It's been a long time in coming but as we reported on Tuesday, Microsoft has finally decided to give PC gamers (and in an indirect way developers) a break in regards to their Games for Windows Live service. The company announced that it was doing away with the $50 a year fee to use the previously labeled "Gold" features of the service.

Big Download chatted briefly on the phone today with Games for Windows senior global director Kevin Unangst who talked more with us about this new move. He also chatted with us about other topics such as the just announced DirectX11 graphics API, the upcoming Games for Windows Marketplace and whether Microsoft will ever release any more PC games on their own.Unangst was careful not to term this new move to change the pricing for Games for Windows Live as correcting a mistake that might have been made in the launch of the features just over a year ago. Rather he said that Microsoft had received "feedback from developers and gamers" over the past year that suggested that doing away with the charges to use these premium features would be preferable. One of those features is the TruSkill matchmaking ability and Unangst said, "We want everyone to have the best matchmaking on the planet."

Other Games for Windows Live features that are now newly free to used by everyone include voice and text chat and the ability to play against their Xbox 360 counterparts in selected games (currently those games are Shadowrun, Lost Planet Colonies and Universe at War: Earth Assault). Unangst told us that developers at Microsoft's Gamefest game conference this week have expressed more interest in incorporating Games for Windows Live in their titles. At the moment only three future PC titles have been revealed to have Games for Windows Live support; Relic and THQ's Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II, Eidos's Battlestations Pacific and Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3.

Along with the current changes in Games for Windows Live, Unangst also talked to us about two upcoming changes and additions to the service. One is a brand new user interface for Games for Windows Live that will be released this fall. The current version looks much like Microsoft's Xbox 360 interface and is place right in the middle of the gamers' screen. The new version (which you can see an example of at the beginning of the article) is much more compact and rests of top of the PC game screen with things like a player's Gamertag, their friends, messages and other features viable. Unangst told us the interface will be much easier to access for PC gamers who use a mouse and keyboard with drop-down menus rather than the console controller based UI that it currently had. Again, Unangst said the changes were made as a response from feedback from PC gamers and developers.

Also coming this fall is the new Games for Windows Marketplace which will allow for downloadable extra content such as patches, demos and trailers to be made available in-game for Games for Windows Live. Unangst also told us that there will be a stand alone client released for the Marketplace as well. At the moment Unangst told us that the Marketplace will just be for extra content, patches, and other smaller downloads. While he did say that support for downloading full games is in the works it would not be a part of the fall launch of the marketplace.

We also talked about the just announced DirectX11, the next edition of Microsoft's graphics API that is used by practically every PC game. DirectX10 was launched just 18 months ago with the launch of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system and so far only a few games have been released that support the API, largely because DirectX10 can only be use on Vista. So will DirectX11 have a similar launch? Unangst told us that won't be the case as DirectX11 will have both Vista support as well as support for future Windows OSs. Also graphics hardware that runs DirectX10 will also be able to run DirectX11 supported game titles. So far there's no word yet on when DirectX11 will launch.

Finally, we asked Unangst whether Microsoft plans to get more involved in publishing PC games on their own. Currently the only two PC games on Microsoft's schedule are Remedy's long-in-development Alan Wake and Microsoft Railway Simulator. Unangst assured us that the company has other PC games in development but that they are keeping details to themselves for now. Big Download will get more info on Games for Windows Live's changes as they are announced and released and will stay in touch with Microsoft about their future PC gaming plans.