I love getting achievements when I play games. I love having the same friends list shared between my PC games and my XBOX 360. And I love not having to pick games from a list of servers, but just having matchmaking that puts me into a game. And today, we made some announcements that are going to make that much more common in Windows games... Games for Windows – LIVE – our online multiplayer gaming service for Windows, now offers completely free multiplayer. No exceptions – multiplayer is completely free, even cross-platform gameplay with XBOX 360 users.

This isn’t just for new Windows games (although there are some great games coming out, like Dawn of War 2 and Fallout 3). We’ve also enabled completely free multiplayer for all existing Windows games that use Games for Windows – LIVE, from Gears of War to Shadowrun to Universe at War.

We also announced that this fall we’ll be delivering a new Marketplace for Games for Windows – LIVE.  I’m excited because we’ll have a central place to get great new content for existing games (including free content of course) and demos, trailers and more.

Check out all the details at www.gamesforwindows.com/live/ - and I’ll see you online!