Windows Live Pricing equal to Xbox Live

Gold membership to cost $49.99 for a year in North America. £39.99 for a year's Gold in the UK is expected.

The pricing of Windows Live will be equal to that experienced on Xbox Live. So that's $49.99 for the year to acquire a Windows Live Gold membership. What exactly you'll get for parting with your cash has not been fully confirmed, but it is expected that Gold membership is required to play cross platform between PC and 360. GameInformer also suggest that Xbox Live Gold members are automatically counted as Windows Live Gold members!

"In addition, it's recently been made public knowledge that with Halo 2 Vista, a Gold membership lets players earn achievements (a points system for bragging rights, essentially) in multiplayer as well as single-player. You can play multiplayer with a Silver membership, but can only earn achievements in single-player.

Game Informer's report goes on to say that existing subscribers to Xbox Live Gold automatically count as subscribers to Windows Live Gold, adding that your "gamer tag and achievements will be used across both Xbox and Vista PCs."