Games for Windows never quite took off. Most publishers haven’t really bought into the whole ‘Xbox Live on PC’ concept, and of course, the buggy client and generally iffy post-release support didn’t win gamers over either. So after revamping the website and relaunching the service earlier this year, Microsoft is now doing away with Games for Windows entirely and merging it with Xbox.com in an attempt to make all gaming content available in one place.
The announcement was made via a brief post on the Games for Windows website, and Microsoft has confirmed to Eurogamer that the merger will take place on July 11. While expecting this to be the first step in Microsoft’s grand move towards Xbox-PC cross platform play would be wishful thinking, it does seem strange to see PC games being offered via an Xbox service, which is clearly a console brand. We’ll have to wait and see if this latest move will turn Microsoft’s PC games digital distribution business around or just push it further into obscurity.
