Xbox Live Coming to Windows 8
by Craig Getting on September 14, 2011 9:00 AM ESTMicrosoft’s Major Nelson confirmed yesterday that Xbox Live will officially come to PCs with Windows 8.
“Bringing Xbox LIVE to Windows 8 is part of our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” wrote the Major, aka Xbox Live Programming Director Larry Hryb. Hryb also mentioned that Microsoft will be attempting to sell developers on the accessibility of Xbox Live for PC. If the popular console service can catch on in Windows 8, it could help Microsoft compete against services like Steam on the desktop and Game Center on the iPad.
Microsoft first attempted to integrate PCs with Xbox Live came with Games for Windows Live in 2007. The service has the base features of Xbox Live (friends lists, voice chats, Achievements) but its interface is sluggish and requires mandatory installs even when games are running in competing services, and consequently it hasn't seen very wide adoption.
Microsoft’s Windows 8, which is due in 2012, is currently being demonstrated at BUILD. One of its major updates is the Metro interface, which is also coming to the Xbox 360 later this year courtesy of a Dashboard update.
Source: Major Nelson
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tommo123 - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
it might as well kick it's users in the nuts!GFW (L) is atrocious and pointless. it doesn't add anything and only detracts from the gaming experience. i still remember grappling with my PC trying to play batman AA due to the abortion called GFWL
Leonick - Friday, September 16, 2011 - link
Except it doesn't make the game the least bit heavier to run, if your computer couldn't handle it with GFWL it wouldn't without.Ill agree that it's pretty bad though, but that's because the in-game interface is so bad, that's really my only problem with GFWL.
Golgatha - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Bought a 4 pack of Section 8 to play at a recent LAN party. Wished I hadn't done that. The only way to do multiplayer on a private "LAN" server is to matchmake through GFWL.gramboh - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Microsoft really screwed up with GFW/GFWL, with better vision and execution they could have made something like Steam that created value for end users, and profit for Microsoft.Instead we have GFWL with an offensively bad UI, bad value proposition for consumers which just pisses everyone off.