Topic: GFWL updated: Marketplace open, standalone client, Viva Pinata PC demo

[idolminds]

News

Wow, MS is actually doing shit with it. Amazing.

VP demo, here I come!

[gpw11]

I'm so all over the VP demo.  What else is going to be on the marketplace?  I'm crossing my fingers for short little indy games and shit like that.  It'd be wicked to see the guys from Aquaria and other games get some respect.

[idolminds]

No word yet, though thats where they are going to sell DLC for various games, like Fallout 3 and GTA4.

But fuck that, lets see some Castle Crashers, Prince of Persia Classic, Pac Man Championship Edition and all those other cool games.

[Quemaqua]

CASTLE CRASHERS.  NOW PLZ.

[idolminds]

Well, I installed the update. Kind of reminds me of the new PSN PC software...only less fancy. Which is fine, because it doesn't have to be. It would be nice if it allowed you to do more, like the friends list or check your achievements. I'm sure that will come along.

I started the Viva Pinata demo download. Thank you MS for allowing me to pause and resume downloads easily. Steam is a pile of shit for pausing downloads, this one just does what I tell it.

[Cobra951]

Castle Crashers still desperately needs a patch for the horribly broken save functionality.  If you play online or on some machine other than the original one, you have a high likelihood of losing your save data.  It's been 3 months since release.  The Behemoth claim that it's the fault of the patch-certification process, but won't offer any details.  Just a heads up in case it does end up going to this GFWL.  This company is batting 1000 on bad save code in their XBLA games.  Alien Hominid had save issues too.

I can now browse the XBox marketplace on my PC, and buy XBLA games with it.  Whatever I may buy is supposed to download automatically to the console next time I log on.  Pretty slick stuff.  I guess they're trying to integrate everything of theirs gaming-related under one UI umbrella.  Some people used this to get the intentionally delayed port of Banjo-Kazooie.  It was held back 3 weeks to give people who preordered Nuts & Bolts the exclusive free download.  But they forgot to block it on the PC.  What they ended up doing is raising the price on it from 1200 points to 99,999.  Haha!  If you want to pay $1250 for it, sure!  Be our guest.

[MysterD]

Here's a crazy thought.

With Microsoft bringing the PC and X360 so much closer together and all -- since many of these games are multi-platformed and released for both at the same time -- maybe they should just have the PC and X360 versions of games (multi-platformed) in the same damn game box -- and charge a reasonable few bucks for it. This way, you can play it on either platform -- PC or X360.

Why not? This way, gamers don't get pigeonholed into buying the PC version or the X360 version. Hell, you got both versions in the same box.

Kind of like how when HD-DVD was out, some discs were selling in the same box the DVD version and HD-DVD version of the game.

[idolminds]

Because MS would rather sell you a game twice if they can.

[MysterD]

Because MS would rather sell you a game twice if they can.

Well, of course that's one reason.

But, wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft sold a box with both versions of a game (PC and X360) in it for say around $20 extra?

[Cobra951]

It's not at all the same as with movies.  The hard work with those comes before the consumer formats they get duped to.  If you had to re-shoot and re-edit a movie to release it on multiple platforms, you would never see multiple formats in one box.

[Ghandi]

Yeah that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Plus I wouldn't even want / need both versions.

I'm glad that GFWL seems halfway decent at the moment. I may have to try out some of the games that will work on my system. Speaking of which, is Castle Crashers only multiplayer? Or can I go solo? Not that it matters, since it isn't out yet. But if they do release it I'd be all over if I don't have to go online.

[beo]

sorry d, but being polite - that's not a good idea!

first off, i wouldn't want two copies of the same game (different formats or not), unless it was free. if it was free, or at least less than double the price, i'd just go halves on the game with a friend who had the other system - or alternatively sell it. there could be security measures brought in to prevent this (DRM association with gamertags, etc) but then you're just opening a entirely new world of problems.

[Xessive]

Microsoft would like to see all PC gamers also buy X360's. Obviously.

I don't think it would be tremendously difficult to have games developed to run on both PC and X360. But why would they do that when they stand to make a shitload more money off separate formats? This way they rake in some cash from PC players, X360 players, and the select few who buy for both systems. That's probably why some games get released a year or two later in the other format too.

Microsoft treat their customers like bad polygamous husbands mistreat their wives.

[Cobra951]

I'm sure they can virtualize the 360 into a fast-enough PC.  The 360 is very close to a 3-core game PC with Radeon graphics from 3 years ago.  The data transfers between CPU and GPU are faster, but so are the newer PCs.  What's going to nix this is the fear of piracy.  Once you emulate the system on PCs, it's way more vulnerable.  However, there should be a streamlined process to produce content from its inception for both platforms.  They share so much in common that not doing it is a waste.  I don't know where that leaves the PS3, but I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't care.  And it's Microsoft we're talking about here, right?  The whole GFWL/XBL smearing of boundaries thing.