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hear hear.

Steam is supplying an excellent experience for gamers, with everything catered for, from purchase, to patching, to friends lists, to organising matches, preview videos, demos, user-created content, and so on.

If Games for windows is to really kick off, it needs to shine brighter than Steam, and that, is a tough act to follow.

Steam and PSN are FREE.  

Wake up MS, Xbox Live is not worth the price, and Microsoft points are a PITA.

Microsoft does need to take this back to the drawing boards. The integration isn't there and there needs to be uniformity across the services. Using Xbox live isn't bad, but I have to agree that the Gold Membership is pretty crummy. When I had it, I couldn't really use it because of work schedules, etc. Then you have to buy points which really sucks.

So I'm giving Microsoft an Epic Fail on Xbox Live. I didn't really like it so much, but then again I hated the Wii setup just as badly. I really don't think the PSN is all that hot either, so they all get Epic Fail's, IMO.

The concept of points is ridiculous...using good old dollars, as is done on the PSN is the way to go...not saying the PSN is all that great, but at least when I want to buy something that costs $4.95, I can charge $4.95.  Not have to charge $10 worth of points, spend 80% of them, and then have points leftover that just sit there until there is something I may want....

Just dumb.

I agree, Games for Windows is half-hearted as is much of their online experiences.

At this point Microsoft should have an amazing ecosystem across all their entertainment platforms. What's stopping this from happening? Departmental silos, mgmt fiefdoms, software inoperability, no cohesive strategy; I imagine it's a little of everything...

PSN was horrible when the PS3 first shipped.  With PSN you had to keep friends lists in every game, content sucked etc.  Xbox Live for connecting with friends when gaming was the standard to beat for sure.

Now many updates later PSN is getting very close to being the same in the critical areas.  You get alerts while in a game that a PSN friend has signed on.  You can ask them to join as well, you can see what they are playing from the dashboard etc, its basically the same.  The content is much better now and now even PSN has downloadble movies, which makes sense because Sony is has a movie studio.  They use your countries currency and not points.  Best part if you dont like it, it did not cost yo a dime.

MS needs to make free.  No gold or silver, just free Xbox Live.  Combined with the recent price cuts they could hold of Sony for a while longer.

Worst yet, that 20% left over wont buy anything, so you have to buy more points to get something else.  RETARDED!

I'm just excited to see that GTA will be available this year.  Now I've got a perfect excuse to get a DX10 video card!

"At this point Microsoft should have an amazing ecosystem across all their entertainment platforms."

I could not agree more.  Before Shark jumps in here and starts labeling me, let me just say this.

If anyone can do this its Microsoft.  They have the money and talent.  This is a software issue.  

It simply should be Microsoft Live, email, calendering, contacts, pictures, movie maker, mesh, Xbox, Zune, Windows Mobile.   Dump all of that other confusing naming (hotmail, msn, passport, etc)  Just    "Microsoft Live".  Make all of your products tie in to that that make sense.  Vista, Home server media center, whatever.

Once that is done then pour 300 million into adds showcasing that seamless world.  That will WOW people.  That will make it very hard for Apple to compete with it.

Right now Google and Apple are trying to do the same thing and in lots of areas they are better at MS, in some places they dont even compete, like gaming.  

Its like they have the will but not the resources and MS has the resources but not the will????  They would rather worry about pushing junk like Silver Light that we dont need.

Come on MS seize the moment!!!

"A washed up, drugged out, over-the-hill rockstar. "

So they're kind of like the Van Halen of gaming, eh?

bettiblu pretty much summed up my opinion. What the hell is taking them so long to figure this out?

"So they're kind of like the Van Halen of gaming, eh?"

Doesn't that assume they were big at some point? Kid Rock, probably.

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I actually agree with bettieblu for once! - at least I think it's a first.

OT:

Great article on Windows 7, Paul. It does seem like Microsoft is on the right track with Windows 7. The move to remove some of the bundled applications is risky, but a step in the right direction, nevertheless. I don't know if calling it Vista R2 or Vista SP2 is going to help them, considering the public perception of Vista. They should probably stick with Windows 7. It sounds pretty cool.

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@bettieblu - Games for Windows - LIVE is free.

Just want to clarify. Go on.

Roger that yert, I knew it was free.  Before it launched there was some discussion about charging for it, but when Valve and a few others flat out refused to support it, MS backed of the cost when the likes of Steam are free.

Also Games for Windows Live is a joke really, it has not really caught on.  The whole PC gaming market is pretty much tanking.  If you eliminate WOW and its add ons, you remove 50% or more of PC gaming right there.  

"The whole PC gaming market is pretty much tanking. "

Nope. A quick glance at last years sales figures shows that's not true.

The whole market for RETAIL SALES of PC games is tanking (as is retail sales of all software)

WoW did about $3M last year at retail and the rest of  PC gaming retail sales did roughly another $6M for a total of just under a billion dollars.

BUT, if you include online sales, subscriptions and casual gaming the total for PC gaming last year was $11.3 Billion (up $2B in a year)

While that's lower than console gaming's $14.1 Billion, I'd say that an eleven billion dollar market with 21% annual growth is hardly "tanking".

Oops.

Obviously the $3M and $6M should have been $300M and $600M for the WoW numbers to reach just under a billion dollars. Not enough coffee.

No change in the point that an eleven billion dollar market with 21% annual growth is hardly "tanking", though.

Also,

What happened to cross-platform multiplayer gaming?

My only attempt to experience this involved my brother spending £40 for a Games for Windows LIVE subscription, and then us discovering that our [fully updated/patched] versions of Universe At War were mismatched and we couldn't play together!

Pathetic.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

The problem is that Microsoft needs to get its XBox gaming back on track first before it can concentrate on Windows gaming. Inspite of what several people here would like to think, the battle for second place is not yet over. The company is big, no doubt, but it doesn't have infinite resources. I think MS is overstaffed in certain areas and can get rid of a few people (including my ex). I'm just kidding.

"Roger that yert, I knew it was free."

I'm a PC and my name is Roger.

PC Gaming will always have a market.  It's where the MMORPG thrives.