Gaming and I had separated for a while, but we recently got back together. Apparently, though, things have changed a tad between our times together. Games for windows live is apparently dead now? Can someone please explain that to me? I'd be rejoicing, but apparently it means I can't play Dark Souls because I can no longer download my profile... um that sucks. I can't seem to find any information on whether or not the game is going to see some sort of retrofit. Is there any information on Dark Souls possibly being reworked to use steamworks?

In a nutshell:

Microsoft indicated in a long since deleted post on an Age of Empires Online support page that they would be closing down GFWL as of July 1, 2014, as well as the Xbox Marketplace on PC. They did eliminate the GFWL Marketplace afterwards, but the basic GFWL matchmaking service is still up and running. The only other thing Microsoft has said was in June, 2014, when they issued a statement saying that GFWL would remain running for the foreseeable future. Many games have been updated by their publishers since word spread of GFWL's demise to replace GFWL with Steamworks. Bandai Namco, the publisher of Dark Souls, has only said they're looking into the matter, and that was many months ago. Dark Souls is still playable on PC with GFWL today. Even in the worst case of GFWL being fully terminated and Dark Souls never getting any update, the game would still be playable in Offline Mode, though any pre-existing savegames made under an online GFWL profile may be lost.

Dark Souls, as far as I know, is the last of the major games that not yet been confirmed as moving off of GFWL (except for Fable 3 and Bulletstorm I think).
Batman Arkham City/Asylum and Fallout 3 have already been moved off of it for good (though Fallout 3 for some reason still checks to see if GFWL is installed, even though it doesn't use it), with Capcom also not using it anymore for their new games.
Capcom has also confirmed that their older PC games, Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2 OTR and Resident Evil 5 will be moving off of GFWL onto Steamworks early next year.

Oh no. I got puppied! I really thought "****in" would be ok. Anyway. thanks for the answers. After trying all day, I haven't been able to get GFWL working with Dark Souls. So I guess I'll just have to wait for it to get a retrofit. :'(

What is the issue you've had? It's real wonky, I think you have to be deliberate about how your create the GFWL account if memory serves

At Dark Souls seemed to keep my saves, GFWL ate all my GTA IV ones. :(

@slag: I cant download my gfwl profile to begin with. It keeps telling me I'm not connected to the internet and it gives me an error code that no longer exists on microsoft's support page.

hoh boy that's a new one to me. Kinda scared to check mine now to see if it broke.

best I can tell you is ask for help on the Dark Souls Steam community discussion page. I found a bunch of of topics there, that helped me get it running.

Might check GTA IV's as well or any other title that uses GFWL still.

I had this happen with Bulletstorm and got the same 'compatibility error' with Dirt 3... I'm not sure what was up with that one, because it was promoted on Steam just recently.

@slaps2: If you've been gone from gaming for a while you should also know that GameSpy has shut down it's central servers, putting lots of multiplayer games into limbo. Many titles have found work arounds or replacements while other titles and all Nintendo DS online are toast.