Microsoft has announced they’ll be giving Xbox Live silver accounts access to play some multi-player cross-platform games for free until the fall update. Recently, Microsoft announced free online play with Games for Windows titles, effectively giving PC gamers “gold accounts” to play online.
Most people agree the move to give gold subscriptions to PC gamers was done because PC gamers don’t care to play Games for Windows games online if they have to pay for it. The culture of PC gaming is much different than console gaming on XBL, gamers expect the online experience at no cost; they’re already paying an ISP for network access, paying for a match-making system with a yearly subscription is not desired.
Console gamers don’t have a choice, buying the 360 experience arrives with simple to play games (no drivers, no installs) but limited online choices: pay or go away. Now, silver members will get a little taste of network play, along side PC gamers in the cross-platform Games for Windows titles.
“Supported cross-platform titles include Universe at War, Shadowrun, and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.” (gamespot)
We question the intention here… is this as a good faith move or are they wetting people’s appitite for XBL so they’ll want to upgrade to gold in the fall? Or, maybe there are some logistical reasons to doing this in the Xbox Live infrastructure to prepare for upgrades where making it free solves a few of their internal upgrade paths and, as a side effect, gives gamers some games to play.
Of course, we’ve seen few people playing Shadowrun or Lost Planet lately. Maybe this will re-popularize a few older titles as well.
My roommate has the white PS4 that was bundled with Destiny.
I recall playing DotA when it was new in 2005, but I haven’t played it in years because I disliked teammates “feeding” (dieing a lot) and being killed by multiple opponents because my teammate(s) wouldn’t declare MiA (missing in action) heroes in their lanes.
Regarding why people in RTS and MOBA games click constantly might be to help their reaction time, as I, too, did that; it would let me know relative server latency.
I never played LoL, HotS, or DOTA2, but I have spectated DOTA2 to see my PC’s performance, and DOTA2 got a Vulkan update, so I’m hoping for the next Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, or Valve game to use a good Vulkan implementation.
I enjoy watching Super Mario Maker, “Retro” category games, nostalgic games, and high requirement games because I’m using an old PC until Zen arrives, and I, too, use Twitch to preview games.; it, also, serves as “background noise”.
I watch StarCraft 2 and other RTS games because I’m no good at them anymore.