Games For Windows Live Finally Goes To Hell

Our long national nightmare is over; GFWL is dead. Proof follows;

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/games/pc-games/pc-marketplace-closing

http://www.techradar.com/news/digital-home/microsoft-closing-up-shop-on-games-for-windows-live-and-zune-marketplace-aug-22-1173742

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/08/16/games-windows-live-marketplace-closing-august-22#.Ug7Qs5Ifuag

http://www.slashgear.com/games-for-windows-live-marketplace-closing-next-week-16293962/

http://www.destructoid.com/games-for-windows-live-marketplace-closing-soon-260183.phtml

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/15/microsoft-closing-games-for-windows-live-marketplace

It seems as though some games are already transitioning away from GFWL support, with both Bioshock 2 and the Batman: Arkham games receiving title updates on Steam which add Steamworks support (achievements & cloud storage) while Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet promises to be GFWL-free soon.

Edit: No-one reads linked articles apparently so in summary; GFWL will close its marketplace on Aug 22nd. If you already own a GFWL encumbered game you will still be able to sign into the service and play it. MS-published games will no longer be offered for purchase, the availability of third party games will depend on the publisher making the game available through another service (which is likely the reason for 2K and WB patching their games to be Steamworks compatible).

Obviously, MS will launch an Xbox branded PC service and offer their own games through that.

So if I have a steam copy of Bioshock 2, and I want to buy Minerva's Den, how's that going to work? The current in-game button asks for Microsoft Points (which is broken anyway).

I think they are wrapping it to Steam.

If you read the support page on Xbox.com you'll see that the official answer is "fuck it, whatever dude."

Hopefully it'll get a Steam release. I think that's the only piece of dlc that I own through GFWL, that and Robin from Arkham City.

I bet this shuts down dark souls

Well it that Jason Holtman, the guy that made Steam big, is working at Microsoft now.

Jason Holtman spent the last eight years turning Valve's Steam digital distribution platform into a veritable cornucopia of PC games. Starting this month, however, he'll be working at Microsoft on the company's Windows gaming strategy. "Yes, I have joined Microsoft where I will be focusing on making Windows a great platform for gaming and interactive entertainment," he told GamesIndustry International. "I think there is a lot of opportunity for Microsoft to deliver the games and entertainment customers want and to work with developers to make that happen, so I'm excited to be here." Holtman left Valve in February under mysterious circumstances, along with up to 25 other employees.

The move isn't just significant because of Holtman's history of convincing practically every major game publisher to trust Valve with their digital sales, but also because Microsoft has largely ignored PC gaming in recent years, putting the majority of its muscle towards promoting Xbox instead. The few times Microsoft has turned an eye towards PC games, such as with its Games for Windows Live initiative, the company has been accused of facilitating shoddy ports of Xbox titles and of locking down games with obtrusive DRM mechanisms.

The Verge: Microsoft hires the man who made Steam great, signals renewed interest in PC gaming

So I can see him building out Xbox on Windows a little more throughout the rest of the next year or so.

I spent twenty minutes trying to find a good song to celebrate the good news, but this will have to do.

Don't poop on the parade.

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Welp, now i'm gonna have nightmares...

Dear Microsoft: Please put Halo 2 PC on Steam now. Ok, cool, thanks.

So what happens to my copy of WarHammer 40k?

There was a game I was going to buy until I saw that it required GFWL so I didn't buy it. Fuck. What was that game!?

It's too bad GFWL wasn't good. If only Microsoft owned the company that made Xbox Live, or controlled most PC Operating Systems... Steam / Valve really ate their lunch.

Well it was garbage. An unnecessary layer of complication and potential point of failure. I'm glad it's gone. I hope the game I have to used it still work in the future.

At best, it's updated to no longer require GFWL authentication. At worst, it becomes an example of the downside of digital distribution.

Nothing, for now. The marketplace is closing down,the title is pretty misleading.

So I can play it. But no achievements.

No, those aren't going anywhere(again, for now) unless the dev patches GFWL out like Insanely Twisted.

Mmmm 40k is a good game. I wonder if that DLC stand alone thing is on sale.

Man, Bioshock 2 without GFWL sounds amazing.

Hopefully Dark Souls will get this update as well. About a month back it stopped launching for me, and after trying every fix I could find on the net, I gave up.

So this is interesting. Does this also mean its peoples last chance to get achivements on games like Fallout 3 PC? I won't be hugely affected as the only games I have that are GFWL are Fallout 3 and Super Street Fighter 4

Never had problem with it, liked getting achievements on it. Don't really care. Guess I should get them GTA4 Achievements.

As long as it doesn't break Dark Souls before 2 is out, I'm more than fine with killing off GFWL as soon as possible.

Goddammit. Now I have to update 40 fucking computers for Dawn of War II...and Gears of War...and Dark Souls...

Fuck me running.

Too bad it was a real cool system that tied my GamerTag to games I played on PC. Never had issues with it, always worked pretty well.

Don't toy with my emotions

i was wondering why dark souls wouldnt sign in the other day.

fiddle sticks

Never had issues with GFWL so I will save my joy to the day when the Origin shuts down.

This is the best news ever. Well, almost.

Still, Dark Souls is a concern.

so should I buy Minerva's den before it closes?

I sincerely hope Dark Souls doesn't get screwed by this. I can't stand games for windows live, but losing my PC version of dark souls is not a trade I'm happy to make.

We don't want your gamertags on our PC turf, take 'em and leave strainjuh!

Thank god. Fuck that piece of shit.

Because of GFWL (with their shitty licensing) selling Darksouls and Arkham City, they are not available for sale in my region, even through other marketplaces like Steam.

Why didn't the headline say that it's just Games For Windows Live MARKETPLACE that's shutting down. Just the Microsoft run digital game store on PC!

Although you will not be able to purchase new games, you can continue to enjoy previously purchased content by downloading it through the Games for Windows Live client software as usual.

Just look at all the confused people in this thread.

Although you will not be able to purchase new games, you can continue to enjoy previously purchased content by downloading it through the Games for Windows Live client software as usual.

Does this mean we'll have to play all games again to get the achievements back?

@mak_wikus: No, the headline is wrong. It's just microsofts digital PC game store that is stopping selling games. Thats the only news here.

Some games are maybe getting GFWL patched out of the game on Steam, like batman and bioshock 2. For those games, i don't know.

Die you monster, die! Now you can't hurt anyone anymore!

@forcen: Oh, I know what the real news is. I was just wondering out loud, since GfWL is getting patched out from games eventually.

Thats the beauty of it. As part of the superior console master race I could still play on PC but not mingle with PC scum.

The concept of GFWL was sound, but the implementation was atrocious.

I kinda liked the idea of a shared friends list and achievements between PC and Xbox. But the interface was awkward and poorly designed for a mouse driven platform and matchmaking and other in-game services like screenshots and mod support were not up to par with what Valve can provide.

I think Microsoft could still succeed in this area, but only with a different approach - something built from the start with a PC in mind, and not simply mimicking an Xbox interface.

The biggest hurdle facing MS in attempting to cater to PC gamers are all of the bridges they burned with consumers when starting up the original Xbox. They essentially cherry picked a slew of promising PC titles and bought out their developers, forcing many games to become console-only.

Microsoft is promising again that yet again they are serious about making PC gaming important. This has always been laughable because PC gaming never went anywhere and Microsoft has made this promise multiple time before and it always was a wet fart. GFWL was the most serious and advanced thing they've done to support PC gaming and it was years behind competitors and never worked smoothly.

It's a forum post, not a news article - and the title is accurate, the service has no future prospects as it no longer sells games. I did edit the post to address the confusion caused by not reading the actual news articles though.

I agree. Had they delivered on their original concept of a cross-platform service with full userbase integration, cross-platform multiplayer, and a large library of high-quality titles then GFWL could have been great. Unfortunately, they did a half-assed job of it, dropped the most compelling features, and launched in the wake of Steam which was getting its act together by that point. That their marketplace was the worst implemented, least functional, least user-friendly website and client in the field of digital distribution really was the icing on the cake.

The fact that many people struggle to get the actual game client to work is a testament to how poorly MS handled the service and how awful the software component of GFWL still is after all this time.

Looks like its not just the marketplace. Now what, can you even install bioshock 2 and dead rising 2 without gfwl for example?

Games for Windows Live will be discontinued on July 1, 2014.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/games/pc-games/age-of-empires-online-info