Live For Windows Coming in May

Several outlets are carrying the news that Live for Windows is coming in May to a PC near you. The announcement carried confirmation of a similar pricetag for Xbox Live, as well as details on some new titles. Halo 2 will be releasing right around the launch of the service (slated to go up May 8th), and Shadowrun will follow quickly sometime in June. Gamasutra has an interview with Xbox Live general manager JJ Richards on the subject, and 1up offers a bit of commentary with the news. Though when asked about it last week Microsoft reps seemed extremely confident, it still remains to be seen whether PC gamers will pay for what they've always gotten for free.

PB

[mastershake_phd]

Does it have Punkbuster or something similar?

Re:Croos-platform matchmaking?

[Rob T Firefly]

Final Fantasy XI has had console and PC players together for years. I don't play it myself, but from what I've heard the experience is pretty much the same so long as you get a USB keyboard for your console.

Re:Aww :(

[__aaclcg7560]

No, it's not a contest. It's lining up to get your Borg implant. The catch is you need a valid credit card and your first born if you want the premium package.

Cheating is why I use Consoles On-Line

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure hope you can choose to NOT play with PC users. The WHOLE reason I don't play on-line with my PC anymore is half the people used super bots and/or tricked out keyboard/mice. Consoles level the playing field and make it about skill again. Just my 2 cents.

Re:So, if we get ripped off with Vista then

[HappySqurriel]

I was wondering whether an XBox Live Account was the same as a Windows Live Account (that is buying one gives you access to the other) ...

Personally, I think it would be cool to be able to have 1 identity on an Console and PC but I have no desire to spend $100+ to have 2 seperate identities.

I'd really like to think..

[Gorkamecha]

...that pc gamers around the world will ban together and tell Microsoft that no, we will not pay for what we used to get for free. But I have huge doubts this will happen, as a high enough precentage of MS's audience isn't even spending their own money, but spending their parent's money...Even if they only have 25% of the market pick up the service, then it will have paid for itself and set a business model for others. *sigh*

Re:Cheating is why I use Consoles On-Line

[drinkypoo]

Or people shutting off their madden games jsut before a loss so it wont affect their rank.

The fact that the game doesn't penalize them for this is a failure of the game, not just the gamer. Why do people keep paying for this shit?

Re:Excuse for Vista

[Joe The Dragon]

Apple goes out of their way to ensure compatibility my a** look at how then dropped class form lintel systems and they don not want to help Sheep Shaver run os 9.2.2 as it only works up to 9.04 and that is only way to Classic on Intel Macs.
http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/en/projects/sheepsh aver [beauchesne.info]
http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/ [cebix.net]