Lara and friends on GfW label

Although their existence won't come as a surprise to anyone, Microsoft has announced the names of a few upcoming games that have found their way into the Games for Windows line-up.

Might as well list all of them - Alone in the Dark (Atari), Bionic Commando (Capcom), Conflict: Denied Ops (Eidos), Empire: Total War (SEGA), LEGO Indiana Jones (LucasArts), Microsoft Train Simulator 2 (Microsoft, smarty man), Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock), Space Siege (SEGA) and Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos).

They join the likes of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Funcom/Eidos), Borderlands (2K), The Club (SEGA), Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks) and Frontlines: Fuel of War (THQ) on the GfW label, which is designed to ensure compatibility with Windows PCs and uses a similar front-end to Xbox Live, complete with unlockable Achievements/Gamerpoints and Gamertags.

Microsoft reckons GfW "thrived" in 2007. "We went from two titles in 2006 to a continually growing portfolio of over 60 titles here at CES 2008," said Kevin Unangst, who doesn't sound concerned about some of the crippling bugs that took a while to quash, and is senior global director for GfW. "We delivered on our promise one year ago to reinvigorate the PC gaming space and bring the best portfolio of games to Windows. And this is just the beginning. With our partners, we will continue to drive the resurgence of Windows-based gaming."

It's certainly a more impressive position to be in than they were at launch, when GfW was used to promote Windows Vista with Shadowrun and Halo 2 the only releases. Since then compatibility with Windows XP has been added officially after hackers embarrassed them by opening the aforementioned duo to the older operating system prematurely, and games on the label have improved considerably - with Viva Piñata and Gears of War among them.

Don Mattrick, Microsoft games boss-man, also sounds excited about it all in a leaked memo unearthed by the Mercury News, claiming: "In November alone, Games for Windows titles accounted for over 20 percent of all PC game sales at retail in the US."

So, get used to it, presumably.