Microsoft turns Games for Windows Live into a free for all

Yesterday, at the Gamefest 2008 event, Microsoft announced that paying for Gold accounts would no longer be necessary to access all the multiplayer features in PC games under their Games for Windows brand. Viva la multijugador libre!
These features included such things as voice chat, usage fo the TrueSkill matchmaking system, the ability to play against 360 owners, and access to multiplayer achievements. Maybe not the most exciting list of features — voice chat, for instance, can be easily accessed through other programs on the PC — but I’ll happily take them. After being so used to free online multiplayer in PC games (excluding MMOs, of course) I can totally understand why people wouldn’t want to start paying for something that they used to get for nothing, which is probably why Microsoft felt the need to make it free (read: no one was buying).
I would not take this news as a […]

Original Post By Google News mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)