40 Days #27: Emancipate the Games for Windows Live dashboard

Making Games for Windows Live free to play online should lead to more users on the Windows platform and more developers using the functionality. However, all those parties probably won't be very impressed with the current state of the "dashboard" part of GfWL software.

The biggest problem with it, all the more incomprehensible, given that Microsoft is a huge software company, is that the dashboard can only be accessed through the individual GfWL titles. It doesn't exist independently without them. Ironically, as far as Windows is concerned, the software actually is a bit independent, as it represents a separate item in the list of installed programs, with seemingly one shared set of libraries and code. Any updates to it are shared among all the installed titles on the system.

Given that the dashboard is already shared between games, it really needs to be spun off into software that can run on its own. Some time ago there were hints that this might happen at some point, but just like the rest of GfWL, progress has been slower than molasses.

A standalone client would form another anchor for Microsoft's Live Anywhere vision, and just seems like such a no-brainer, that it's shocking it still doesn't exist. Of course, after spinning it off, Microsoft would need to put some work into giving PC gamers at least a semblance of the features found in the console dashboard. Ideally, the PC client should support all of the following:

• Gamer profiles, presence, current activity (along with nice little features like marking you busy if you run non-GfWL software full screen, just like Windows Live Messenger).
• Full friend list functionality, including friends of friends.
• Integration with your messenger contact list. This might seem redundant, given the availability of the standalone messenger client, but I'm sure a lot of the code could be reused, and frankly I wouldn't even mind if you had to install the messenger client ahead of time, to provide the necessary libraries.)
• Text, audio, and video chat support, including the use of the Live Vision camera and the Chatpad keyboard connected to an Xbox 360 controller running under Windows.
• Full account information access, including membership details, points balance, redemption of codes, etc.
• Full gamer profile editing, including the recent name, location, and bio fields. Personal picture support for cameras as well.
• Vanity features like an expanded and regularly updated selection of gamer pictures, and skinning/re-coloring of the dashboard interface.
• Even throw in some smart contextual ads like in the console dashboard - but only for content available on Xbox.com, so that I can actually select the banner and open the link in my browser.

At the very least, the PC client needs to be a souped-up messenger client that you can use to communicate with your gaming buddies, see what they are doing, and manage your account and gamer profile. This way even potential gamers could download the free software, sign up for a gamertag, personalize it, and see what the Live network is all about. No commitment, and you can see what your buddies are playing, and how communication across the service works.

Of course, the PC is supposed to one day get its own Live Arcade - which means it will need some sort of Marketplace accessible through this dashboard. I have already mentioned the need for a PC-accessible web-based Marketplace, so the real question would be whether these two would overlap and how.

The issue here is concurrent sign-ins, or more specifically the low probability of them happening. If I have to sign in to the PC dashboard, it will likely sign me out of the console, in which case I won't be able to remotely schedule downloads from the PC. At the same time, having both a console-oriented web store, and a dashboard integrated PC store might be confusing to consumers, in much the same way as Sony's currently fragmented methods of downloading content to the PSP.

One way around this would be to have a shared web-based marketplace that could perhaps detect whether the gamer is currently logged into the PC or the console. Purchase/download choices would then be enabled/disabled according to the intended platform, with all the content visible to all users.

Say you have Uno available for both console and PC. If the store detects that you have a console at home signed in under your account, you can schedule a remote download of the appropriate version to the console. If it sees that you are signed into the PC dashboard, it enables the "remote" download of the PC version. This would work the same way as the console download queue: the site would tell the PC dashboard to download this particular piece of content. It would be "remote", but to you it would be happening all on the same PC.

The PC dashboard designers would have to take care to integrate the PC marketplace as seamlessly as possible into the client, so it wouldn't look like it was just opening up a browser window.

Another nifty feature that the PC dashboard should have is essentially an equivalent of the console's Games Library - a game launcher/browser that would perhaps integrate with Vista's Games folder, show you information on all installed GfWL games (including ratings and so forth), let you "twist" through the list based on categories (full retail, Arcade, etc.) just like console, and then let you launch the game right then and there.

A lot of gamers will probably clamor for some of the more media-oriented features of the console dashboard - like music playback, access to videos, etc. - but these aren't necessary at all right now. If you are already on the PC, you probably know how to fire up your favorite media player to listen to music. Sure, the little tweaks in the way games integrate custom soundtracks on the console would be nice, but at least initially this isn't a needed feature, and the dashboard team would have to deal with too many formats, DRM schemes, and media player applications to make this universally compatible and reliable.