Microsoft has set a date for the long-awaited connection between the six million console games on Xbox Live, and PC gamers running Windows.

Windows LIVE launches on May 8 with the Vista version of Halo 2, followed by Shadowrun in June and Uno later in 2007.

It’s a long expected move to boost both the online service on consoles, the online service on PC, and the promotion of Microsoft products around the home.

It’s already possible to access your Friends list and Message lists for your console, via your PC and www.xbox.com, but now you can actually play with the same friends whether you’re on a console or PC, as well as the community gaining a large number of gamers.

Hopefully some steps have been taken to balance the advantages of the PC’s keyboard/mouse combination over using a console joypad…but I’m not holding my breath for that one!

But it’s a really good and sensible move overall, and has made me reconsider getting a new PC for gaming. Having a unified system which has worked so well on consoles suggests PC gaming will become a lot easier to set-up and organise. Hopefully it will also lead to a wider range of PC strategy-type titles on the Xbox 360.

It’s also a major shot at the likes of Sony, whose PS3 has been underwhelming, sales wise. Sony have long seemed reluctant to get involved in online gaming in the same way as MS, preferring to let individual games feature individual systems for online matchmaking etc.

And Sony doesn’t have a huge number of PC gamers using their operating systems and ready to jump on board.