$49.99 for a year. $19.99 for three months. $7.99 for one month. That's how much subscription to Windows Live Gold membership will cost in North America, according to a report on Game Informer.
This is identical to the cost of Gold membership subscription on Xbox Live over the pond. Like Xbox Live, a Silver level of service on Windows Live will be free.
We assume that UK pricing for Windows Live Gold will be identical to Xbox Live Gold in this case. One these shores, it's £39.99 for a year's subscription, £14.99 for three months.
What will you get for your money? Well, that's not been fully revealed but it's expected that Gold membership will be required to play cross-platform multiplayer between PC and Xbox 360 - with Shadowrun, for example.
In addition, it's recently been made public knowledge that with Halo 2 Vista, a Gold membership lets players earn achievements (a points system for bragging rights, essentially) in multiplayer as well as single-player. You can play multiplayer with a Silver membership, but can only earn achievements in single-player.
Game Informer's report goes on to say that existing subscribers to Xbox Live Gold automatically count as subscribers to Windows Live Gold, adding that your "gamer tag and achievements will be used across both Xbox and Vista PCs."
Uh oh ....so it begins .In my impression Live has only been a trojan horse ,a step if you want ,toward this direction ....make most people pay to play online .And to pay Microsoft ,of course ,through a closed system .
So if you want cross platform on your 360 and on Vista you'll need to have a gold account on both?
Why not just have one Live subscription? Ooooh, because microsoft can make more money charging people twice for the same thing.
And now the online achievements are only available if you buy a gold account? Why the hell is that? Ooooh, because microsoft can make more money if they take a free feature away and then hold it to ransom.
So if you want cross platform on your 360 and on Vista you'll need to have a gold account on both?
Why not just have one Live subscription? Ooooh, because microsoft can make more money charging people twice for the same thing.
Game Informer's report goes on to say that existing subscribers to Xbox Live Gold automatically count as subscribers to Windows Live Gold, adding that your "gamer tag and achievements will be used across both Xbox and Vista PCs."
Well colour me surprised if the "one sub for both" is actually true!!! The corporate guys at M$ must have been sleeping when the tech guys came up with that one!!!!!
Makes sense to me. People with an account on 360 wouldn't pay again for one on PC and the only reason PC gamers would pay for a gold account is if they didn't have one on 360 but all their mates did, and they wanted to compete on the achievements... Like most of us do Seems the obvoious way.
It's about time the PC crowd started paying the same as console gamers. I've yet to discover a good reason for a game that costs Ł40 on a console to be Ł25 on the PC.
Microsoft have officially announced that chair manufacturers will have to pay them a 5% fee for all the seats that they sell, as "sitting down is an integral part of the Windows Vista experience".
Sadly, it looks like the chair makers will be passing these costs onto us end-users.
In other news, the reason why PC games are cheaper is that currently the developers don't have to pay a fee to the console makers to get their game published. Yet.
if MS are gonna start charging online pc games then this will only be the beginning, watch out. i hope that the pc games industry keeps their feet on the ground and explores other platforms like say Linux instead. i can see this developing over the next few years and it won't be long before if you have windows vista(soon all games will DirectX10 so you'll have to) then to play online you are going to have to pay for some kind of windows LIVE thing. b******s is what i say, vote with your wallets.
Am I the only PC gamer worried about this?? I play a number of PC games online, and now I'm hearing I might have to start paying MS a fee just for the privilege?? Isn't the cash they get from their overly expensive and overrated operating systems enough??
As for the achievements, they are nothing but a complete waste of time. I've never seen the point of them and never will. Why would I want them cluttering up my PC games as well as my 360 games?
Reading it, looks like you only have to pay if you want Gold. With Halo 2, it means that you can earn achievements (woo! ). The Silver is free, with which you can play online. If it's like that with all games, then who cares? Just don't pay for gold and still play online with it. Anyway, who wants to play a fps against console users? Where's the challenge in that?
OK so where do i start? well i have been playing FREE online games on my PC since 1998 (Starcraft,TA,Dark Forces 2 to name a few gems) and i really don't see the point in 'Windows Live'! IMO I just can't see any reason why a PC gamers would want to pay for this when we have been playing games free online before the xbox was even a glint in Mr Gate's eys!! please back off Microsoft
UPDATE! Also please don't flame me for saying this but IMO PC gamers would wipe the floor with any console gamer so again why bother with this crap. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *STORMS OUT*
My brain has been shut off for some time seemingly as a) I remember PC games online being free (except for MMO's) and Windows Live? I mean huh? I saw it coming but it's still painful...
Reading it, looks like you only have to pay if you want Gold. With Halo 2, it means that you can earn achievements (woo! ). The Silver is free, with which you can play online. If it's like that with all games, then who cares? Just don't pay for gold and still play online with it. Anyway, who wants to play a fps against console users? Where's the challenge in that?
Well it seems to me, that gamers wanting to play CROSS PLATFORM will need a Gold Live account... Those who only have a silver will be able to play against other PC users, but not 360 users. Seems fair. For the most part, XBOX Live is a closed, managed service. They provide everything for the developers - a framework for connectivity and communications, tools for leaderboards and matchmaking, and of course the servers, cables, machines, wires etc - that don't come cheap guys!!
Most online-gaming PC users are used to having servers setup by fans or companies which gain their revenue through either membership or, god forbid, advertising. Just look at Steam - how many servers on that list are provided by Valve?
Come on people, get a grip! M$ is making the developers lives easier, reducing the costs they need to pile into developing their own network technologies and providing us with a pretty decent service which isn't managed by some obsessive admin with a big finger hovering over the 'kick/ban' button "because it's funny".
Perhaps M$ will surprise us all and reveal some great bonuses to PC-playing Live - perhaps they won't and I could be totally wrong, but XBOX Live has been a good success so far - why can't Windows Live achieve the same, just because you have to fork out for it? (Let's are in mind, at ~ÂŁ14.99 per month for an MMO, you'd be paying almost ÂŁ180 per year for the 'privilege' of playing with other users on a game which, in most cases, you NEED a subscription to play... ÂŁ180 for 1 Year in 1 Game, or ÂŁ39.99 for 1 Year in ALL games - go figure!
EH? the point is: 1) I can already game on my PC for free, so why would i be stupid enough to pay 2) Who cares about playing XBox players, its not as if the PC gaming world is devoid of gaming fans 3)Ok, so if devs costs are reduced by providing a common infrastructure for play obviously decreasing test costs, these cost reductions wont be passed onto consumers 4) The console model is that consoles are sold below cost, then the manufacturer, i.e. m$ in this case gets their revenue back on the games and services like xbox live. So, i pay serious money for PC hardware, what exactly is M$ doing to subsidise this again? Oh thats right i need a copy of vista to use my hardware
For 1,2,3,4, i just say NO,NO,NO,NO, buy a bottle of cop on M$. It sure as hell wont be getting my support in any shape or form, i think its an absolute disgrace that they want to charge PC users when the XBox is theirs
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). The Silver is free, with which you can play online.
