Microsoft details plans to extend Live game service to PCs

Microsoft detailed plans today to extend its successful Xbox Live online video-game service to personal computers running the Windows Vista operating system.

The strategy, first announced last spring, could vastly expand the number of video gamers using the Live network, which provides a gamer identity, lists of online friends to play with, in-game chatting and text messaging, a marketplace and other features.

"The PC is the largest gaming platform in the world," said Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's group product manager for Xbox Live and the new service, Games for Windows Live. "So while we feel great about the 10 million Xbox 360s that we've sold, we realize that the market opportunity on the PC is significantly larger than the console has ever been historically."

Microsoft plans to have three titles available for the PC online gaming platform in 2007, and they're all designed to run on its new Windows Vista operating system.

The blockbuster "Halo 2" title will launch the new service when it becomes available May 8. Later in the year, "Shadowrun" a first-person shooter, and "Uno," the card game, will be available on the platform. "Halo 2" and "Shadowrun" are products of Microsoft Game Studios.

Microsoft sees this as a potential spur to Windows Vista sales. Multimedia improvements in the operating system such as the Direct X 10 graphics engine will entice video-game enthusiasts to the new operating system, Greenberg said.

But the Games for Windows Live experience will not be limited to Vista, he added.

"We're definitely keeping our options open around bringing this to other versions of Windows as well," Greenberg said.

As with Xbox Live, a subscription to the highest level of the Games for Windows Live service will cost $50 a year.

A second-tier service that still allows multiplayer gaming is free, but it will not allow PC gamers to play with others using the Xbox 360 console.

Billy Pidgeon, a video-game analyst at IDC, said it makes sense for Microsoft to expand its potential audience in the Live gaming network. The company recently reached 6 million subscribers.

"It leverages many of the investments and success with the Xbox 360 to the PC side," he said.

Benjamin J. Romano: bromano@seattletimes.com