Games for Windows online marketplace relaunches, still not as good as Steam

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Microsoft's third (by our count) attempt to make the service relevant

No one cares about Games For Windows, the brand that Microsoft launched in 2006. The company realized this ages ago and has attempted to make the service relevant ever since.

In its most recent attempt, Microsoft haslaunched a new online marketplaceto help the service compete with its biggest competition, Steam. The new launch is a reboot of the existing marketplace service (called Games on Demand), which worked more like the 360 Marketplace than Steam.

It's slick, but after looking at the offerings, we can't help but feel that it's too little and way too late. The game library is dwarfed by even other Steam competitors like Direct2Drive. When we first checked it out, the service's lead salewas GTA IV with no DLC for £11.99, a price that has been beaten by several Steam sales in the past. Its current daily sale is Borderlands for $9.99 or £7.49, which isn'tbad (Steam offered it for $10.19, with $3.39 DLCduring its summer sale), but will it really convince you to start using a new service?

[Source: Rock Paper Shotgun]

Nov 16, 2010

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