You heard right! In yesterday's press release, Microsoft confirmed that its highly-anticipated "Games for Windows" platform will be launching May 8, 2007 along with Halo 2 for Vista! In one fell swoop, Microsoft will be releasing Halo 2 to PC fans running Windows Vista as well as launching their "Games for Windows -- Live" service.

Games for Windows -- Live is, in a nutshell, Xbox Live but for PC's. It will act much like Xbox Live in offering streaming online content: patches, trailers, arcade titles, etc. But most importantly, it will connect millions of PC gamers in all the ways that Xbox Live has been known for: clans, match-making, ladders, tournaments, etc. Even further, it will be bridging the two gaps between console gamers and PC gamers.

So in a sense, Microsoft is merging their Xbox Live in with Games for Windows -- Live, bringing all online services to one place. This is of course in preparation for their confirmed cross-platform gaming expected to launch one month later with the release of "Shadowrun", FASA Studio's new FPS for Windows Vista and Xbox 360. The two versions of the game will have fully-functional cross-platform online play thanks to the Games for Windows -- Live portal. Unfortunately, Shadowrun will be the FIRST game to support cross-platform play. So while Halo 2 will have online play on Vista, it will be purely PC players only. Whether or not Microsoft will patch in cross-platform support is still a mystery.

The stage is set for this unprecedented event where PC and console gamers will be connected once and for all, expanding the boundaries of online gaming to new horizons that we have only been able to fantasize about.... I am excited to see how Halo 2 fairs in May, and even more excited to see how well Shadowrun performs, cross-platform in June!