Microsoft makes Games For Windows Live free for all

July 22nd, 2008, 21:34 Posted By: Shrygue

via Joystiq

Microsoft's struggling Games For Windows Live service, which promised an Xbox Live like online experience with voice chat, unified friend lists, and cross-platform play between PC and console, is about to shrug off its chief criticism: cost. MS announced today that it is ending the XBL-style tiered pricing structure – which put a year of Gold membership at $49.99 – and making the service free for all users.

The change is effective immediately, affecting all current GFW Live titles (such as Halo 2 and Shadowrun) as well as future releases. MS is also set to expand the service through a GFW Live Marketplace, due this fall. Like the XBL Marketplace, the PC-centric store will offer free and paid downloadable content, demos, and trailers (is this PC Live Arcade?)

In addition to these announcements, MS is working to make the GFW Live interface "much more PC friendly" (read: not like the Xbox 360's now deprecated "Blades" interface) along with reducing the technical requirements for developers. One criticism of the interface from the development camp has been that it must be built into every GFW title, rather than a stand-alone client such as Steam.

For more information and downloads, click here!

There are 1 comments - Join In and Discuss Here

Forum Info

Users online:

Guests online: 8866. Total online: 8866.

You have to register or login before you can post on our forums or use our advanced features.

Total threads: 207,465
Total posts: 751,271

Go to the forum

Links of Interest

Nintendo video games

Advert

PC News

Intel Demos Lightning Fast 13.8 GBps PCIe 5.0 SSD with Alder Lake
Humble Bundle limits charity donations to 15%
Leaked EA document says FIFA 21 is driving people to loot boxes
Activision bans 60,000 Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters
Call of Duty drives record year for Activision Blizzard
Google's shutdowns relegate streaming to "gaming of the gaps"
Public beta of Steam China launches next week
Hackers claim to have sold Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3 source code
Nvidia acquisition of Arm under fire from Microsoft and Google
PC hardware and accessories spending grew 62% in the US in 2020
Amazon delays New World again
Wine v6.0
BizHawk v2.6
DS4Windows v2.2.2
VirtualBox v6.1.18
OpenTTD v1.11.0 beta1 Transport Tycoon Deluxe
Twitter Launches 'Birdwatch,' a Forum To Combat Misinformation
Crowdfunding campaign for handheld gaming PC, AYA NEO, announced
Ubuntu Now Runs On Apple Silicon, Devs Say It's 'Completely Usable'
EU fines Valve and five publishers €7.8m for geo-blocking practices
Steam saw 21% more games sold in 2020
Wine v6.0-rc6
JSLinux (2021/01/09)
OpenEmu v2.3.3
Linux Mint 20.1 Long-term Support Release Is Out
Rediscovering RISC-V: Apple M1 Sparks Renewed Interest in Non-x86 Architecture
Firefox To Block Backspace Key From Working as 'Back' Button
Twitter says gaming posts up 75% in 2020
Twitch, Facebook see best months for viewership yet in December
Ootake v3.00 - PC Engine Emulator for Windows
Windows95 v2.3 - Windows 95 OS Emulator for Mac Linux and Windows
Visual PinMAME v3.3b - Arcade Pinball Emulator
Windows 10's Taskbar Is Getting a Big Update With New Weather and News Widget
Lenovo shows handheld gaming PC concept, LaVie Mini, at CES 2021
Lost Media: Unreleased, Playable Tomb Raider Game Surfaces Online
Star Wars: Battlefront II will be free next week on the Epic Games Store
Ootake v2.99
A semi-playable third-person mod for Cyberpunk 2077 has been released
MS-DOS Player for Win32-x64 (2020/12/25)
OpenEmu v2.3
RomVault v3.2.1
Visual PinMAME v3.3
Wine v6.0-rc4
JSLinux (2020/12/26)
Emulicious (2020/12/27)
RomCenter v4.1.1
MAME v0.227 is released.
History.dat v2.27
DOSBox-X v0.83.9 (2021/01/01)
Steem SSE v4.0.2 R25
Guinea Pig Parkour -Steam
ScummVM You cannot Comprehend It
Playnite v8.11
Wine v6.0-rc3
Wine v6.0-rc2
Pantheon v10.086
ClrMamePro v4.039
GameEx v16.74
Google Sued by States for Abuse of Search-Market Dominance
Ubisoft is giving away free games and content all week to celebrate the holidays
Steam breaks concurrent users record at nearly 25m
Facebook Gaming creators have earned $50m in Stars in 2020
Realms of Genthar - Upcoming EGA inspired Dungeon Crawler
Microsoft Exposes Adrozek, Malware That Hijacks Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
Cyberpunk 2077 already passed 1m concurrent users on Steam
Steam introduces new discovery tools
Cyberpunk 2077 racked up 8m pre-orders, 74% were digital
MS-DOS Player for Win32-x64 (2020/12/06)
A-PI 400 - A printed Amiga case for the Raspberry Pi 400?
Super Space Towers - A seriously cool modern 'Thrust' for PC and Consoles
WinUAE v4.5.0 Beta 12
GameEx v16.73
QEMU v5.2.0-rc4
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands sells 3.7m in one day
Minecraft tops YouTube's list of most watched games of 2020
Epic won't hold in-person Fortnite events in 2021
Wine v6.0-rc1
DOSBox-Staging v0.76.0
Roblox cleared for launch in China
PCem v17
Emulicious (2020/11/30)
DOSBox-X v0.83.8 (2020/11/31)
kindred v1.12 Preview Build 2
DS4Windows v2.1.19
RomVault v3.2.0
CD-i Zelda receives fanmade PC remasters
VR spending to pass $1bn in 2020
ScummVM News - The Red Comrades game series goes supported
Steam's Autumn Sale begins today
Epic adds a subscription service to Fortnite
ScummVM Big adventures ahead - Little Big Adventures
Controller use on Steam has doubled in past two years
Wine v5.22
DS4Windows v2.1.17
GameEx v16.69
Playnite v8.8
QEMU v5.2.0-rc2
Dangerous Fen in the Vasya's Mansion
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla sees the franchise's best launch sales so far
skeletonKey v0.99.80.27
RomCenter v4.1.0
Romulus v0.048
My.Games launches cloud gaming service
Monkey Plant - A brand new retro inspired PC(Windows) game
QEMU v5.2.0-rc1
Double win for Valve at 2020 VR Awards
BizHawk v2.5.2
JoyToKey v6.5
Dapplegrey v7.6.3
Romulus v0.047
VirtualBox v6.1.16
DOSBox-Staging v0.75.2
Raine v0.91.10
DOSBox-X v0.83.7 (2020/11/01)
History.dat v2.26
Playnite v8.6
JRomManager v2.5.0 beta 2
LaunchBox v11.7
Pantheon v10.0
Nostlan v1.19.1
DS4Windows v2.1.16
Wine v5.0.3
Mednafen v1.26.1
AYA-NEO handheld gaming PC goes on sale in China; might consider crowdfunding
FB Neo v1.0 released
ScummVM A merger
ScummVM “Interactive Fantasy” 2.2.0 Sees the Light
Microsoft: Make 11-Year-Olds 'Future Ready' With Minecraft Python Hour of Code
Microsoft Engineer Gets Nine Years For Stealing $10 Million From Microsoft
Facebook enters cloud streaming with free-to-play mobile games, playable ads
Oculus Quest 2 pre-orders were five times higher than Oculus Quest
Steam adds frictionless playtesting feature
Epic Games gauging interest in monthly Fortnite subscription
A Stealthy ScummVM Operation
Blazing Dragons Set ScummVM Aflame
Hitman 3 for PC to be Epic Games Store exclusive
Hiber raises $2.2m to build out its browser-based game platform
A Total War Saga: Troy was downloaded 7.5m times in 24 hours
Oculus devices to require Facebook accounts to log in
Call of Duty: Warzone drives second quarter growth for Activision-Blizzard
Blizzard is planning online BlizzCon in early 2021
US Army to reinstate its Twitch viewers banned for "harassing and degrading behavior"
EA Access and Origin Access Basic become EA Play
Half-Life Alyx developers want to make a full-scale Half-Life game for consoles
Blizzard will make changing character gender free in next WoW expansion
Stadia lands exclusives from Konami, Harmonix, and more
Rising video game prices drove UK inflation in June
Nvidia halts production of high-end Turing GPUs: China source
DS4Windows v2.1.3
Wine v5.11
RetroArch v1.8.9
MAME v0.222
Romulus v0.046
Open Solomon's Key - Open-source remake
Avarslund - A PC demo of a cancelled Fairlight Remake
Lands of Lore - The Throne of Chaos
Asylum - Upcoming Psychological Horror
3dSen Emulator is now available in Easy Access on Steam
Rayman Redemption
Solar Gladiators - A brand new Windows game from MALDITA CASTILLA creator Locomalito
ScummVM News - You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike
Google Stadia Premiere Edition gets a price cut
The Sims 4 hit 10m MAUs in the last quarter
Oculus Go headset discontinued
DOSBox-X v0.83.2 (2020/05/31)
Pantheon v9.684
OpenTTD v1.10.2
Raine v0.91.6
Wine v5.10
JRomManager v2.4.0
VirtualBox v6.1.10
ColEm v5.0
Ramps - A Stunt Car inspiration playable on your browser and Pico-8
Out Run - A new Out Run remake project by Zgzinfinity
Sleeping Menace - A new platformer appears inspired by games such as Commander Keen!
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection released on Steam/Origin!
Epic Games Store scores next Total War game as exclusive
EA puts first wave of games back on Steam
Spectacle - A new PC adventure inspired by games such as Shadowgate
New Raspberry Pi 4 model launches today, comes with 8GB RAM
Nvidia launches opt-in process for GeForce Now
HTC co-founder reveals new VR headset and social platform
COVID-19: BlizzCon 2020 cancelled
You have been a thorn in my side for far too long, Avatar
Art thou worthy to be the Avatar?
Get your season (of docs) pass ready!
SuperHot VR sells over 2m copies
EA releasing source code for Command & Conquer and Red Alert
Stadia exclusivity pushes PS4, Xbox One versions of Serious Sam 4 into 2021
Manchester United sues Sega over Football Manager trademark use
Raine v0.91.3
MS-DOS Player for Win32-x64 (2020/05/10)
RetroMania Wrestling Launch Roster Finalized
MINI PRINCE - One whole level of ASCII Prince of Persia fun coming to MS-DOS
RetroArch version 1.8.6 out, adds playlist compression
Mednafen v1.24.3
Raine v0.91.1
Crystal Caverns 2 - A charming little PC platformer from Ben James
OpenRCT2 project - Open-Source adaption of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 gets a new build
PC: DOSBox-X v0.83.1 (2020-05-02)

The DCEmu Homebrew and Gaming Network

Welcome to the DCEmu Homebrew and Gaming Network. This Network of sites is owned and ran by fans of all games consoles, we post news on all the consoles we cover about hardware aspects, gaming and Homebrew. Homebrew and Emulation are software thats made using free and legal tools to play on games consoles. This Network is the only worldwide network of sites where coders can upload and post comments they deserve for all their hardwork. We have a Network that currently supports PSVita, WiiU, Nintendo Wii, Xbox360, PS3, PS2,PS1, Snes, N64, Gameboy, Nes, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PSP, GBA, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn,3DS, DSi, Switch, PS4, Pandora, xboxone, GP2X, iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad, Android and also Mobile Phone Emulation. When new consoles appear we will expand to cover those consoles. We also cover Theme Park News and news and reviews of Beer, cider, lager, wines and spirits. news of their own releases and get the credit and Please help DCEmu become stronger by posting on the forums every day and make our community larger.

Main

Social Media

The DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network

News Archive

DCEmu Newcomers