Microsoft officially announced the launch date and details of its Games for Windows – Live system, which will coincide with the launch date of Halo 2 for PC; May 8. Launching in June with be the second Games for Windows – Live game, Shadowrun, and it’ll be the first game to pit PC gamers against 360 gamers in cross-platform matches via the Live Anywhere service. UNO will be released later in 2007 with the same Live Anywhere play.
Games for Windows – Live will be similar to the very successful Xbox Live service for the Xbox 360 and will allow for a single gamertag, friends list and list of achievements to be used on both the 360 and PC. Revealed earlier this month, there will be a price to use the new Live service. Players who already subscribe to Xbox Live won’t be charged for the GfW variant, and there won’t be a charge for a Silver membership. The Gold membership, though, will come with an annual price of $49.95. The break-down of the memberships are as followed:
Silver Membership Features
– Single gamertag
– Common gamer profile
– Common gamerscore
– Single player achievements
– Private chat via text and voice
– Common friends list and online presence
– PC only multiplayer including browsing a list of active PC games
Gold Membership Features
– All Silver membership features
– Multiplayer matchmaking with friends
– TrueSkill
