PC Gamers Get Live This Spring
Cross-platform gaming soon afterwards.
Microsoft is still basking in the glow of the 6 million members it has for Live on the Xbox 360. Now the company is bringing the service to the PC. Will gamers bite?
Shadowrun will support cross-platform play firstLive offers PC gamers a chance to use the same infrastructure already in place on Microsoft's console, which means gamertags, friend lists, a more unified front-end, and, yes, Achievements.
The service, carrying the somewhat-clunky name Games For Windows - Live, is currently being tested in a trial phase and will be going public in May, Microsoft said this week.
Just like on Xbox 360, there are two levels of membership. Silver brings all the community features popularized by Xbox Live and allows PC gamers to play against each other online for free. Pay for the Gold service and you'll get all that and also better matchmaking for online play and the ability to play cross-platform between PC and Xbox 360.
Xbox Live accounts are transferable onto PC, meaning paying subscribers on console will automatically have Gold membership on PC.
The first game to support Live on PC will be Halo 2 for Vista. True PC-to-Xbox 360 play won't happen until Shadowrun arrives this June.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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