Microsoft’s Games For Windows Live initiative didn’t exactly take off prior to it going free for everyone and it seems Stardock’s Brad Wardell would prefer that remain the case. When asked by Shacknews why Microsoft doesn’t take more leadership on the platform, the CEO responded with, “I don’t know. I started out as a big Games for Windows Live advocate. I intended for Elemental to be on Games for Windows Live, but then as we got closer, the Xbox group took it over more and more.”

It turns out Microsoft have some regulations for the otherwise open platform, “And they have things where, oh, if you want to use Games for Windows Live to update your game, you have to go through [their] certification. And if you do it more than X number of times, you have to pay money. It’s like, ‘My friends, you can’t do that on the PC.’”

With a system like that in place, it wouldn’t help at all with the need for support that exceeds past the game’s release. “On the console, I don’t have to update my game because an anti-virus program got an update and is now identifying my VB scripts as viruses and I have to apply an emergency patch. That would just add insult to injury. We’ve had to upgrade our games plenty of times over the years, not because we found some bug, but because some third-party program, or driver, or whatever screwed it up. If Games for Windows Live maintains that strategy and they take over, I’m done. I’m not making PC games. I would be done,” Said Wardell, which explains why there are many modern PC games that aren’t GFWL-enabled.