Go to the right Marketplace!

OK, so it's been like a week. I've posted this info on a couple of different forums already but every day I still see new posts everywhere from people asking why their codes are "expired!"

The deal is this: certain retailers gave you promotional codes when you buy Dawn of War 2 (no, you didn't miss anything, I didn't blog the retail release). Anyhow, for the uninitiated, the game is networked via Games for Windows Live. And if you use Windows Live Messenger (or MSN Messenger for those who aren't calling it by its official name), then basically you're already a member anyway.

To get set up you do need to choose a Gamertag - which also happens to serve as an Xbox Live Gamertag. You can tell because when you play around with GFWL pop-up, it'll also invoke your web browser for account management... but the site you get to looks suspiciously like an Xbox site. But other than fooling around with your Gamertag stuff, it's pretty much unrelated to GFWL. Confused enough? Don't worry, what you need to know is: do not enter your PC game's promo code at the Xbox Live Marketplace.

What you DO need is to go to GFWL and get the stand-alone client. Once you install and run the client, then you can click the "Marketplace" tab and there you will be able to enter any promotional codes that come with Games for Windows products.