Well, here comes a whopper of a bombshell. Starting in the near future, Games for Windows on Vista will begin charging for online gaming just like their Xbox 360 brethren. The pricing structure will be exactly as it is on Microsoft’s console: $50 for a year, $20 for three months, or $7 for a single month.
Revealed to Game Informer shortly before Microsoft’s presentation at GDC, the speculation that began with Shadowrun has proven to be completely true. There will still be a Silver package at no cost, but no details have been given at this time whether or not an option is included to play peer-to-peer without Gold. The collective hearts of the PC gaming community will most likely sink, as paying for online gaming is something very new in its ten-plus year lifespan.
The silver lining is that your Xbox 360 account will carry over to your PC, which will include your current Gamertag and Achievements. So, if you already have an Xbox Live account, you won’t have to pay twice. Certain future Vista releases–such as Halo 2–will carry unique Achievements with them that will mingle with your current 360 Gamerscore. So, for those who play games online on both Xbox 360 and PC, nothing will change for you. But one has to wonder what this kind of initiative will do to tarnish Microsoft’s image amongst hardcore PC users. It’s hard to foresee exactly what sort of reaction the PC crowd will have to the news of suddenly having to pay for something that has been free for years.
EA essentially attempted to do this very same thing with its 360 EA Sports lineup, and admitted defeat not long after. Microsoft has a tall hill to climb if it can’t convince users that they’re getting something they were not getting before.
