Microsoft's Kevin Unangst

Games for Windows: one year on.

In February 2006, then Xbox boss Peter Moore took to the stage at the DICE Summit to say sorry. "I want to apologise," he told the audience, "For the dereliction of duty to our company's number one platform, the PC, in terms of gaming." He admitted Microsoft had been "a little distracted" in the run-up to the launch of Xbox 360, adding, "Mea culpa. We've been busy."

But things would change, Moore pledged, with Games for Windows. The idea was to create a new brand for PC games which would be seen by consumers as being synonymous with quality, reliability and ease of use.

Microsoft does not charge developers or publishers a royalty fee for the brand, but there are around 25 requirements to be met before games can bear the GfW logo. They must be easy to install, for example, support widescreen displays and offer users the option to set parental controls. In return, Microsoft promised to build better relationships with retailers, invest more in global advertising and make games a main feature of Vista in a bid to boost the profile of PC gaming.

By the end of 2007 more than 50 titles had been released under the GfW name, including top-sellers such as BioShock, Gears of War and Crysis. But it wasn't an easy ride for Microsoft. Games for Windows Live came under heavy criticism, there were patch issues with Gears of War and so far only two games supporting cross-platform play between PC and Xbox 360 have been released. And despite Microsoft's efforts, high profile industry figures such as Epic's Cliff Bleszinski are still bemoaning the state of PC gaming.

'Microsoft's Kevin Unangst' Screenshot 1

So at this year's Game Developers Conference, we welcomed the opportunity to put some of these issues to Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows. Here he discusses what's next for GfW Live, why retail sales don't tell the whole story and how the PC Gaming Alliance plans to set the record straight.

Eurogamer: How do you think Games for Windows has fared in its first year?

Kevin Unangst: When you add up all the things we've done in the first year, we've moved on quite a bit. We're absolutely not done; we'll continue to invest in things like Live and our online service.

We're also investing in the XNA tools that let people create games that can run on the PC, console and the Zune. We're making sure anyone who wants to can create games for any of our platforms. That is a very significant difference between our approach and what you see from Sony and Nintendo.

When you look at all the pieces put together, I think this has been a fantastic foundational year for Games for Windows. We've made a lot of progress. With the title line-up we have and the technology that's in place, 2008 is going to be even better.

Eurogamer: Let's talk about Games for Windows Live specifically. What's next for the service?

Kevin Unangst: We'll continue to invest in it. We've heard about a lot of things poeple want, things like digital distribution. At the end of the day our goal is to be the best PC online service for gaming. We've learned a lot this year and we're listening to developers.

'Microsoft's Kevin Unangst' Screenshot 2

Eurogamer: What about gamers? What about complaints the Games for Windows Live Gold subscription doesn't offer good value for money?

Kevin Unangst: It goes back to things we've learned. Going out of the gate, we weren't as clear as we should have been that Games for Windows Live on the PC is free. You don't have to pay for Gold. If you want to play cross-platform games, that's when you need a Gold subscription...

We were not as clear as we could have been. People assumed we were trying to bring the Xbox model over to the PC, which we were not.

Anybody can get a free Silver account on the PC, and if I want to play all my friends on Gears of War on the PC it won't cost me anything. Our challenge is to be clear on the message we're not charging for Games for Windows Live.

Eurogamer: Do you think PC Gold subscribers are getting as much value as Xbox 360 Gold subscribers?

Kevin Unangst: We have gotten the feedback that says, 'There's no Marketplace', 'Where are all the other features Xbox Live Gold members get?' The users have to decide - has it been worth USD 5 per month, or less, to play with my friends on the games I care about? It's really only been Shadowrun and Universe at War. Particularly if you're only playing games like Universe of War, I think it's been a good deal.

But are we talking to the partners and understanding how to get clearer? Will we continue to invest to bring more value? Absolutely. It's really only been 10 months on the market. We had to build from there, and I think you'll see more things from us in the future.

Eurogamer: So it's a combination of getting the right message out to consumers and adding more value to the service?

Kevin Unangst: One, we need to make it clearer you don't have to pay to play... Two, I do think we need to add more value, and communicate to users the other things we could do on the PC to get them excited and make them think paying might be worth it.

There may be more things we add for free, too. There's no reason we have to charge for any innovations we're going to do... We've heard the feedback and we're going to move ahead.

Eurogamer: So can we expect things like Marketplace to head to Games for Windows Live?

Kevin Unangst: You can be confident we want to enable things like digital distribution, the ability to do downloadable content for games - that's a direction we're definitely headed in. We don't have anything specific to announce in terms of timeframes right now.

Eurogamer: What about DirectX 10? Are you satisfied with the rate of adoption so far?

Kevin Unangst: There are There are 60 million DirectX 10-capable cards out on the market now. If you look at that compared to any of the console installed bases, that's a great number. If there were 60 million Wiis or 60 million 360s out there, no one would question it as a huge opportunity.

In the interests of being self-critical, I think we would have liked to have more games that took advantage of it early on in the year. Lost Planet and Company of Heroes did a good job. Right towards the end of 2007 we started to see games like Crysis ship - games that really took advantage of the technology.

'Microsoft's Kevin Unangst' Screenshot 3

Eurogamer: During a recent interview we did with Peter Molyneux, he observed that Crysis hasn't actually done that well at retail relative to the amount of time and effort invested.

Kevin Unangst: If you look at the US retail sales, which a lot of people did... You know, I was at CES talking to quite a few folks who said, 'Oh, Crysis didn't sell well, the December numbers weren't very good.'

But first of all, worldwide, it's done really well - especially on the digital distribution side. Also Crytek did the same thing they did with Far Cry: they invested in technology that's a couple of years out and they will have a much longer lifespan for that game. It's sold consistently well since then, and the new systems people buy this holiday, they're going to be running Crysis on it. That will be the benchmark.

Eurogamer: What about Cliff Bleszinkski's recent observation that PC gaming is in "disarray"? How do you respond to that?

Kevin Unangst: That's an easy judgment to make if you're just looking at US retail sales. If you look at where the growth is, there are more gamers on Windows than any other platform. There's more money spent on Windows games than any other platform. PC games outsold Wii games and PS3 games in 2007 worldwide. The growth of casual and digital distribution is huge.

I do think that, as much as I'm proud of what we've done over the last year, the industry needed to get together and be more focused on communicating those messages. PC gaming's not dying because US retailers are selling 7 per cent less games than they did the year before; it's about the exponential increases, the 80 percent increase over five years that's been predicted for the PC gaming business.

Eurogamer: Is that why you've teamed up with Intel, AMD, Nvidia and others to form the PC Gaming Alliance?

Kevin Unangst: The PC Gaming Alliance is a consortium where we can get together to set the facts straight, and have a forum to address things like piracy - which frankly is a really tough issue on the PC compared to the console... We'll have a unified voice worldwide. There will be many companies, not just the big ones we announced, that will come to help spread the message.

We've just got to get the facts straight. I think it's easy for someone to make that judgment without knowing all those facts. That's our job to fix.

Eurogamer: The name is excellent. 'The PC GAMING ALLIANCE.' Do you wear cloaks and tights?

Kevin Unangst: Haha, yeah, we had running jokes about the imagery you could have...

'Microsoft's Kevin Unangst' Screenshot 4

Eurogamer: Epic Games is part of the PCGA, which seems slightly odd considering Bleszinski's recent statement about the studio's plans to focus on console gaming.

Kevin Unangst: Mark Rein is the representative from Epic, he was at the PCGA press conference, and someone came up and said, 'Hey, Cliff just said this!' Mark was like, 'Look, you know, that's why we need things like this. That's why we needed Microsoft to go out and start doing this a year ago and invest, and start getting people's attention back.'

It's a great start. The amount of energy being expended on the Windows Gaming front is more than ever before and the amount of dollars being invested is more than ever before. I think we just haven't been touting it enough. We've got to set the record straight and get people excited, and that's what we're going to do.

Comments (47) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • optimusprym8 #1 4 years ago

    Unangst? LOL I wish PC gaming was un-angst
  • QPRHOOPS81 #2 4 years ago

    i didnt know that about live. I decided against getting Gears for the PC as i certainly wasnt going to pay for the privilidge of playing it online. I might pick it up now as i love co-op gaming. Is the PC port ok? and do many people play it online?
  • Killerbee #3 4 years ago

    Nice interview. I, for one, really hope that PC gaming is given the attention it deserves.

    The main obstacle has always been the fact you don't just put the disk in the drive and start playing - installing is one thing, but getting games to auto-configure themselves to your particular setup is surely something that should have been sorted by now. Sure, some games offer "Default" settings, but in my experience they are almost always too cautious and reduce settings or resolutions more than is really necessary.

    I've haven't made the leap to Vista yet, so I don't know how it's improved there, but getting the O/S to automatically keep drivers and such up to date would be wonderful too.
  • KingOfSpain #4 4 years ago

    kirly. did you read the article?
  • crozon #5 4 years ago

    about time someone speaks on behalf of the PC market.

  • Freek #6 4 years ago

    Just kill of the Live version for PC, it makes no sense to force users and developers into in when they are already perfectly happy with the other established alternatives out there.
  • Inspirius #7 4 years ago

    Saying there are 60 million DX10 cards is fine, but how many of them are paired with Vista? Plus you have the problem that not all DX10 cards are created equal and I suspect the useful number would be well below 10 million.
  • QPRHOOPS81 #8 4 years ago

    "60 million DX10 cards? I find this information questionable. "

    yeah but most of those are running on XP so not using DX 10. Its quite funny as most high end gamers (the ones who have the latest cards) prefer XP.
  • bf #9 4 years ago

    My goodness, billySoft is out "to set the facts straight" again... The one thing mentioned for the alliance is piracy, nothing else, wonder if this means that they will ensure unrestricted and mandatory buttficking of paying cutomers from now on alá Bioshaft.
  • miiiguel #10 4 years ago

    "The one thing mentioned for the alliance is piracy"
    It is piracy that's killing PC gaming, make no mistake.
  • oceanmotion #11 4 years ago

    I suspect that eventually games will be tied into your Live account and that's why more publishers will jump on the bandwagon because the PC space desperately needs a solution to piracy. Games for Windows is an excellent idea, that has flopped but hopefully they fix it.

    FFS! Make online play free for console owners too. It's a joke he mentioned the marketplace as a reason for charging as if we should be happy about paying for a shop!
  • MaxiSleep #12 4 years ago

    "There are There are 60 million DirectX 10-capable cards out on the market now. "

    The vast majority of which CANNOT PLAY DX10 games since they are so crippled. DX10 so far has provided an interesting way to bring your 8800 GTX to its knees whilst providing extra blur.

    This is the sort of b***t that you expect from microsof and the disaster that is vista.
  • Xerx3s #13 4 years ago

    "Games for windows seems good, the only piece of crap is the Windows version of live. Just make it free or why bother."


    After all this time and explanation people are still so dumb that they can't read. IT IS FREE! GET IT INTO YOUR *FLUFFY BUNNY* SKULL.
  • Olemak #14 4 years ago

    This time, the "early next-gen console days", will naturally be a bad time for PC gaming, as people can get a console which delivers about the same "gaming power" as a PC three or two times the price, and with a lot less hassle attached - easy to set up, comfortable to use in the living room, just a relaxing experience. Crouching over the keyboard is a lot less relaxing - I know, I just recently made the switch.

    However - in two or three years, affordable PC's will be so far ahead of console power again, and there ill be games for PC that you just can't touch on any of the consoles. Well, maybe. Anyway, gaming PC's won't really be good value again until then.

    Two other relaly important factors:
    Vista is just not gaming friendly. It's a sluggish system, making iven word processors move slowly. Its actually not progress at all (I bought a new "gaming laptop" with Vista to enjoy Bioshock, ad was apalled at the piss-poor performance - not only is the game buggy and pretty much unplayable on this setup, the system takes ages to boot up and soon. It's just not an attractive gaming experience. Oh, and Vista seems to be incompatible with Steam, at least on my rig.

    Second, the consoles are pretty good for the small, odd niche titles these days, too. I can fire up Snakeball, Riff or any Xbox live Arcade game really with quirky and innovative gameplay; good stuff and really cheap too, stuff traditionally found exclusively on PC (but requiring a lot of effort to track down) are no easily found on the consoles, cheap, and with no-hassle install.

    Here's a suggested fix for PC gaming:
    1. Strip Vista down to the basics, make a "gamer's boot option" or something, something that allows games to utilise as much of the system resoruces as possible.

    2. Installing is reportedly easyer, and so I assume the settings are easier too - next are the drivers. Especially the graphics card drivers, which need to be updated continously. Make a better system for that. Windows Updateis not doing the job right, if at all.

    3. Make quiet graphics cards - actually, make quiet PC's all-round, but the GFX cards are the main culprit in terms of noise. Nvidia and ATI are focussed on making more powerful, cutting edge etc graphics, with horrible fan noise simply being accepted. That needs to be adressed; maybe establish a series of g-card standards: performance levels within certain parameters such as noise and energy consumption. Again, the benchmark-system thing in Vista is a step in the right direction, continue with that.

    4. Continuing on the last point: make some understandable standards. "Built for Vista" is one

    5. And lastly: An open source OS that can run DirectX and hence any game made for Windows would actually save "PC gaming". Maybe get inter-compatibility with Mac OS. I think that would seriously boost "PC gaming" - like being able to play somthing worthwhile off a mac mini on a big screen TV in the living room would be ace. That would require a lot of Microsoft, who has to remain competitive of course, so that is probably not an option. Or is it? Would they loose a lot by opening up DirectX - and then prove that Windows is till the best platform for Direct X games?

    Apart from that, they're actually doing a lot of good stuff too, like the XNA thing. So it's definately a positive development, but there's a lot of heavy lifting still ahead.
  • craziii #15 4 years ago

    GW isn't free, and it also hinders any kind of speedy support from the devs. this is just an example. UAW, it's patch was delay for like months awaiting GW approval, and that was just a patch during beta.

    they withheld alot of key features from their multiplayer to sort of force people to get gold for GW. gold isn't just for cross platform play, that is just a flat out lie. if it were just for the cross platform feature, no one will complain.

    I thought they wanted good PR? why tell more lies and make themselves dirtier?
  • AbyssUK #16 4 years ago

    @miiiguel
    Its the pc gaming industry's idiotic ideas like "games for windows live" that is fuelling piracy.
  • UncleLou #17 4 years ago

    what i love most about windows live is that i cant play the single player games of the club and gears of war because of my uni firewall not letting them check in with windows live so i cant save.

    All you need is an offline account. No need to be online.
  • Mho7276501 #18 4 years ago

    @olemak i think you have must have some problems with your setup, i have been using vista since august and i am on Steam every night, i run old my old games through Steam with no problems so far. Also i had no problem running bioshock maxed out with no dips in performance, which was the same as the other people i know also running vista. It must be that you have a crap machine, sorry dude. Get more ram.
  • oceanmotion #19 4 years ago

    Maybe he did, and got a no comment or was told of questions not to ask if they were to get this interview.
  • Ryuken #20 4 years ago

    GfW Live is free but what it offers then just isn't competitive enough with better PC matchmaking alternatives.
  • Gaol #21 4 years ago

    GFW Live can't even be accessed outside of game. It's a massive disappointment compared to, say, Steam.

    The GFW branding in a more general sense is cool though, I'm glad it has introduced a standard joypad for example.
  • Katsumoto #22 4 years ago

    I wish when you have someone on ignore it would blank out what they say when other people are quoting them too. Ohh, Miiguel

    Anyway "Here's a suggested fix for PC gaming:
    1. Strip Vista down to the basics, make a "gamer's boot option" or something, something that allows games to utilise as much of the system resoruces as possible. " That's a good idea actually, and something i've thought about before. I'd like to see something like that.

    Games for Windows though - they claim they wanted to make PC gaming "easier", whatever that means, and then the two big titles, Bioshock and Gears of War, both had huge problems on launch. And if widescreen is mandatory, what was the hoo-har with Bioshock about?

    Anyway, yeah.
  • hbunny #23 4 years ago

    Microsoft are partially to blame for the current problems with PC games. Trying to force Vista down our throats as the only way to get DX10 has been a disaster for gaming. DX10 being Vista-only looks like a cynical attempt to push sales and the online forums are full of people with problems getting their games to work, and even when they do, the performance is crap.

    To the people who'll now chime in with, "I use Vista and have no problems", that's great for you, but there's enough evidence of problems that I have no intention of touching Vista as long as I can play games on XP.

    So we have a fragmented PC gaming world between Vista and XP and no clear way forward.

    And as noted, 60 million DX10 cards is not the same as 60 million PCs running Vista.
  • miiiguel #24 4 years ago

    "I wish when you have someone on ignore it would blank out what they say when other people are quoting them too. Ohh, Miiguel "
    Why most fellow EGers have this need to publicize that they've put "fellow EGer XPTO on my - so cool - ignore list ?"

    anyway, Katso, you are not on my ignore list (oh so cool...) because I love you so.

    "@miiiguel
    Its the pc gaming industry's idiotic ideas like "games for windows live" that is fuelling piracy. "
    You know it's not only that..., piracy in PC gaming is huge, since way before games for windows. Same with movies and music..., that's not really MS or anyone's fault is it?

    As stupid as it may sound but when a product costs serious money (console games) they get more respect than one that can be downloaded from a P2P network. Even if they perform not as good as.
    A way to stop piracy for good would help PC gaming more than anything else, at the moment. IMHO.
    Edited by 3 at 07/03/08 @ 14:55
  • UncleLou #25 4 years ago

    As stupid as it may sound but when a product costs serious money (console games) they get more respect than one that can be downloaded from a P2P network

    Like Photoshop, you mean?


    Oh.
  • miiiguel #26 4 years ago

    UL: didn't get it... . Or maybe I didn't explain myself clearly. What I tried to say is ppl (average joe) tend to think a console game is more evolved and it's the "real thing" because you can't just get it for free. Can you imagine a "lauch day" for a PC game for instance with the impact of Halo 3 and possible MGS4 ? It wouldn't have the same hype, because a week before half the PC gamers would be already playing.

    IMHO
  • urban #27 4 years ago

  • scratzin #28 4 years ago

    Muh, I don't like this guy. He's just an PR puppet it seems
  • paketep #29 4 years ago

    My god, yet again with the piracy!

    The shit that is Games for Windows Live is bad for the industry. The bug-ridden games that everybody is releasing (Gears of War, Frontlines: Fuel of War, etc), with DRMs that don't even let you play, are bad for the industry. Stupid declarations like CliffyB's, Molineux's, Taylor's, etc, are bad for the industry. Paying 50 euros for games that cost 30 fucking dollars in the US is bad for the industry (and makes people pirate).

    Piracy?. It's been there since the beginning, and will be there until they drop prices or follow the model of BF: Heroes. And anything they do to try to stop it only ends hurting their customers.

    So, yeah, Un-angst my ass.

    Edit: oh, and why aren't these PR tools talking about piracy in consoles?. It is as bad or worse than piracy on PC, so consoles must be dying, right?.
    Edited by 1 at 07/03/08 @ 16:59
  • Bumadan #30 4 years ago

    Why let him get off so easy saying that "piracy is a tough issue" on PC? Isnt the issue really that there is so much crap being released that noone wants to buy? And is it fair to consider people a pirate if they download a game illegally and play it for a couple of hours and then delete it because it sucks? Isnt the real pirate the company that makes that kind of "quality"?

    I know I theoretically could download most of the new games for free but I honestly dont think there are very many (if any) games worth the effort. On the other hand I bought a couple of games that I haven't even had time to begin playing.

    I think the real issue with PC games is that there are way way to many substandard products being released. And on top of that gamemakers have to consider what kind of investment of time they demand from their customers.

    Im not even that impressed with games like WoW which claim they have 10 (?) million subscribers. What kind of percentage is that out of the total number of PCs in the world? Not a very big one I am sure.

    The way I see it there is an enormous growth potential in both PC and console gamesales if only they start making consistently good addictive games that appeal to casual gamers.
  • Xerx3s #31 4 years ago

    "Why let him get off so easy saying that "piracy is a tough issue" on PC? Isnt the issue really that there is so much crap being released that noone wants to buy? And is it fair to consider people a pirate if they download a game illegally and play it for a couple of hours and then delete it because it sucks? Isnt the real pirate the company that makes that kind of "quality"? "

    That's the excuse a pirate would make. "But I only install it for a couple of hours!! Honest!" Yeah right, like we are supposed to believe that. The only one who pirates are fooling with that age old excuse are themselves.
  • Les #32 4 years ago

    "There are 60 million DirectX 10-capable cards out on the market now. If you look at that compared to any of the console installed bases, that's a great number. If there were 60 million Wiis or 60 million 360s out there, no one would question it as a huge opportunity."

    You got to love those industry big wigs... It's the sad state of human affairs that these silly word games actually work.
  • BeachGaara #33 4 years ago

    That interview could have been better.

    I would like to have got his opinion on why MS think this most ridiculous of ideas will ever work, epsecially when Steam is doing it better, for free.
  • DodgyPast #34 4 years ago

    And the developers aren't fooling themselves when they claim every pirate is a lost sale, or legal customers aren't affected by copy protection, or that even copy protection generally has any positive effect on sales?

    The only copy protection in the last year that hasn't annoyed me is Bioshock.... because it actually worked.
  • VMerken #35 4 years ago

    Get rid of the fugly GfW banner, turn it into a small, discrete logo and GfW is good to go. Oh, and exchange "Live" with "Broken", it fits better.
    Edited by 1 at 07/03/08 @ 20:40
  • MrCrun #36 4 years ago

    Just to say the Bioshock DRM didn't work straight off. I installed it on my PC twice. Once under XP to see the graphics and once under Vista to see the improvement. Then I decided to clean out Vista and format, just to get an quick, slim, fast booting install. "Surprise! You can't play this game!". I should have a right to install a game as many times as I want on as many PCs that I own as I want.
  • FooAtari #37 4 years ago

    "tend to think a console game is more evolved and it's the "real thing" because you can't just get it for free."

    What a lot of crap.

    Miiguel you want to know one of the contributing factors that made the PS1 and 2 such big sellers? Piracy.

    Anyway it's threads like these that are putting me off EG lately. Time to try some of those sites suggested to me in the forums.
  • fightman3b #38 4 years ago

    that chimp-faced fucker molyneux even got a mention in this interview. unbefuckinglievable. eurogamer might as well offer up their arsehole for him to drill with his stinky cock twice daily.

    molyneux, you're a fucking hype-spilling cunt. rrrrrhate you.
  • smoothn00dle #39 4 years ago

    PC gaming is dead, not because PC games suck. It is because consoles just getting a lot better. Despite PC claimed technical superiority, even Wii outsold PC gaming.
  • ozzit #40 4 years ago

    "They must be easy to install [and] support widescreen displays"

    Interestingly one of the first games to bear the "Games for Windows" tag was Microsoft's own Halo 2 for Windows, which _still_ to my knowledge does not support the most common widescreen resolution of 1440x900 ...
  • UncleLou #41 4 years ago

    Despite PC claimed technical superiority, even Wii outsold PC gaming.

    "Even" the Wii, huh?

  • Sar #42 4 years ago

    The GfW initiative is something I really like the idea of. A set of standards (if adhered to) for the majority of PC games releases brings a level of uniformity and balance to the PC gaming sector that consoles have enjoyed from year dot. And support for the 360 pad (a dual format version of which I bought recently for using on the PC and 360) is a welcome move, because games like Tomb Raider: Anniversary work far better on PC with a 360 pad IMO.

    However, if the initiative is to succeed then there has to be guaranteed working games. Gears of War for Windows takes nearly an hour to install, and even after that, the Live portion of the game doesn't work very well at all.

    A complete disappointment when compared to the relatively smooth running Live enjoys on Xbox 360 - it just works (recent Xmas troubles aside).
  • Grayvern #43 4 years ago

    It's DRM thats killing PC games.
  • Lawlost #44 4 years ago

    Gave up on pc gaming last year after 15 years of it. Could not afford the upgrades plus evertime I sat down to play a game I ended up needing to a) patch the game b) upgrade the drivers for the graphics card and sound card. An hour and 3 reboots later and well i kind of lost all enthusiam.
  • Sar #45 4 years ago

    It's DRM thats killing PC games.

    No, it's pirates and badly implemented copy protection that's killing PC games.
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/08 @ 15:44
  • UncleLou #46 4 years ago

    It's people making up a million silly reasons about what kills PC gaming that's killing PC gaming.
  • dsmx #47 4 years ago

    PC gaming will never, ever, ever die as long as people have a PC. It will not matter how many people pirate games, games will still be made for the PC. Anyone who thinks PC gaming will die is an idiot and should not be listened to.
  • zhivago #48 4 years ago

    Yeah GfW is free unless but I want to point out a thing most of you are probably not aware of:
    Games for Windows is AVAILABLE IN ONLY 26 COUNTRIES!!!
    Unless you are from the following countries:
    United States, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, Singapore, Portugal, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Austria and Australia you can FORGET about live service.
    A disgrace.
    MS needs to drop the gold thing and maybe charge extra if somebody wants to play Shadowrun (the only cross-plat title so far).
    I think the great minds miscalculated about bringing the XBox live model to the PC and now Unangst is trying to repair the damage