Microsoft to merge Xbox.com and Games For Windows

nathar on 4 Jul '11 said:

Oh Microsoft. If your marketing strategy director wasnt clearly an idiot you'd be as big as Apple!

shiwayb on 4 Jul '11 said:

I will not buy downloaded games simply because boxed games are MUCH cheaper...

Drusus on 4 Jul '11 said:

I will not buy downloaded games simply because boxed games are MUCH cheaper...

Have you met Steam?

Leders on 4 Jul '11 said:

I will not buy downloaded games simply because boxed games are MUCH cheaper...

Have you met Steam?

ha ha ha, the steam big summer sale... my hard disk cant take it... Bioshock 1 and 2 for £7 total... whats not to love about that (apparently bioshock is brilliant, cant say i've eer been bothered, but when its cheap as chips, why not try it).

The GFWL site did have bulletstorm on sale for £59.99 the other week... and generally that site is chuffing ridiculous with prices.

KesMonkey on 4 Jul '11 said:

I will not buy downloaded games simply because boxed games are MUCH cheaper...

You have clearly never used Steam.

Imaduck on 4 Jul '11 said:

I actually like GFWL and LIVE, may as well mix the 2, good call. Speaking of Steam, got RE5 on it yesterday, fun fun fun!

Cogglesz on 4 Jul '11 said:

Steam is cheap but if you take a look on amazon most pc games are even cheaper on there than on steam, portal 2 for £17 (was £14 last week), dragon age 2 for a tenner, just cause 2 for £5 and shift 2 for £13, saying this however i do have more steam pc games than boxed games, steam is awesome, and so is amazon, choose both!

MrStillwater on 4 Jul '11 said:

Steam is cheap but if you take a look on amazon most pc games are even cheaper on there than on steam

Yep, you need to be a bit careful with Steam - they often don't discount game prices even several years after the game has been out, so something like 50% off might sound great but may in fact only be bringing it down to the price it should be anyway. Even new games drop in price very quickly on Amazon/Play - Crysis 2 was £14.99 on Amazon after only a couple of months but still full price on Steam (until it got pulled). Shogun 2 is £14.99 too, listed at £20 at the moment on steam even on "sale". Once the sale is over it'll be back to £29.99 - double the price you can get it for elsewhere.

kimoak on 4 Jul '11 said:

I actually like GFWL and LIVE, may as well mix the 2, good call. Speaking of Steam, got RE5 on it yesterday, fun fun fun!

I got Resi 5 from Steam in the christmas sale. It was really cheap. They did some great deals every day. Spent not too much on a lot of games. Playing it 2 players at the weekends with my brother in the good old US of A. Nice to have decent connections nowadays and it playes well with each of us different sides of the pond. Enjoying it in co-op mode alot.

@MrStillwater Very true. It pays to shop around. You can still get great deals from the sites that you mentioned.

deadstoned on 4 Jul '11 said:

Never used the GFW site to buy games, because the prices were rubbish and GFWL is one of the worst features a game can have (in my experience). Now that the games are on Xbox.com I'm now even more unlikely to go there as I don't own an Xbox. I expect this is Microsofts attempt to attempt to lure PC Gamers to the Xbox and maybe have some Xbox players play PC, but only through Microsofts system so they get gamerscore. I dont understand some Xbox players unhealthy attachment to a number next to your name :-/ . And of course Microsoft will continue to not show Steamworks enabled game on their store, because Microsoft does enjoy anti-competitive behaviour ^^ .

Izo on 4 Jul '11 said:

Steam is cheap but if you take a look on amazon most pc games are even cheaper on there than on steam, portal 2 for £17 (was £14 last week), dragon age 2 for a tenner, just cause 2 for £5 and shift 2 for £13, saying this however i do have more steam pc games than boxed games, steam is awesome, and so is amazon, choose both!

True but Steam do have some top sale offers, like the current sale has the Valve collection for 24 quid and the Id Softeware collection for even less.

JJM-NUKE on 4 Jul '11 said:

Yes boxed games for pc may be cheaper but i want them with the steam client and some boxed game have GFWL and others and i honestly dont want that, i dont like GTA 4 on pc because it has games for windows and i bought it off steam, and games for windows sucks.

EvilDog77 on 4 Jul '11 said:

Oh crap! I hope this doesn't mean I'll have to buy 'Gold' membership to play my games online.

Felly117 on 4 Jul '11 said:

Does this mean I can't get the same achievements twice. Damn!

wasted-again on 5 Jul '11 said:

I will not buy downloaded games simply because boxed games are MUCH cheaper...

Have you met Bit Torrent?