Microsoft Games for Windows Marketplace Goes Live

Couple weeks back, Microsoft announced its Steam like service would be going live November 15th. Well, surprisingly, it kept its word and it’s now up and running. Marketplace will now be part of the Games for Windows Live application as well as have a dedicated website. Many games are already for sale, including the daily deal – which would be the original non-GOTY edition of Borderlands at the moment.

The GFWL client has been updated, which I dare say didn’t go terribly smoothly for me. Live users can not log into the service until you agree to the new terms and conditions, which it doesn’t actually inform you about and merely exclaims one of its infamous error codes, how useful. Following the error code and thrown into an IE window, you are presented with the new Terms, accepting allows you to log into the Live Client. Marketplace is powered by Silverlight (Microsoft’s equivalent to Flash) within the Live client, but the website is not.

As far as content goes, many of the current hot titles are unavailable, such as CoD: Black Ops, Medal of Honor, even Civilization V. There are also a few anomalies, such as the GOTY edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum is cheaper than the original. Additionally, many of the games have sparse information, often citing just the operating system, sometimes the minimum required memory, but no GPU, CPU, etc. Pricing is largely higher than Steam as well.

It is still early days for Microsoft and launching a new service such as this is hardly easy nor simple. Many would have preferred to walk on broken glass than use Steam in its early days. Microsoft has some big shoes to fill, and some stiff competition, since the market is not just about Steam, but also other digital distribution sites such as Direct2Drive, GoG and Impulse. We shall have to see how the service fairs over this Primary Gifting Period..

Games for Windows Marketplace delivers great games at great prices and gives you access to Games for Windows — LIVE, a free online gaming service that lets you connect and play with your friends and millions of Xbox LIVE members!