{"id":34287,"date":"2015-01-23T09:51:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T17:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/?p=34287"},"modified":"2015-01-23T09:51:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T17:51:18","slug":"gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/","title":{"rendered":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the top ten list of dumb gaming industry decisions, requiring a paid membership for PC gamers to access multiplayer in the earliest days of Games For Windows Live has to be near the first place spot. There was no way that PC gamers would pay $50 a year to fight against other Universe at War: Earth Assault players. Microsoft had to admit defeat and repealed the membership requirement in July 2008, but the damage was done. The pricing scheme flopped and left gamers wary of Microsoft&#8217;s foray into the PC gaming client space.<\/p>\n<p>Never let it be said that Microsoft won&#8217;t learn from history. Why not revive the idea of paid Gold memberships for PC gamers, but this time make multiplayer free? After Microsoft showed off <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/21\/windows-10-will-finally-allow-gamers-play-forza-pcs\/\">some neat Xbox Live stuff<\/a> for Windows 10 at the recent press event, Mike Ybarra, the &#8206;Partner Director of Program Management at Xbox, told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2015\/1\/23\/7878071\/microsoft-considering-xbox-gold-program-for-windows-10-but-online\">Polygon<\/a> that the company is looking at that very idea. Why would a PC player pay for Xbox Live Gold if multiplayer remains free?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;In terms of anything around the Gold program that we might bring to PC, we think there is a lot of value on the console with that above and beyond multiplayer.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What else could Microsoft offer besides a PC version of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-US\/live\/games-with-gold\">Games With Gold<\/a> program? Although Microsoft declined to clarify their plans, you&#8217;d be hard-pressed to find anything else a PC gamer might find compelling enough to pay for in a Gold Xbox Live membership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the top ten list of dumb gaming industry decisions, requiring a paid membership for PC gamers to access multiplayer in the earliest days of Games For Windows Live has to be near the first place spot. There was no way that PC gamers would pay $50 a year to fight against other Universe at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1684,"featured_media":34290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the top ten list of dumb gaming industry decisions, requiring a paid membership for PC gamers to access multiplayer in the earliest days of Games For Windows Live has to be near the first place spot. There was no way that PC gamers would pay $50 a year to fight against other Universe at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Diamon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Diamon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Diamon\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7\"},\"headline\":\"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":264,\"commentCount\":9,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/\",\"name\":\"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":394},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/23\\\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\",\"name\":\"Quarter to Three\",\"description\":\"All games, all the time.  Except for the bits about movies.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7\",\"name\":\"Nick Diamon\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/admin\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/author\\\/nick-diamon\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three","og_description":"In the top ten list of dumb gaming industry decisions, requiring a paid membership for PC gamers to access multiplayer in the earliest days of Games For Windows Live has to be near the first place spot. There was no way that PC gamers would pay $50 a year to fight against other Universe at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/","og_site_name":"Quarter to Three","article_published_time":"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nick Diamon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nick Diamon","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/"},"author":{"name":"Nick Diamon","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7"},"headline":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs","datePublished":"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/"},"wordCount":264,"commentCount":9,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/","name":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs - Quarter to Three","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-23T17:51:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/simuniverseatwar04.jpg","width":700,"height":394},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/01\/23\/gfwl-fades-away-microsoft-looks-reviving-xbox-live-gold-pcs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As GFWL fades away, Microsoft looks at reviving Xbox Live Gold on PCs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/","name":"Quarter to Three","description":"All games, all the time.  Except for the bits about movies.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7","name":"Nick Diamon","sameAs":["http:\/\/admin"],"url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/author\/nick-diamon\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34291,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34287\/revisions\/34291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}