Microsoft Windows Live will retire before Windows 8 launch. (Image: CLF, via Flickr / CC)

Microsoft will call it quits with the Windows Live brand name before the company’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system launch before year-end.

In a post on the Redmond-based software giant’s Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) blog, it announced the impending discontinuation of Windows Live in preparation for the release of a more well-connected suite of online consumer services, and simply rename the service to “Microsoft account”.

Microsoft said that its Windows services, which include Hotmail webmail, SkyDrive storage and Messenger IM, are not as tightly connected as it expected when Windows Live launched in 2005.

The blog post added that this resulted from previous Windows desktop operating systems that were not fully integrated with cloud-based services. Consequently, Microsoft now wants to Windows 8 to be “closely meshed” in the cloud as it works across desktop and laptop PCs, including mobile devices.

“Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience…there is no ‘separate brand’ to think about or a separate service to install – it is all included when you turn on your PC for the first time,” the post said.

However, Microsoft assured that its services will continue using live.com domains, but their names will no longer have Windows Live branding.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

Don’t forget to subscribe and receive our latest posts in your inbox.