I was in GameStop several hours ago picking up Ubisoft Montreal’s Far Cry 2 for PC (a game I have been anticipating to an unusual degree for the last eight months), and I saw something on the rack that caught my eye. Besides the fact that GameStop even had a PC section that was on a wall-mounted rack rather than just a ramshackle endcap, I mean.

From the checkout line, I noticed the game on the right, Shattered Suns, which from a distance appeared to be Games for Windows-branded; compare the front panel strip with Petroglyph’s GFW-branded RTS Universe at War. Though Games for Windows Live has failed to make even the slightest splash, I’m an advocate of the broader GFW initiative, which aims to standardize various elements of PC gaming in useful ways, so I wandered over to check it out.

As you can clearly see up close, developer and publisher Clear Crown Studios (a small local outfit, as it turns out, just south of San Francisco) simply listed itself and the game title at the top, using the same layout, color scheme, and a similar font to the Games for Windows strip. (more…)