Elite Darts on the Zone

Microsoft announced today that Elite Darts, the only PC darts game to win the endorsement of the World Darts Federation, is now available for free multiplayer matchmaking on the MSN Gaming Zone. You no longer need to negotiate a smokey tavern to play a game of darts. The Zone now features several game rooms devoted to this classic English pastime. Grab your friends and step up to the line in the Sports Bar, English Pub, Pool Hall or even the Seedy Basement, which comes complete with washing machine.

For January 1999, this is the business side of gaming doing what it always does: studios forming, publishers moving money around, lawsuits flying, and everyone promising the next big thing. Somewhere in that mess, players eventually get the games. Maybe.