Microsoft Details Games for Windows Live Marketplace

Microsoft Gamefest 2008 has been a pretty packed conference, with some of the announcements coming out of the event more interesting than what Microsoft has shown at its recent E3 presentation. One of the biggest announcements so far was that Game for Windows Live Gold, the PC counterpart to the Xbox Live Gold, will be free to use for all users.

Now Kevin Unangst from Microsoft has been detailing to Gamasutra how Microsoft wants to mimic the Xbox Live Marketplace on the PC, through a service called Games for Windows Live Marketplace, that is due to hit this fall.

Unangst compared the service for the Xbox 360 with the one planned for the PC and said that they were "going to be connected [...]. Same friends list, same Gamertag, same currency. On the Xbox they're going to continue to do things that make sense for the console... on the PC side, what we're looking at that specifically delivers value to Windows games or Windows gamers".

At first the Games of Windows Live Marketplace (they are going to have to come up with a cool acronym for that) will only offer things like demos, trailers and press releases related to PC titles that get the Games for Windows seal from Microsoft. In addition to that, downloadable content will be offered, both free and with a price tag attached. Microsoft believes PC gamers, who are accustomed to getting things like map packs and bonus content for free, might be convinced to pay if the content offered is of top quality.

Unangst also talked about the possibility of offering full game download through the Marketplace. He said "It's certainly on the roadmap. Not a focus for us with this fall release. This fall release is focused around how you add on game content or how you provide content that surrounds the game - trailers, demos, other things that you could do." But he mentioned that "all of the infrastructure certainly is there." So in addition to the likes of GameTap, Steam, GamersGate and Impulse we might see Microsoft entering the digital download business in the near future.