Microsoft has just introduced Games for Windows – LIVE a free gaming service for Windows. It’s the same online gaming service you get with Xbox LIVE but you’re your Windows desktop. It even breaks across platforms to the Xbox 360 so it’s compatible with your Xbox LIVE gamer tag.

LIVE is the easiest way to jump into a game of Call of Duty 4 with both combat boots. Using an automatic match making system you don’t have to surf through a list of servers to find the lowest ping or bother seeking gamers around your skill level. LIVE does it all for you. Microsoft is now bringing this functionality to games on Windows. Some games will even allow you to play across platforms. In other words, you’re playing on your Windows desktop against opponents playing on Xbox 360 or Windows.

Games for Windows – LIVE will add all the LIVE features to Windows games. It’s that simple. Achievements, friends’ lists, chats, messaging are all in Windows iteration of LIVE and fully compatible with your existing Xbox LIVE account.

Microsoft’s official announcement doesn’t say which games will be cross-platform compatible but it’ll be interesting to see how it actually works. Will there be some annoying delay that’ll take down the competitive level of some games? This would make cross-platform gaming a novelty at best. If any first-person shooter is on the cross-platform compatible list we may finally see which is truly better – mouse and keyboard or a console controller.

Tags: Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 am and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.