I don't see how Microsoft is going to make Games for Windows / GfWL progress much further unless they start catering to the hardcore PC gaming crowd. We may not make up a significant piece of the sales pie; however, we are the ones who buy the games early, we are the ones who recommend the games we do and don't like, and many of us become modmakers and potentially game designers.

I have a feeling that Microsoft didn't involve the opinions of many PC-centric gamers in the development of the Games for Windows standard set; it smacks of too much input from the XBox and Windows Media Center Edition fields of expertise. Seriously, the standard mandates XBox 360 controller compatibility if gamepads are supported, mandates Direct3D 9 at least, skews highly toward widescreen monitors that are at least 10 feet away from the viewer, and so on. It seems to be a pitch that intends to take developers into the direction of "why don't we just make it on the 360?".