Microsoft Games for Windows LIVE recently added Games on Demand which prompted me to grab the latest client and install it. While doing so I noticed a lot of the files that it installed were named xlive....

That got me to thinking. The two are already tied together in that you can use your GamerTag on both, they both take Microsoft Points and they have achievements.

But what about cross-platform gaming? While checking out the GFW Marketplace I saw Shadowrun and remembered that they had already achieved it once when they made that game. So why not do it again?

For a long time Microsoft has had a two-pronged approach to games - Windows and Xbox 360. But now it seems like they are slowly bringing the inexorably together into one network with two platforms.

That's great for gamers because some of us have games on our PCs and some of us have games on our Xbox 360 and rarely do we ever get to play together unless we choose one platform. With the new features in the Games for Windows LIVE platform, how long do you think it will be until they can completely tie the two together and allow one development platform that works on both? We already know that it can be done thanks to Shadowrun and that could certainly act as a tech demo for newer games.

Looking forward to games coming out it's entirely possible that some of them could have this built in as a standard feature. The upcoming games I think that could benefit from this include:

We know that there's never going to be enough cooperation between Sony and Microsoft to see any sort of cross-platform between them. Sure there could be some PS3/PSP or some DSi/Wii so why not PC and Xbox 360?

Now it's just a matter of getting Microsoft to truly see how lucrative it would be to them. Two major platforms combining in sales and players would be a group that would certainly have a lot of buying power and clout.