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Microsoft is Screwing Up Live on Vista

Posted by Zonk on from the get-with-the-program dept.

Joe The Dragon wrote with a link to an ExtremeTech article lambasting Microsoft for its confusing rollout of the Live service on the PC. While the vision of achievements, a gamerscore, a consistent friends list, and one sprawling multiplayer network is tantalizing, the reality falls somewhat short of that goal. "The biggest mistake Microsoft is making with Live on the PC is the way they're treating the PC as if it's a console platform they can control. They're trying to lock out the rest of the world and to charge for features that PC gamers have had for free for ages. It's a shortsighted, greedy scheme that could only come from a product manager or VP who simply doesn't "get" PC gaming. The free Silver level of Xbox Live lets you log in on the PC and earn Achievements just like you do on the 360--but only single-player Achievements. Multiplayer Achievements are only for those $50-a-year Gold members. Player matchmaking is for Gold members only. Voice in games is for Gold members only. Cross-platform play between 360 and PC is for Gold members only. In fact, the only thing silver members can really do is view a server list and hop onto a specific server." Article author Jason Cross warns Microsoft at the end of the piece that it is 'not too late' to turn things around. Vista is still a young platform, and once driver issues are ironed out and Vista becomes the standard there are still opportunities for success.

9 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. ob by Bastard+of+Subhumani · · Score: 4, Funny

    What, right now? Which channel is it on?

    --
    Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
  2. Videocast? by u-bend · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I first saw this, I thought it was a videocast: "Watch MS screw up LIVE!!"

    --
    u-bend
    1. Re:Videocast? by Applekid · · Score: 4, Funny

      My first glance at it: "Microsoft is Screwing Up Life with Vista" ;)

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
  3. Re:standard? by interiot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Get real, this is only temporary.
    Device drivers for certain types of devices have to be completely rewritten for Vista, or the hardware won't work. Creative is one company that's stated that only the very newest hardware will be supported on Vista... all other hardware that's just a little older will never be supported on Vista... that's not temporary, that's a permanent loss of support for hardware. And if Creative (a larger, more well-off company) won't rewrite most of its recent drivers for Vista, how are smaller companies going to fare?
  4. I hope this fails by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a PC gamer, I sincerely hope it fails. Battle.net was the first example of free online play, but other games are following suit. Microsoft is pulling this shit right as it's become standard for RTS's (at least) to include a free online service. In addition to that, it'll create more lock-in for gamers. The upside is that it'll standardize things like in-game voice chat and online play, but it isn't enough.

    1. Re:I hope this fails by CogDissident · · Score: 5, Informative

      Standardize online play, humm, lets think, what company has already done this?

      Yeah, thats right, Steam and Stardock both have these features (well, ok, not voice chat, but the other things). Both are free, cross-platform, and supported by many, many developers.

      Congrats M$, for entering a market where not only do you have two strong competetors, but you offer a clearly inferior service for vast amounts more money.

  5. Is it just matchmaking? by PhoenixOne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it is just matchmaking and a score-board, yeah $50 is a bit much. But if Microsoft is hosting the games on their servers and checking to make sure nobody is cheating (as much as you can for PC games), then it might be worth the $4.25 a month they want.

    I do agree however, that they *need* the Live interface to be part of Vista and not just something that you run from inside games. Being able to see if my friends are playing a certain game while I'm downloading porn...um, checking my email would be nice.

    My bet is that Live Vista will suck for the first couple of months. In a year, it will be acceptable. And in 2 to 3 years it will become the standard. Being able to see that your friend is playing Shadowrun while you are playing WoW will be the killer app.

    --
    Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
  6. Re:standard? by sid0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hmm. As for Creative, an alternative driver does exist, the latest beta (3538m, find it in the forum) of which does support Vista on all SoundBlaster Live! and other unsupported cards. They work great.

    I'm aware that there are other devices that don't work with Vista, but I've got all of mine (some of which are quite old) to work, either with Vista-supplied drivers, or with Windows XP drivers. The situation is hardly as bad as it is sometimes made out to be.

  7. How is this a problem? by ravyne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is this a problem? If the free Silver account allows you to freely view and join servers, just the same as most PC games do now, how are you losing anything? Are you bitching that adding extras like matchmaking and voice chat, not to mention a mechanism to ban known cheaters, will cost you less than 5 bucks a month?

    The vast majority of current PC games supporting free multiplayer seem to provide the same thing that the free Silver account will. Also keep in mind that the Account is the same for your Xbox 360 and original XBox. Personally, having one consistant identity, with the same reputation and buddy list, across 3 different platforms is pretty much worth the money to me already.

    The arguement in the article seems to be "Some PC games provide some of this functionality for free, therefore any system bringing it all together should be free too!"