games-for-windows posts

Friday has arrived and with it comes some new PC game download sales. Keep in mind that some of these price cuts are for today only while one sale will actually last through next Thanksgiving weekend.

• Impulse is the one that is holding its Thanksgiving PC game sale a bit early with a bunch of game titles that will have price cuts that will last through November 29. The exceptions are Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, Red Alert 3 Uprising and C&C 4 which will be 50 percent off through November 23.
• Direct2Drive has Grand Theft Auto IV The Complete Edition (game + two expansions) on sale today only for just $9.95.
• Games For Windows Marketplace has BioShock 2 on sale this weekend for $9.99. It also has Saints Row 2 on sale today only for $5.99.
• Steam has Sniper Ghost Warrior and its DLC mini-expansion on sale for 50 percent off each this weekend.
• GamerGate has a number of games on sale that have some kind of dragon theme this weekend.
• GoG.com has a bunch of Ubsoft games on sale for 30 percent off each this weekend or all 17 games in a bundle for 50 percent off..

Tuesday brings us some big price cuts on three PC games. Two of them are for today only while another lasts until Thursday:

• Over at the newly revamped Games For Windows web site they have Gearbox Software's FPS Borderlands on sale today only for just $9.99, a 50 percent price cut.
• Direct2Drive has the Grand Theft Auto collection (GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas) on sale for just $7.50 for today online.
• Steam has Zombie Driver on sale until Thursday for just $4.99. The game just got an update today that adds the free Blood Rage expansion pack

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.

Thursday brings us some quick and dirty PC game sales that will last for the rest of the weekend. We will post even more sales on Friday but for now check out what's on our docket:

• Steam has put two games on sale this weekend. One is the 2009 fantasy RPG Risen which gets a 50 percent price cut to just $14.99. The other is for F1 2010, the more recent racing simulation. You can get the game for $26.79, a 33 percent savings. Both sales end Monday.
• On the last weekend before it switches from a client to a web-based store, Games For Windows has the indie game Osmos for just $2.49, a 75 percent price cut, until Monday.

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.

A few months ago it looked like THQ was moving away from using Microsoft's Games For Windows Live for its PC games in favor of Valve's Steamworks tools. However, in a new interview over at Shacknews, THQ exec Danny Bilson stated that while Steamworks has been easier to use for its PC games he admitted, "Microsoft is really talking to me a lot about getting back on Games for Windows Live." He added, " I like both platforms and I really, really, really like Microsoft as a partner. They're fantastic partners. I want to respect them."

Bilson also talked about how important the PC platform is for THQ, stating, "You're going to see us putting out almost every, single console title we can on PC to expand our audience and expand the customer base, ultimately."

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.

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.

Developer Timegate Studios has announced that it will launch a PC-based multiplayer beta test for Section 8: Prejudice, the next game in the company's sci-fi first person shooter series. Folks interested in participating in the beta can sign up on the game's official web site. Sign ups require a free registration to Timegate's message boards. The beta test will begin later this fall.

While details of what will be in the beta have yet to be revealed, the press release announcing the beta test stated that Section 8 Prejudice will be using Microsoft's Games For Windows Live service for "streamlined matchmaking and improved server browsing." The full game is due out in early 2011.

After its surprise announcement earlier this summer, the folks at developer Robot Entertainment have started to send out invites to the closed beta test of Age of Empires Online. In fact the developer has been sending waves of invites to the closed beta for a few weeks now, according to the game's official Twitter page.

The site is still accepting sign ups for future beta invites but at the moment there's no word on when the next beta emails will be sent out. There's also no word on when the open beta for Age of Empires Online will launch. The game from publisher Microsoft will be released sometime in 2011.