games-for-windows-live-marketplace posts

Today is the final day of the daily deals promotion for Microsoft's newly relaunched Games For Windows Marketplace web site and they have ended it with a bang. For today only (until 1 am Eastern time) you can download and purchase the full version of Age of Empires III for just 10 cents.

Nope, that's not a typo. The last PC RTS game from the now shut down developer Ensemble Studios cost just a thin dime to purchase from Games For Windows Marketplace for the next 20 or so hours. Once more it looks like this is the Complete Edition with the game's two expansion packs (The WarChiefs and the Asian Dynasties) included along with the original game. Any way you slice it this is a massive value.

As promised, Microsoft has now relaunched its Games For Windows web site with its new role as a web-based store to download a number of PC games. The Game For Windows Marketplace site contains PC titles that use Microsoft's Games For Windows Live online service based titles as well as games that don't support the service, although it does not contain the many games that use Valve's Steamworks service. Microsoft also has a new version of the Games For Windows Live client available to download.

To celebrate the launch the web site will offer daily sales deals for the next week. The first is for Grand Theft Auto IV which has a price cut today online to $11.99. In addition there are some new additions to the web site's PC game library including all of the DLC for Dead Rising 2 along with the 11th edition of the classic arcade game collection for Microsoft's Game Room.

As we reported last month, Microsoft plans to relaunch its downloadable PC game service from a client-based service to a web-based stores called Games For Windows Marketplace. That is scheduled to happen on Monday, November 15. That same day will see a new software update for Microsoft's Games For Windows Live online service, according to a post on the Games For Windows official message boards.

The post goes over the new features that will be included in the update. One of them will enable all Games For Windows Live-supported PC games with an "higher quality voice codec" for things like in-game chat, voice messages and private chat. Unfortunately this update is not compatible with those games that have cross-platform multiplayer support with their Xbox 360 counterparts.

The Games For Windows Live patch will also give players an updated version of Windows Live ID to sign into the service and also adds support for "Per-Title 5x5 keys" that will allow more than one Gamertag to play a Games For Windows Live title on a single PC.

We are beginning to see the latest financial results come in from the various publicly traded game-related companies come in for the last fiscal quarter. Today Microsoft announced that its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes its Games For Windows and Microsoft Games Studios business, brought in $382 million in profits for the quarter that ended on September 30.

A lot of that money came from the sales success of Halo Reach, Microsoft's latest Xbox 360 game in the long running shooter series. However Microsoft, as we have been reporting for the last few months, has been beefing up its PC game portion of the division, announcing new PC exclusive titles like the upcoming Age of Empires Online, as well as an upcoming revamp for its Games For Windows PC game download business.

As we reported earlier today, Microsoft plans to revamp its PC game download business strategy in mid-November by switching from its Games For Windows Live client to a web-based store called Games For Windows Marketplace. However, like other PC game download sites, don't expect that store to have any PC games that use Valve's Steamworks features. Shacknews quotes Microsoft's Peter Orullian as saying, "If a game is a Steamworks game, it's not something we're selling." Earlier this week Valve announced that over 200 games have incorporated Steamworks' tools. Ironically Valve has had no problems offering PC games for sale on Steam that have Microsoft's Games For Windows Live features.

Microsoft's stance against selling Steamworks-based PC games is similar to what Stardock has for its Impulse game download service and GamersGate has for its own service. Both feel that since Steamworks-enabled games require the use of Valve's Steam client they don't want to sell titles that have such a client on their service. Direct2Drive's owners at IGN used to feel the same way but earlier this year IGN did a 180 and started selling Steamworks-enabled PC games due, the company claims, to its customer demands.

Microsoft is getting ready to launch yet another major revamp in its 3 1/2 year old Games For Windows program for PC gaming. Today the company officially announced that starting on November 15, the Games For Windows Marketplace web site will go live. PC gamers can purchase and download full PC game titles from the site. The Games For Windows Live client software, which also supports for full PC game downloads, will be used for other purposes after November 15.

Big Download chatted on the phone earlier this week with Microsoft group product manager Peter Orullian about the upcoming changes for its PC game download service. However before we get to his comments and the specifics of the changes that will be made to Games For Windows Marketplace let's go back in time to see how it has evolved to its current point.

Microsoft's announcement of Age of Empires Online earlier this week made more than one RTS fan happy. Now Microsoft is celebrating the revival of its own RTS game franchise with a special sale at the Games For Windows web site. From now until Monday five RTS titles will have price cuts on the site. The games are downloaded via the Games For Windows Live client.

The games include Microsoft's own Age of Empires III: Complete Collection which has the last game in the series and its two expansion packs that were made by the now defunct Ensemble Studios. The game is now available for $19.99, a 50 percent price cut. The other games that are on sale have prices of $9.99 each and include Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, Dawn of War Dark Crusade, Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.

One of the cool things about Games For Windows Live is being able to link your Xbox 360 Gamertag to your Games For Windows Live account That means you can play a Games For Windows Live game and add to your Achievements score. Indeed you can play a PC port of an Xbox 360 game and gain new achievements that are not in the Xbox 360 version.

But how did the whole Achievement idea come about in the first place? The Xbox.com web site has the answer in a new Xbox Engineering Blog post written by Microsoft's Vince Curley, the first programmer for the Achievements system. He goes into detail on how Achievements are programmed as well as other inside info. The creation of Achievements for the Xbox 360 has certainly influenced Valve when they put in achievements into its Steamworks tools.

It was the last retail PC game that Microsoft published back in December 2007. It's the PC port of Gears of War, the third person sci-fi shooter from developer Epic Games. PC gamers who didn't pick up the game in stores can now purchase and download the title for the first time via Games For Windows Live's On Demand service for $19.99 or 1600 Microsoft points.

Also added to Games For Windows Live's PC game download service is the original BioShock, also priced at $19.99. Finally the original Max Payne game is available for download on the service for $9.99.

[Thanks TheWeaponeer]

It looks like Microsoft might be serious when it said it planned to make a bigger effort to publish PC games. Kotaku is reporting that the company is working with Texas-based developer Robot Entertainment, on an upoming PC exclusive strategy game. Little is known of the game at this point other than its code names "Project S" or "Spartan". Kotaku displayed what it says is a load screen for the game which seems to suggest a title set during the ancient Greek empire.

Robot Entertainment was formed in 2009 by former members of Ensemble Studios which created the acclaimed and best selling Age of Empires RTS series. Even with the sales success of the franchise, Microsoft chose to shut down the developer in early 2009 after Ensemble completed the Xbox 360 exclusive RTS game Halo Wars. Robot Entertainment has just relaunched its official web site and under the "Games" section it confirms that one of its two unannounced future titles will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

We have emailed Microsoft to see if it plans to comment on what looks like its first PC exclusive game it will publish since the release of the expansion pack Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties in October 2007.