Nuts and Bolts was one of my favorite games on the 360 and its sandbox style gameplay could have been a great win for PC gamers before Minecraft became big.Īfter enough complaints Microsoft changed their minds and prevented GFWL from dying a quick death. Before the release, Microsoft actually thought about making it required to have an Xbox Live subscription in order to use the service on the PC, or a platform that has had free online multiplayer for years. Unfortunately Microsoft’s attempt at building said bridge was less about providing benefits to the player but instead benefitting Microsoft. This was a console manufacturer and developer of an OS putting its weight behind a platform to try and bridge the gap between console and PC. One of the possible strengths that GFWL had over Steam was the backing of Microsoft. That leaves us with a simple question: What Happened? And looking at the timeline and decisions behind the platform, there’s only one element at fault– Microsoft. But that didn’t happen and Steam went on to become even bigger while GFWL sank until its death. We all thought that Microsoft was going to score a winner with GFWL and be the platform that could compete with Steam. Microsoft pushed GFWL hard and even became a licensing tool when Computer Gaming World was rebranded Games For Windows Magazine. The basic functionality of Live also made its way to the PC, allowing people to keep in touch with their console or PC friends regardless of the platform they were on. The opportunity for both PC and console gamers to play together for the first time was a major pull for the service, despite its debut title Shadowrun not becoming a hit. The original purpose of GFWL was twofold: To allow for cross platform play between the 360 and the PC and to give PC gamers the ability to use Xbox Live. Released in 2007, this was still considered the early days of Steam and during the time where people thought consoles would take over the Game Industry.
GFWL was the first digital platform released following the rise of Steam. Not at the end of the software or losing the few games I had on it, but all the wasted potential that GFWL could have offered to the Game Industry. Thinking about the whole ordeal made me for the first time in awhile angry. Microsoft’s grand experiment into the cross platform support of Xbox Live has ended in failure. Games For Windows Live after about 7 years is dead, well it has been on life support for what feels like years now but is slowly biting the dust.
0 kommentar(er)
