Microsoft Pledges to Save PC Gaming, Again

[praetor_alpha]

If MS really cared about gaming on Windows, Halo would ship with it.

The only GFWL games I have are Fallout 3 (played for a good 200 hours or so) and GoW (played for about 1 hour, not been touched since). I don't recall any bad experiences with them.

As for everyone saying that GFWL should die, the market has mostly killed it. When New Vegas (and some other game) said that it was dropping it, everyone kind of cheered. If the servers were turned off, how many devs/pubs would get off their asses and retroactively patch GFWL out? Not one, I'd imagine.

As for the claim made in OP, I'll toss that shit into said ocean of salt. It's going to need a lot of work to get it out.

 

[LoganN]

So many things in this thread are so wrong.

For one, Games for Windows LIVE isn't bad. I love it, and I absolutely hate Steam. Steam crashes during downloads of games, their servers don't respond so you can't play, and it has been slow and clunky from day one. You wanna install your games in ten years? Oh, I'm sorry, you can't, Valve closed down Steam. Considering that all games that use Steamworks have Steam infused in the install, you better hope they don't shut down. That goes for your boxed copies, and your backed up copies. GFWL? Yes, you can install. Yes, you can play. No, you don't need to ever go online. Offline profiles, my friends, allow you to play, and save, without going online at any time.

For those complaining about not being able to save, you are wrong. To save, you have to be logged into a profile, be it online or offline. It does not matter which, either will do just the same. With Steam, you CAN'T EVEN PLAY THE GAME UNLESS YOU ARE LOGGED IN EITHER OFFLINE OR ONLINE. How is GFWL worse than that?

I've never had an issue with GFWL that wasn't something I did, such as switching out a sound card. But, it was easily fixed.

Inviting people to a game takes three clicks, ten seconds top. Joining a game takes the push of a button and one click.

Multiplayer in GFWL works much better than Steam. Matchmaking has always found me a game.

Dedicated servers are the developers decision. GFWL games, such as Halo 2 and Section 8, support dedicated servers.

GFWL is as much DRM as Steam, and no more. Publishers decide to add secuROM, not Microsoft. Like some games on Steam have it as well.

Activation limits are an issue that is being worked on.

I want Steam to die so the market can grow. GFWL can stay.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Get rid of GFWL, throw out DRM and actually port your damn games and we'll see how it goes.

 

[veloper]

M$ should be sincere about preserving PC gaming.
Their biggest cash cow is windows and new windows versions depend on new hardware. New PC hardware is funded primarily by mass-consumerism and the only consumers who get anything out of being the early adopters, are PC gamers.

Directx is arguably their best effort sofar.
I remeber how back in the day if you wanted to do anything beyond basic texturing in openGl you had to use vendor specific extentions. From dx7 and onwards, direct3d not only adopted features earlier than OGL, but M$ also forced nvidia and ati to comply with directx.

I hate GFWL though.

 

[LoganN]

Guys, just bow down to the true savors of PC gaming, Valve & Steam. Seriously MS, just stick with the 360, you're doing great there. Let Valve own the PC.

Valve can get bent.

Get rid of GFWL, throw out DRM and actually port your damn games and we'll see how it goes.

GFWL is just a stepping stone for what the want to do. It isn't going anywhere, and I'm glad it isn't. GFWL > Steam

 

[Lightslei]

Games, they've been dying since their invention even though hopscotch is still around.

Microsoft seriously needs to chill out. PC gaming doesn't need saving. What it needs are fresh new game ideas, which are mostly coming from Indie developers at the moment. Microsofts "save" is going to be a shitty clusterfuck of FPS's exclusively through a retarded Window's program.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

The massive trainwreck that was GFWL has convinced me to take this with an entire ocean of salt, but you never know, there's hope.

Although I'm betting that this "Save PC Gaming" really means "Put all games on Windows 7 and add DRM"

Sadly, I have to agree.

 

[TraderJimmy]

From recent events I can only conclude that Microsoft say everything that it is possible to say, just because Bill Gates is seeing if he has enough employees to cover that.

Microsoft will soon announce simultaneous pledges to further the cause of Cthulhu and those peanuts at the bottom of the packet, that are kind of awesome because of all the grease and salt that's run down on them, but kind of rank because some of that grease and salt is from the sweaty paws of your fellow humans. [sic].

Shortly followed by an announcement of a campaign to increase public awareness that Gary from accounting is kind of a douche once he's had a few drinks.

 

[Weaver]

Last time Microsoft tried to save us it plagued PC gaming far worse than it was before.

Part of me thinks I'd rather PC gaming die than be "saved" by MS again.

 

[JonEire]

Get over it, if you don't like what they do don't download or buy it, here's how much I care about MS products today was the first time I even heard about Games For Windows Live, I looked up GWFL on google after seeing it typed here for the 100th time.

If you don't like or want MS Products you can get by quite easily without them, hell I only need one game anyway and that's Starcraft 2, rest are just secound rate so what do I care.

 

[Nouw]

At least they're trying. Does this mean no more exclusives for the Xbox 360?