When you are dealing with things like downloadable videos, patches (Microsoft prefers the term "title updates, by the way), demos and downloadable content, how about going all the way and offering full games like Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse and many other established systems? Wolf told us, "It's definitely on our roadmap," but wouldn't give any specifics on when we can expect such services will be added to Games For Windows Live.

The Games For Windows brand itself launched around the same time as Windows Vista did and so far over 80 games have used the brand in their advertising and on top of their retail boxes. Yet many major PC games like Spore, Warhammer Online, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and the about-to-launch World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King have decided to forgo having the brand. When asked, Wolf defended the brand saying, "Having over 80 games in less than two years isn't bad." He added that Microsoft is always talking with publishers and developers on using the Games For Windows brand on their games and upcoming titles like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will have that branding.
Microsoft itself used to be a major PC game publisher itself but at the moment the only PC game that's being internally developed by the company (that it has announced anyway) is Microsoft Rail Simulator 2. Wolf would not comment on what Microsoft has in store for publishing future PC games and our inquiries about possible PC ports of games like Fable 2 and Halo 3 were given answers like, "Nothing I can say at this time."

And what about Windows 7? While Microsoft has yet to officially announce when their next PC OS will be released, things seem to point to a holiday 2009 ship date. Windows Vista added things like showing performance information, ESRB ratings and more to give gamers more info about their titles in the Games folder. While Wolf wouldn't comment specifically on what game related features Windows 7 will have he did say that we can expect a continuation of what what put into Vista. And will there be Windows 7 specific PC games, like Microsoft released with Halo 2 Vista and Shadowrun? Again, Wolf would not comment on those plans.

So it looks like after an aborted attempt to make Games For Windows Live look and feel like an Xbox 360 console, Microsoft is now moving toward a much more PC centric model for their service. The big question: can Games For Windows Live compete with services like Steam that already offer up similar features? That remains to be seen.