:41PM

Launched it way too early, launched it with too few features, the more they delay in across-the-board-GFW-Achievements, the more they delay Arcade on GFW Live and the more they delay a Marketplace for GFW Live is time to continue to fall behind.

Posted by LicenseToThrill on 03/07/2008 at 07:05PM

Why use GFW when you can use Steam anyway? I usually just add third party games to my Steam games list with the "add non steam game" option so I can use the Steam Overlay with the DVD games.

Steam has the automatic updates, the Steam Community to make events and talk with friends, the digital distribution store, achivements, etc.